Fun with Food: Pizza

Growing up, homemade pizzas usually meant one thing: mum would open the fridge and throw every conceivable pizza topping onto a thick base and smother it with cheese.

Ham, pineapple, mushrooms, capsicum in all the colours of the rainbow, olives, bacon, onion…I could go on. I don’t imagine that I’m the only one who grew up in a household where making pizza was all about packing as many toppings on as humanly possible??

Our first experience of “proper” pizza was in Sardinia. The bases were thin and delicious, topped with a basic tomato sauce, mozzarella cheese, and perhaps one or two other toppings. That was it.

The flavours were so simple, but so amazing; everything worked together, and you were able to taste and savour each flavour, instead of just tasting cheese. My favourite pizza was the San Teodoro (sauce, mozzarella, slices of eggplant), which I tried in the beautiful little village of Santa Maria Navarrese, the night we got engaged.

Since then, the way we make pizza has changed. I’m a huge fan of the “less is more” philosophy, and some of the nicest homemade pizzas we’ve had have been incredibly simple.

Our favourite combinations (always on a base of pizza sauce and mozzarella) are:

~ smoked salmon, cream cheese, fresh dill & lemon zest;
~ tomato & basil (commonly called the Magherita);
~ proscuitto & black olives, garnished with fresh rocket;
~ steak & blue cheese (sear the steak first, rest & slice thinly; add to the pizza for the last five or so minutes in the oven);
~ bacon, mushroom & brie;
~ sausage, mushroom & black olive (parboil the sausages first & slice thinly); and
~ pear & blue cheese, garnished with fresh rocket

What pizza toppings do you love? Are you a fan of the thin pizza base, or the fat pizza base?

(And in case you were wondering, yes, I was in a bit of cheese-induced discomfort after eating these delicious pizzas, but it was worth it. Oh, it was certainly worth it!)

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Fun with Food
Fun with Food is a way for you to share your foodie (mis)adventures with other people. You don’t have to be a superb cook, or produce Masterchef-quality plates of food; this will be a place to share new and favourite recipes, meal plans, cooking on a budget, lunchbox ideas, new products, kitchen successes and disasters (because we all have those!) and maybe some handy tips for getting fussy kids to eat their dinner!

The linky will open on a Tuesday and stay open for a week, so I hope you’ll share your kitchen adventures, and be inspired by what other people are doing in the heart of their homes.

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Spaghetti with Mushroom and Bacon Sauce

This is a dish I remember my mum making when I was a teenager, and before I moved out of home, it was the first “recipe” to be written in to my book of favourites.

I’ve adapted the recipe over the years, adding things here and there depending on what’s in the fridge and what I’m feeling like, but it’s always an easy, cheap and tasty meal that everyone seems to enjoy.

Add chopped chicken to up the protein stakes, or omit the bacon and use vegetable stock to make this a vegetarian meal. If you don’t have any fresh parsley, try fresh thyme instead, and feel free to serve this with fettucine (spinach fettucine is especially tasty here!) or any other long pasta.

Spaghetti with Mushroom and Bacon Sauce – serves 4

250g mushrooms, sliced
3 rashers bacon, chopped
1 onion, finely chopped
1T butter, plus 1t extra
2t flour
3/4c chicken stock
3/4c sour cream
1 egg yolk
salt & black pepper
fresh parsley, chopped

Heat the 1T of butter in a fry pan and cook the bacon and onion until the onion is clear. Add the mushrooms and cook for three minutes. Remove from the pan and set aside.

Over a medium heat, melt the 1t of butter in the same pan; add flour and cook for one minute.

Gradually stir in the stock and bring to the boil. Reduce the heat to low; stir in sour cream and egg yolk.

Season to taste; add vegetables back into the pan with 1/2c water from the pasta pot  and heat without boiling. Add more water from the pasta to loosen the sauce if desired.

