Pistachio e Mortadella Pizza Wins the Toss

ENO Wine Bar at the Hotel Del Coronado now offers artisan Neapolitan-style pizzas from its new outdoor wood-fired oven. During the course of three visits, I've enjoyed the Margherita, House-Made Veal Meatball, and Salsiccia (fennel sausage, charred broccolini, garlic oil). On Margherita Wednesdays, the classic Margherita pizza is $10.00 - still pretty pricey for a 10-inch-pie. The pizzas normally range from $15.50 to $18.50 and wines by the glass are similarly priced. Granted this is the Del, but JEEZ!

ENO Wine Bar Pizza Margherita

My most recent evening at ENO inspired me to stay home and make the Margherita Pizza featured on the cover of this month's Saveur. The Gold of Naples special feature offers recipes for several delectable pizzas served in Naples' pizzerias. I was most intrigued by the Pistachio e Mortadella, but I also wanted to try the Margherita.

The Naples-style pizza dough must slowly rise in the refrigerator for 48-hours to achieve its deep flavor and tender structure. The Naples-style pizza sauce (Salsa di Pomodoro Fresco) is an uncooked tomato sauce made only with canned San Marzano tomatoes, puree, and salt. Saveur provides picks for Top Tomatoes and Mighty Mozzarellas. Antima Caputo Italian Superfine "00" Farina Flour is also highly recommended (I was able to find it at Bristol Farms, La Jolla).

I purchased all the recommended ingredients, made the dough a few days before, and then made the tomato sauce. For the Pistachio e Mortadella, I prepared the buttery pistachio puree with shelled pistachios, grated Parmesan, olive oil and lemon juice. I couldn't help eating a few spoonfuls as is!

Mise en Place for both pizzas

First onto the pizza stone was the Pistachio e Mortadella. After pressing and then stretching the dough to the proper size and thickness, it is gently schmeared with the luscious pistachio puree (more like a paste), followed by quartered pieces of mortadella, slices of mozzarella, grated pecorino romano, fresh basil leaves, and a drizzle of olive oil.

The recipe says to preheat the pizza stone under the broiler for 30 minutes, slide the pizza onto the stone, and broil for 3-4 minutes. I preheated the stone in a 500 degree oven, baked the pizza for 5-7 minutes and then broiled the top for 1-2 minutes. This is definitely a keeper!

The Margherita pizza would have been great if I listened to my gut before adding 2 tablespoons of salt to the tomatoes. Always listen to your gut - I should know better by now! The sauce was much too salty and I didn't enjoy the pizza. I commented on the Saveur recipe online and noticed the salt quantity has now been changed to "according to taste." I will add a few more cans of crushed tomatoes to my salty sauce, freeze it, and save it for a future spaghetti or pizza sauce.

Saveur's Neapolitan Dinner Party Menu sounds fabulous and includes the recipe for the Pistachio e Mortadella, which should have been the cover recipe.

Pissaladière aka Pirate Breath Pizza: French Fridays with Dorie

I've been cooking quite a bit this week, keeping us fed while John completes his over-the-top creations and renovations in the Pirate Workshop, front yard, courtyard, dining room, and living room. Yes, my man is totally immersed in his favorite holiday of the year, and our 4th Annual Halloween party.

This year, for the Pirate theme, you'll find me as Mary Read, an English Pirate who sailed with "Calico Jack" Rackham and Anne Bonny.

Last year's theme was Villains on Trial, with me as Cruella de Vil...

Sensing my irritation with frequent deliveries of Pirate stuff over the past few months, our friend Brad suggested Men Without Girlfriends for next year's theme.

After making this week's French Fridays with Dorie recipe, Pissaladière (pronunciation), with all the onions and anchovies on top, it could work as a nice hors d'oeuvre for the Pirate Party, but I think I'll change the name to Pirate Breath Pizza.

Pissaladiere, a thin tart topped with onion, anchovies and olives, is a specialty of Nice, in Southern France. The sweetness of caramelized onions is balanced with the saltiness of anchovies and distinctive, sour flavor of Niçoise olives.  I used Italian Cerignola olives, which have a mild, sweet flavor, because my market was out of Niçoise olives...and I loved the pretty green color. I mixed in some roasted garlic with the onions, and added a sprinkle of pine nuts and grating of Parmigiano-Reggiano over the top.

The recipe has a boat load pirate ship load of onions...

But after over an hour of slow cooking, with olive oil and thyme, they melt down into caramelized sweetness.

The dough is rolled out thin, placed on a baking sheet, and covered with the onions. According to Jacques Médecin, former mayor of Nice and an authority on its cuisine, the layer of onions on a pissaladière should be half as thick as the crust.

After baking about 20 minutes, the top is adorned with strips of anchovies and olives, and baked a few minutes longer. This should most definitely be served only as hors d'oeuvre, but it was all Captain Juan Carlos Rodriguez Dominguez Christiana de Coronado got for his dinner last night!

