Pizza Recipes

[TooTallTom]

Jim Buck made a post asking about pizza dough, and that made me think that a thread to share recipes for pizzas (or calzones) would be pretty cool.

I do a chicken/ bacon pizza with a white sauce. There's not much of a recipe, but I'll give you what I can.

TOPPINGS

Half a roast chicken

1/3 to 1/2 cup bacon

onion

garlic

mushroom

sharp cheddar cheese

mozzarella cheese

SAUCE

rue (flour and fat--olive oil or butter)

half and half

SEASONING

pepper

salt

red pepper

sage

rosemary

any thing else?

Bone the chicken and shred the meat (you can save the carcass for stock), set this aside. Chop the bacon into something that'll fit in your mouth easily and sautee with the onions, garlic, and mushrooms and appropriate seasonings (except sage) so that everything is done about the same time. (I like to eat crunchy bacon, but I find that softer bacon is nicer on this pizza, YMMV.) Set this aside.

Make the rue by heating the oil/ melting the butter and sprinkling in flour until it's a paste. Cook it until it's just a little bit brown. (Very brown rue will give the sauce/ broth a nuttier flavor, not so good for a cream sauce.) Let the pan cool a bit, and add the cream. You want to simmer, but not boil, the cream to incorporate the rue and thicken the sauce. I usually make the sauce thicker than I want it on the pizza because, when you cook the pizza, things will melt into the sauce and thin it out for you. (Don't add flour to the cream, it will taste like raw flour. Just make more rue than you think you'll need and keep some out. Eventually, you'll get a good idea for how much flour and fat you'll need.) Season this to taste.

Assemble the pizza by laying your dough out, then adding a thin layer of sauce, then adding your toppings, then adding more sauce if desired, then adding cheese. I put fresh sage on with the toppings, and then some on top of the cheese. I also try to get a good layer of cheese to cover the chicken so that the chicken doesn't dry out.

Like I said, it's not much of a recipe. So, feel free to ask questions and screw around with it. Post your recipes/ results too, please.

[Chef]

Marinate 2 Chix Breasts in Marsala Wine, grill to 80% done, cool and slice thinly.

2-Cups Shredded Fontina Cheese, or Provolone if preferred.

2-sliced Scallions

3/4 C. sliced roasted Red Bell Peppers (jar kind you get at Cub or anywhere).

Optional--1/2 c. Pine Nuts

1.5 cups Pesto (you can get at Cub or anywhere

1-large Pizza Crust of choice

Procedure:

Heat oven to 450 Degrees, prefer to use a Pizza Stone if you have one.

Assemble Pizza, sauce first, cheese last. Bake for 15 to 20 minutes. Enjoy.