Add fresh parsley just prior to serving over cooked spaghetti.

~~~~~~~~~
Fun with Food
Fun with Food is a way for you to share your foodie (mis)adventures with other people. You don’t have to be a superb cook, or produce Masterchef-quality plates of food; this will be a place to share new and favourite recipes, meal plans, cooking on a budget, lunchbox ideas, new products, kitchen successes and disasters (because we all have those!) and maybe some handy tips for getting fussy kids to eat their dinner!

The linky will open on a Tuesday and stay open for a week, so I hope you’ll share your kitchen adventures, and be inspired by what other people are doing in the heart of their homes.

Please copy and paste the button below and include it in your foodie post!
By clicking on the link below, you’ll be taken to an external page, where you can enter your link and see who else is linking up. Please take the time to visit them, too!

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Making Salads Super

Someone once told me that I make a good salad.

I laughed, thinking that there really couldn’t be anything easier to make than a simple garden salad, but having tasted some decidedly average ones, I realise it’s true – I do make a good salad.

Over the summer, we eat salads so often that I’ve had to come up with different variations to avoid getting bored. And because I sometimes forget that I need to save half an avocado for another day….there are times when I have to get creative.

I give you, therefore, some simple tips for making salads super:

~ season a simple garden salad with salt and pepper, and it’ll transform it into something good; add a splash of olive oil and a splash of balsamic vinegar, and it’ll transform it into something great.

~ experiment with textures: add crunchy croutons, sunflower seeds, pumpkin kernels or crispy bacon. Bake ricotta for 15-20 minutes, then crumble in large chunks into your chosen lettuce leaves. Combine crunchy iceberg with leafy mesclun and baby spinach, or add raw sugar snap/mangetout or radish. Fresh herbs like parsley (I prefer the grassiness of the flat-leaf/Italian variety), chives and mint are a wonderful addition too, as are sliced sun-dried tomatoes, olives or gherkins.

~ instead of having salad alongside your meat of choice, make the meat the star of your salad. My favourites include hot- or cold-smoked salmon pieces, or barbecued then finely-sliced steak; served with fresh ciabatta or baguette and a crisp pinot gris…yum.

~ make your own coleslaw dressing: dissolve caster sugar (say, 1t) in red wine vinegar (let’s say 1t there too), then add a good mayo (2T? However much you need), and season. Leave for the flavours to develop before mixing into your shredded cabbage, carrot and red onion. Adjust the amount of sugar and vinegar to suit your tastes; way nicer than pre-prepared dressing.

~ if, like me, you’re not a fan of big pieces of raw red onion, you can blanch rings or wedges in boiling water for two minutes before adding to your salad. You still get the flavour without the nasty bite.

~ dress cooked new potatoes with a combination of mayonnaise and basil pesto (3:1), then add toasted pine nuts, fresh basil leaves, and shavings of parmesan cheese.

~ curb your roasted vege cravings by drizzling bite-sized pieces with olive oil and liquid honey, then roasting for 30-40 minutes until tender. Allow to cool before adding crumbled blue cheese (feta would be good too), and a dressing of olive oil, liquid honey, lemon juice and seasoning. I made this for our early Christmas dinner over the weekend and we all had second helpings….it was divine, if I may say so myself. I used parsnip, kumara and courgette, but any roastable vegetable would work.

~ play around with different dressings until you find something you like. Try adding dijon mustard and brown sugar to a basic oil/vinegar mixture, or add fresh orange juice as your acid. As long as you taste before adding to your vegetables, you really can’t go wrong.

Rocket Pesto

Would you believe that pesto is something I’ve made just a handful of times? Quite frankly, I’m astonished and more than a little ashamed of myself – we always have pesto in our fridge, yet up until now, I’ve been too lazy.

Which is ridiculous, really, given how simple it is to make.

This version is so easy, and a nice variation on the usual basil variety. I had a bag of rocket in the fridge which I’d forgotten about, and as its best before date was two days ago, I decided I’d better do something with it. That something…was rocket pesto.

Rocket Pesto – makes approx. 1 cup

3/4 bag of pre-washed rocket
1/2c freshly grated parmesan cheese
1/4c walnut pieces
2 cloves garlic, crushed
1/4c olive oil
salt & freshly ground black pepper

Place all ingredients in a food processor and blitz until desired texture is reached.

Store in the fridge for up to two weeks.

* Use more or less olive oil, depending on your preferences, but I found 1/4c was about right.

* I like my pesto quite chunky and rustic, which is a good thing considering my crappy food processor doesn’t do a very good job of fine chopping.

* Add fresh herbs such as flat-leaf parsley or mint to add a bit of extra flavour.

* Tastes great stirred into cooked pasta with some roasted pumpkin and extra parmesan cheese.