Fine Cooking has published Dorie's Pissaladiere recipe, here.

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French Fridays with Dorie is an online cooking group, dedicated to Dorie Greenspan‘s newest book Around My French Table: More Than 300 Recipes from My Home to Yours.  As members of the group, we have purchased the cookbook and cook along as much as we can. There is a new recipe each week, and we post about that recipe on Friday. We are asked to refrain from posting the actual recipes on our blog. The book is filled with stunning photography, and personal stories about each recipe, which makes it that much more intriguing. I highly recommend adding it to your cookbook collection if you haven't already!

Coronado Concerts in the Park - Shake, Rattle & Roll

John chose Shake, Rattle & Roll as the culinary theme for this past Sunday's Concert in the Park, with Rockola, one of the top bands of the summer season. Our tables and blankets were at the park by 11:00 a.m. for the 6:00 concert, but we didn't realize it would be almost impossible to maneuver our wagon through the crowd to get to our spot when we showed up at 4:00! Rockola performs every year, but we've also been fortunate to have several new bands join the line up this summer.

Because it was so crowded at the park, and the sun was out in full force, our food photography suffered. I did take quite a few people shots, and hope to follow up with separate posts on John's Stromboli and my Truffles and Jellies.  Also, when we have so many friends show up for our group, it's hard to keep track of who brought what. But, here's what I recall...

Vodka Martinis

Jim Shook and Rattled these in a Martini Shaker

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Stromboli

John rolled Italian Meats and Mozzarella into these Pizza Rolls,

adapting Emeril's recipe, here

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Lamb Sausage in Puff Pastry

Kai rolled Lamb Sausage in Puff Pastry

Barefoot Contessa has a recipe here

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Black Forest Ham and Smoked Gouda

Panini Sandwiches

Jack and Sandra adapted Wolfgang Puck's recipe, here

and used Ciabatta Rolls

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Egg Roll Soup

Jim adapted this recipe, here

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Brussels Sprouts Rolled with Crispy Pancetta

and Balsamic Glaze

Courtesy of Chef Alec

Here's a recipe from Fine Cooking

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Peanut Butter Truffles

Concord Grape Jellies

I attempted these from Thomas Keller's

The French Laundry

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Chocolate Earthquake Cookies

Carmen's creative interpretation of the theme,

with these cookies

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Coconutty Rattles

Nina packaged up darling tins of these vegan candies

from Live Raw

John's Assorted Stromboli

Emeril's Pizza Dough recipe is a keeper!

Sausage and Pepperoni Stromboli

I was last-minute in deciding to attempt Thomas Keller's Peanut Butter Truffles and Concord Grape Jellies.  I was extremely concerned about the Jellies, after reading about Carol's failed attempts on her wonderful and hilarious blog, Thomas Keller at Home.  I could not find apple pectin, and was convinced my jellies would fail to jell. Much to my surprise, Pomona's Universal Pectin did the trick.

Cutting the Jellies

Rolling the Jellies in sugar, and shaking off excess

Concord Grape Jellies

However, I had problems with the truffles.  These babies won't be rolling anywhere! After whizzing he peanut butter, sugar, milk chocolate and butter in the food processor for 3 minutes, the truffle filling needs to be refrigerated several hours (I only had a few hours), and preferably over night. As I tried to roll the balls, before dunking them in the melted bittersweet chocolate, they pretty much disintegrated in my hot hands. Lesson learned: Don't try to make these last minute. I plan on a re-do, and will post later on my perfected truffles.

Thomas Keller's Peanut Butter Truffles and Concord Grape Jellies

Carmen's Chocolate Earthquake Cookies

Nina's Vegan Coconutty Rattles

Olivia, with Jim's Egg Roll Soup

Spider-Kai & Hill

Kellee, Sparks & Sparks' New Friend

Spider-Max & Spider-Mom

Too many martinis, Spider-Nina?

Kellee & Jack

Hunter, in the zone

Rockola Groupie

Alec & Sonoma

Friends Forever

Always nice to capture a classic photo of a Federal Judge...
Your Honor, dancing "The Swim"

Me and Steve, Mr. eCoronado

Rockola

Isn't she cute!?

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For Sunday, I've chosen Childhood Favorites as our culinary theme - Childhood Favorites, updated, and/or with an adult spin. Spaghetti was probably my most favorite, but there's something else I think I'm going to try. Stay tuned, and enjoy your weekend.

Coronado Concerts in the Park - New England Cuisine

We enjoyed a long, warm and glorious summer weekend in Mayberry. Tourists swarmed the island, parking was non-existent, and the only option was biking or walking to the next destination. Those, however, were also the safest options, with wine and sangria flowing freely at the Concert in the Park on Sunday, Bloody Marys galore at P & J's before the big Parade on Monday, and a new batch of sangrias and mimosas for sipping during the Parade.

