Asparagus, Fingerling Potato, and Goat Cheese Pizza

I had some fingerling potatoes and a beautiful bunch of skinny asparagus to use up. Searching Epicurious, I found this recipe for Asparagus, Fingerling Potato, and Goat Cheese Pizza. Why not?

I followed the recipe, except for reducing the amount of goat cheese, since neither my husband nor I like large amounts of goat cheese.

Was it good? Yes. Would I make it again? Probably not. I guess I just don't like potatoes on my pizza. As a matter of fact, I roasted the leftover potatoes and asparagus in some olive oil, and we preferred that over the pizza.

Bacon and Mortadella Pizza

I can't tell you how much I love my Kitchen Aid mixer. After making the pretzel rolls, I decided to make pizza dough.

We made 2 pizzas - the first was spread with a little tomato sauce, mozzarella, garlic and bacon.

The second was sauceless (spread with garlic oil instead), bacon, mortadella, garlic, mozzarella. We all agreed the sauceless one was better.

And the Kitchen Aid adventure continues...

Homemade Margherita Pizza

After having the best margherita pizza of my life at Uncle Tony's, I decided to try my own (knowing that I'd fall far short of their masterpiece).

I used the basic no-knead bread recipe, adding a little sugar and some olive oil, per Chef John's recommendations.

Let me tell you something - this dough is a pain in the ass for making pizza. It's so sticky, and barely wants to hold itself together, that there's no way you'll ever be able to toss this. I could barely roll it over the backs of my hands to stretch it without ripping it.

After fighting to get it stretched to my semi-satisfaction, I spread the dough with some garlic-olive-oil, just a couple of cloves of minced garlic barely warmed for about 5 minutes in oil, to infuse the oil with garlicky goodness. Then I laid on the sliced tomatoes (seeded and dried on paper towels) and sliced fresh mozzarella. I baked this at 450 until the crust started browning (which took a lot longer than I thought it would), then sprinkled with basil, and gave it a good dusting of salt and pepper.















The first try was ok, but not great. The fresh mozz practically disappeared because it baked for so long, the tomatoes started getting a little dried out, and the dough was more bready than pizza-y.

For the 2nd pizza, I prebaked the crust alone for about 5 minutes, then topped with tomatoes and mozz, and baked until golden. When it came out of the oven, I sprinkled it with basil, and brushed the whole thing with the same garlic-olive-oil mix as in the first pizza. Then, salt and pepper.















The 2nd one was better, because the tomatoes and cheese weren't baked as long, and the garlic didn't get bitter from being baked. But the cheese still mostly disappeared. And with both versions, I wasn't happy with the crust - this dough is wonderful, but better for a loaf of bread than for a pizza, in my opinion.

I'll definitely be trying my own pizza again, next time with a different dough recipe, and baking the crust almost all the way before adding the tomatoes and cheese - I love the barely warmed pieces of mozzarella on a well-made margherita.

In the meantime, I'll just head down to Uncle Tony's for my fix.