Category: parmesan

pesto pizza

I was set a challenge by Domino’s to come up with a home-made alternative to the newest addition to their online pizza menu – the Double Decadence Basil Burst. Their creation is a crazy double-decker affair of pesto-style sauce sandwich between two bases, then tomato sauce on top with the usual toppings. Layers and layers of complexity. Bonkers.

My response is to go the other way and pull it right back as simple as possible: a lovely chewy, crusty pizza base and a punchy pesto straight from the food processor. By mixing polenta in with the flour you get a pleasing honeyed colour to the dough and a sweet flavour too. The pesto is made in seconds and of course can be pushed in any direction you fancy on a given night.

It’s hearty and tasty, and pretty cheap too. Try it out!

Pesto pizza:

For the base (enough for 2 x 30cm pizzas – dough freezes well after first proving):

500g strong bread flour

100g fine polenta

1 teaspoon sugar

1 teaspoon salt

7g dry yeast

4 tablespoons olive oil

300ml lukewarm water

For the pesto:

Bunch of basil, leaves and stalks

75g pine nuts

50g parmesan

Zest of ½ a lemon

Extra virgin olive oil

In a jug mix the yeast, oil, water and sugar together and leave for a few minutes while you get on with the other dry ingredients.

For the pizza base, bring the flour, polenta and salt together in a bowl. I use a food mixer which makes the next stage dead easy.

Pour the wet mix into the dry and let a dough hook do its work for about 5-6 minutes. If you’re doing it by hand push and knead it together until smooth and elastic. Cover the dough with a damp teatowel and leave somewhere warm for an hour – it should double in size.

When the dough has risen, pre-heat the oven as high as it will go. If you have a pizza stone, get it in now. Otherwise a cheap but conductive metal tray will work.

Push the dough into a thin, round shape on a floured surface. Go as thin as you can. When it’s ready take it to the oven – you may want to drape this over a rolling pin to help transfer it. The pizza will bake for anywhere between 8 – 15 minutes, depending on the thickness of your base and the temperature of your oven. (Quicker is better).

While the dough cooks, make the pesto. I do mine in a food processor, but a pestle and mortar works great. Chuck the basil in first and whizz up, then throw in the pine nuts. Add the cheese and keep on blending. When you have a lovely rubbly paste, scoop into a bowl and add enough olive oil to make it a smooth slush. Stir in the lemon zest and check for seasoning – add salt and pepper til it takes awesome.

When your pizza base is ready, spread the pesto over and leave for 1 minute to let the sauce warm slightly and soak into the dough. Grate over a touch more fresh parmesan and serve.

artichoke bread broad beans food lettuce parmesan

broad bean and artichoke salad

Post author By Gary @ BigSpud
Post date July 14, 2010
5 Comments on broad bean and artichoke salad

Felt like something quick, easy and wholesome for dinner tonight. I found this recipe on Merchant Gourmet’s site and had a bash. It was very filling and had lots of earthy flavours going on, but I didn’t feel the mint added anything and yet there was still something missing. A really sticky-sweet balsamic dressing might do the trick, or perhaps a little grated apple.

Not a bad start, but needs some work.

Broad bean and artichoke salad:

6 tablespoons pumpkin seed oil

100g parmesan shavings

1 ciabatta loaf

400g grilled artichokes

finely grated rind and juice of 1 lemon

300g frozen broad beans

1 little gem lettuce, finely shredded

handful fresh mint leaves, roughly chopped

Boil the broad beans for 4-5 mins until tender. While draining add a little pumpkin oil and lemon juice, tossing around to coat.

Lightly brush the cut sides of the ciabatta with 4 tbsp of the Pumpkin Seed Oil and place cut side up on the grill pan and scatter with salt flakes. Lightly grill for 1-2 minutes until pale golden and crisp.

Meanwhile place the artichoke hearts into a bowl with the lemon rind and juice, remaining Pumpkin Seed Oil, broad beans, little gem, mint and parmesan and toss together. Season generously with a little salt and plenty of freshly ground black pepper and toss again.

Serve the salad on the warm toasted ciabatta.

beef food mozzarella parmesan polenta

polenta sliders

Merchant Gourmet have recently been kind enough to send me some of their instant polenta. It’s got a rapid cooking time so you don’t have to spend 45 minutes beating a volcanic pot of yellow. The freebie came with a caveat however; come up with an interesting recipe for them.

I originally thought of crumbing halloumi cubes and frying them, but it didn’t seem inventive enough. I then went through a lasagne-style tower with polenta substituting for the pasta, but struggled to think of a timely way to retain the shape while melting the mozzarella. I then hit on keeping the mince but forming it into patties and making über-cute sliders instead; mini-burgers that are currently all the rage.

To make a nice neat slider the size of it all comes down to your mozzarella. Whatever width slices you can carve out of your cheese, make your mince and polenta rounds roughly the same size.

The great thing about this recipe is you can adapt the mince part to your taste and whatever you have in the cupboard. I’ve gone for an Italian-style flavouring to reinforce the heritage of polenta. A slice of tomato works well in there too, providing sweet juiciness. Give them a try!

Polenta sliders (makes 8 sliders):

50g quick-cook polenta

200ml beef stock plus a couple of extra tablespoons

2 tablespoons grated parmesan

400g beef mince

1 tablespoon tomato puree

1 teaspoon dried oregano

1 tablespoon breadcrumbs

1 garlic clove, grated

1 tablespoon olive oil

150g ball mozzarella, cut into 8 thick slices

Green salad, to serve

Preheat the grill to high.

To make the polenta, bring 200ml beef stock to the boil and slowly pour in the polenta, whisking all the time. Turn the heat down low and continue to stir for another 2 minutes. Spread on to a baking sheet to a thickness of about 5mm. Sprinkle with parmesan and pop under the grill. Keep an eye on it while you make the burgers – you are looking for it to form a crisp crust.

Combine the beef, puree, oregano, breadcrumbs and garlic in a bowl and season well. Form into golf-ball sized chunks and flatten to form patties (you may find it easy to do this with damp hands, it prevents the meat from sticking).

Heat the oil in a large pan over a medium heat and fry the burgers for 3 minutes on each side (this will cook them medium-rare, cook slightly longer if you prefer). As they finish spoon over a little leftover beef stock to keep them moist.

Your polenta should be out of the grill now; put this to one side. Top the burgers with a slice of mozzarella and pop them under the grill so the mozzarella just starts to melt (this should only take a minute).

Cut out rounds of polenta to roughly the same size as your meat (I used a circular pastry cutter). Put a slice of polenta on the plate, meat & cheese on that, and top with a final slice of polenta. Serve with a green salad.

burger chicken food mozzarella parmesan

chicken parmesan burger

I am an RSS addict. When bookmarking first appeared the idea was sound but I knew I would never actually revisit that site to read it again. Then RSS became popular and lazy forgetful types like me were able to not bother hitting F5 again. I’m a subscriber to the very American Epicurious.com, and there’s often very interesting articles in there. This recipe flew in this week and I was interested straight away. Chicken and cheese? Ta.

I made it according to the recipe below, but couldn’t help feeling it was missing something. There’s too much onion for the chicken – it becomes acidic – and there’s one big flavour lacking. Perhaps paprika, but definitely more parmesan. I’d do it again, but with tweaks.

Original recipe found at Epicurious.com.