Our culinary theme for Sunday's Concert was New England Cuisine.  I've spent a few days in Jamestown, RI, which reminded me of an east coast version of Coronado, and a quick in and out of Boston, MA, but I haven't had the pleasure of visiting any of the other New England states.

Renowned for its fresh seafood and down-to-earth regional ingredients, New England cuisine has been a staple of American cooking since the days of the Pilgrims, who wrote about the region’s bountiful “fruits of the sea.” Much of New England’s culinary traditions today can be traced back to the early English settlers, who began cooking with the ingredients found in the area’s fertile landscape. In the past 200 years, Italian Americans, Irish Americans, and coastal Portuguese have all left their mark on New England cuisine [The Culinary Institute of America].

Kai kicked off the celebration with Lobster Rolls. A traditional lobster roll contains the fresh cooked meat of a lobster, tossed with mayonnaise and served on a grilled hot dog bun or similar roll, so that the opening is on the top rather than on the side. The filling may also contain diced celery and/or scallion, or may use drawn butter instead of or in addition to mayonnaise. The sandwich may also contain lettuce, lemon juice, salt and black pepper. Traditional New England restaurants serve lobster rolls (made with butter, not mayonnaise) with potato chips or french fries on the side. Unfortunately, while I was busy grilling White Clam Pies, they disappeared before I could get my hands on one.

Alec and Nina sported patriotic tees, Alec in the Cape Cod one above, and Nina in this one.

Nina made this dark, slightly sweet, New England or Boston Brown Bread.  Slathered with a little butter...so good!

I did manage to swipe a few of Alec's Clams Casino, a dish originating in Narragansett, Rhode Island, before they disappeared.

Although I bitched and moaned quite a bit during the preparation of homemade pizza dough, my White Clam Pies turned out quite nice. Pepe's Pizzeria Napoletana, in New Haven, CT, opened in 1925, and, to this day, Pepe's premier pizza is its white clam pie. It's made without mozzarella, and is nothing but crust strewn with freshly-shucked littleneck clams, olive oil, garlic, oregano, and a dash of grated cheese.

I added some fresh mozzarella to mine, and a little arugula salad dressed with olive oil and lemon, on top. For the crust, I used Jim Lahey's No-Knead Pizza Dough, and I adapted Mario Batali's White Clam Pie and Food Network's White Clam Pizza recipes for the topping.

Mary and Geoff made it down from Del Mar to join us. Attempting to grill pizza in the park is challenging and fun, but I missed out on tasting many of the dishes in the process, including their scallop dish.

Geoff is looking rather tan and rested after their month-long vacation in Bali.  I am so ready to retire and travel to a few exotic destinations!

Jack and Sandra, just back from celebrating Sandra's birthday in Las Vegas, came bearing a large platter of sandwiches.

Nina wasn't kidding when she e-mailed me the week before the Concert, saying she couldn't decide between Lobster Pie, Brown Bread or Boston Cream Pie. She went with the Brown Bread and this lovely Boston Cream Pie. In 1996, the Boston Cream Pie was declared the official dessert of Massachusetts. It's not a pie, but a pudding and cake combination comprised of two layers of sponge cake filled with vanilla custard or crème pâtissière, and topped with chocolate ganache. Nina glammed hers up with fresh blueberries, raspberries, and mint sprigs. The late afternoon sun wreaked havoc on the ganache.

Mom set her sites on Thomas Keller's Blueberry Cobbler, from Ad Hoc at Home, and I was able to secure the most beautiful, plump blueberries from Little Italy's Farmers' Market.

Keller's cobbler has more of a cake-like topping to soak up all the juices. Here's the recipe.

The evening was peacefully winding down, our tummies were full, our sweet cravings satisfied, and Brad was settling back comfortably into his chair....

And then it happened. Thankfully, I didn't see the stalk, and then the pounce, as Bridezilla decided to intrude on our circle of friends, and continue in her harassment and immature behavior. It appears the honeymoon was short-lived and she was bored dancing with Cheapass-Jackass her new husband.

She pulled poor Bradley out of his chair, dragged him out to the dance floor, and then proceeded to bump and grind him to pieces. Jim appeared very distraught, even more than he was earlier in the evening when he told us he suffocated five dozen mussels the night before (see Safely Storing Oysters and Other Mulluscan Shellfish).

Everything spiraled downhill from there. A eucalyptus branch snapped and fell, hitting the crowd below...

And Sparks spilled her vodka tonic all over Kellee's beautiful French pedicure and gorgeous sandals...

Fortunately, we were all able to recover by the next morning and make it to Bob's prime parade viewing site for the Parade, mimosas, and more sangria.

Bradley was able to relax, once again.

For my album of Coronado's Fourth of July Parade photos, check out NewfFacebook.