I'll be the first to admit that this pie was a little outside of my wheelhouse. Usually it's Ashley doing the veggie pies while I stick to the important stuff, you know, smoked and/or cured meats. But after the idea for beet "pepperoni" popped into my head (the inspiration was my "genius" realization that sliced beets and sliced pepperoni are both red and round), and I found myself trying to approximate the mighty pepperoni with a beet.  Go figure.

To infuse a beet with the smokey, salty, savory, spicy character of a pepperoni, I grabbed some dried shiitake mushrooms (make sure you get good ones as they are more smokey), some smoked paprika, and a butt load of salt. I sliced the beets into approximate pepperoni thickness, put them in a bowl with some of the dried shiitake, smoked paprika, salt (don't fear the salt; pepperoni is salty), and some soy sauce (to punch up the savory meatiness factor), and poured enough hot water over top to cover. Then I covered the bowl and put in the fridge overnight. 

The next day, I'll be damned if those beet slices didn't taste like meaty, smokey circles of pizza toppin' goodness. I drained and diced up the shiitakes, topped the pie with the beets, mushrooms, and a little pesto made with kale, smoked almonds, and a blast of anchovy paste. Tossed a little burrata and pecorino on top for good measure.  The resulting pie was quite a treat.

Beet "pepperoni" Pie

Ingredients

for "pepperoni"

3 Beets (roasted and peeled)

Small Handful Dried Shiitake

1 tbls. soy sauce

1 clove minced garlic

1 tbls. sea salt

 1 tsp. smoked paprika

hot water

for pesto

1 small can hickory smoked almonds

1/2 bunch kale

1 tbls. anchovy paste

1 clove minced garlic

juice of 1/2 lemon

3 tbls. olive oil

1 tbls. soy sauce

Slice the beets into approximately the thickness of a slice of pepperoni. place the beets, and all the other "pepperoni" ingredients into a small bowl, and pour almost boiling water on top to cover. Cover the bowl and place in refrigerator for 3-4 hrs. (better if over night). Next, remove from fridge, drain liquid. Set aside.  To make the pesto, cut up kale into small enough pieces that a food processor can get a hold of it. Place all ingredients for pesto into a food processor, and pulse until in is a uniform, semi-chucky, pesto like consistency.

Roll out your dough, top with pesto, died mushrooms, beet slices, mozzarella, pecorino, and bake at 550+ degrees until bubbly cheese, and charred perfection.  Enjoy.

-E 

***Also, as an ending note, special thanks to my new boss for giving me a pull of his sourdough starter.  Ash and I have been using it in our pizza dough with great results.  It's got a nice savory, mushroomy type thing happening. The resulting raw dough reminds me of fresh mozzarella cheese.***

Meatily Meatless Umami Pesto Pie

Whenever Ashley and I get to planning out the toppings for our next pies, my knee jerk reaction always is to grab some cured meats, hearty cheeses, and potatoes (Yes, potatoes - thinly sliced, and crisped up on a pie, they are wonderful, but we'll explore that on a further post) and get down whipping up that stick to your ribs, punch of meaty pleasure type of pizza that I inevitably feel I need.
Ashley then proceeds to pump the brakes....

There are certain things that Ashley doesn't need on a pizza (meat), and certain things that I feel I just got to have (meatiness) in order to feel that satisfaction. The realization that meatiness on a pie doesn't have to equal meat on a pie brought about the creation of the following pizza delight. 

Enter the sensation of umami. Umami is the fifth taste, the taste of savory. A meaty, saliva inducing sense of deliciousness.  Tomatoes, mushrooms, soy sauce, and parmesan cheese are all food items known for having high amounts of this flavor. After hearing about a burger joint called Umami burger where they top their signature burger with ingredients high in Umami flavor, I knew the same treatment could be done for a pizza to induce a sense of meatiness.

I chose to do a mushroom Umami pesto to spread out as the foundation of this pizza.  I took: 

1 cup oven-roasted shitake mushrooms
1 garlic clove

1 tablespoon fish sauce

2 tablespoons bonito flakes

1 tablespoon yellow miso

2 teaspoons soy sauce

2 tablespoons olive oil

All this excitement went into the food processor; pulsed it until it looked like pesto. Next, I spread it out on our par-baked crust (Ashley and I like to pre-bake the crust in order to keep them crispy), and topped with some fresh mozzarella. Then I topped with some diced sun-dried tomatoes (you could use regular tomatoes, but I figure the dried variety would have a more concentrated Umami flavor), shaves of parmesan cheese, some bonito flakes (bonito flakes are shavings of dried smoked jackfish, and are a japanese staple seasoning. The taste and smell a bit like smoked salmon. On their own, they taste fishy, but in dishes they  add a nice smoked savory note, and very little fishiness. Try em.), and a bit of garlic.

This pie delight came out of the oven smoky, salty, melty, and mighty meatily delicious!  While this pie did technically have meat on it, the bonito flakes, I would hardly call small smoky shavings of fish something that a carnivore would sit there salivating over, and thus I'd call this pie a victory for those looking for hearty meatless fare.  Plus, Ashley chomped down pretty hard on it too.  Although I will say that if eating something that use to be alive, or that is still moving gets you squeamish, I would advise not looking closely at this pizza until it's cooled down a bit...

-E