Spring has somehow come and gone or was it every really here?  Today felt like summer in Brooklyn.  Hot and muggy.  This pie was inspired by a fresh spring day!  You know one of those days when the flowers just begin to unfold and show their colors?  The farmer's market has more than just potatoes and root veggies?  The grass is green and pollen has taken flight!

Pie Ingredients

Healthy handful of arugula

4-6 slices of pickled melon (see recipe below)

1/3 c. grated pecorino

1.5-3 oz of goat cheese

olive oil

salt and pepper

Pickled Melon

1 c. white wine vinegar

1/3 c. sugar

1/3 c. water

1/4 of a cantaloupe thinly sliced

2 sprigs of dill

dash of all spice

   Bring water and vinegar to a boil.  Add sugar and cook until it dissolves.  Add the sliced melon and cover for 5-10 minutes.  Place in container with all spice and dill and let the melon pickle! Nom nom.

   First prep your dough and form it to the thickness you prefer.  Add goat cheese, grated pecorino, olive oil, and a dash of pepper and salt.  Bake at 550 for 6-7 minutes.  Then add pickled melon, arugula and a dash more of pecorino.  Mangia, Mangia!

  This pie is great for a spring or summer day, as it is light and flavorful! (It will not leave you feeling guilty! I promise!)

  Ahhh, spring.  I miss you already.

-Ash

Over the past few months, I have fallen under the spell of Za'atar. What is that? Zataar is middle eastern spice blend, mainly composed of thyme, sesame seeds, sumac, and salt. I kept running into items on menus that listed Za'atar as an ingredient (on flatbreads, in spreads, even a Za'atar bagel), and the stuff tasted so good that I figured I'd pick some up to have around the house. Turns out the stuff is cheap too. So cheap that they sell it in 1 lb. bags.  That's a lot of Za'atar! With so much on hand, I knew that it would have to find it's way onto a pizza. 

I mixed a healthy amount of Za'atar into a little bit of olive oil to make a paste. The Za'atar paste spread generously onto a freshly rolled out pizza dough formed a great base for a Middle Eastern inspired pie. Next, I topped the pie with our usual blend of Mozzarella and shredded pecorino, some fire roasted yellow peppers, and some crumbled lamb sausage that I picked up from my other new jam, Los Piasano's, a killer meat shop on Smith Street in Brooklyn. We popped the pie in the +500 degree oven, and seven minutes later, Ash and I were chowin' down, feeling like Saudi Royalty. Enjoy!

-Erich

Za'atar Pie W/ lamb Sausage

1 dough

3 oz mozzeralla

4tsp za'atar spice blend

1 tbsp Olive oil

1 fire roasted yellow pepper

1 link lamb sausage

2 oz shredded pecorino cheese

Mix the Za'atar spice blend with the olive oil until you form a paste. Remove the lamb sausage from the casing, and crumble into a hot skillet to cook. Spread out the dough. Spread the Za'atar paste generously on the dough. Top with mozz, peppers, cooked crumbled sausage, and pecorino. Bake at +500 degrees plus for 5-7 min.

 

    For some reason, aesthetically a pie looks more complete, no authentic, if it contains the colors red, green and white.  The red and green contrast so nicely and are mellowed by the off white colors of the formaggi.  Sometimes I haphazardly find myself creating a recipe that has this classic color palette and when I look at the pictures I think...this pie just looks like another Italian margherita spin off, I should have been more creative.....pushed the envelope!  Alas, this is no ordinary Italian classic.  Something is hidden in the pesto that causes your palette to second guess its senses.

Pesto

1/4 c. olive oil

juice of 1 lemon

1/2 c. almonds

1 bunch of basil

1 bunch of cilantro

salt and pepper

Pie Ingredients

1 dough

1/4 c. pesto

1/2 c. ricotta

mozzarella

sprinkle of pecorino

4 slices of hot soppressata

   First make your pesto in a food processor.  Pulse until it forms a thick paste.  Next stretch your dough and smear the pesto over the surface.  Add a few dollops of ricotta and mix in with the pesto.  Layer mozzarella and soppressata on, and top the pie off with a sprinkle of pecorino.  Bake in the oven at 550 for 7 minutes.  Season to taste.  If you make this pie you will notice how the cilantro pairs nicely with the spicy soppressata.  

Mangia mangia!

-Ash

Just like last week's tomato pie, today's pie is another that was a long time in the making. As a beer brewer, home brewer, and all around beer enthusiast, I felt pretty silly when Ashley asked me "why I hadn't tried to incorporate beer into any of the pizza pie recipes I've come up with".

After I got past my initial huh-men-a-huh-men-a-huh-men-a's, I quickly concocted a funky, malty, beer based pie to regain my beer cred.

Beer braised mushrooms seemed like a great way to incorporate  beer flavor into a pie. The earthiness of the mushrooms would pair nicely with the maltiness and roastiness of a stout, and be able to hold their own against the other flavors of the pizza. I grabbed a bottle of irish stout (I used  Trader Joe's Oatmeal stout, which is actually rebranded Goose Island Oatmeal stout, but I digress). Pouring the stout into a pyrex dish, I added some salt, miso, and a bit of lactic acid*.

[*NOTE: Irish stouts are known for the slight lactic sourness they exhibit on the finish. Wanting to capture this, and since, being a beer brewing geek, I had a bottle of lactic acid on hand, I decided to add a 1/2 tsp of the acid to the beer braise to accentuate that sour tang in the mushrooms. Long story short, this is entirely optional.]

Knowing that I needed something a little funkier than our normal mozzarella/pecorino cheese combo, I opted to top the pie with Scamorza. Scamorza is an aged mozzarella cheese that, while still creamy, is a bit more edgy, smokey, and tangy. I paired that with a bit of sharp provolone for a little extra funk. 

With a funky cheese base laid down, the malty, tangy mushrooms on top, and a little bit of roasted garlic for good measure, the pie went into the oven. Finished with some fresh grounded pepper, and it was quite the treat, especially paired with a nice Chianti...or beer, if you like that kind of thing.

Funky Cheese pie with beer braised mushrooms

2 Portabella mushroom caps

1 bottle Irish Stout

1 tsp miso

1 tsp salt

1/2 tsp lactic acid (optional)

3 cloves roasted garlic (wrapped in foil,roasted @400 for 20min)

1 small scamorza

1/4lb sharp provolone

In a pyrex, mix the beer, miso, salt, and acid. Add mushroom caps, cover in foil and braise at 350 for 30 min. Remove from oven. Allow to cool. Chop into chunks.

Top the rolled out dough with sliced scamorza, provolone, braised mushrooms, and roasted garlic. Bake pizza at 500+ for 7-8 min.

Remove from oven, top with a generous amount of fresh cracked pepper. Enjoy.

-E

Note: A much delayed post. I apologize for the delay (sorry Ashley).

A quick peak across all the pies that we have laid down here on Bottomless Pie, and you might notice the absence of a partial popular pizza ingredient. It's a red ingredient. It's not pepperoni.

Tomatoes!

In the past, we've steered clear of red pies for Ash's sake, she has a bit of an acidic stomach, but as a pizza blog we couldn't avoid them forever, so I told Ash to breakout the tums, I'm buying a can of tomatoes!

With my can of tomatoes in tow, I took it upon myself to whip up this super simple, packed with flavor twist on a classic. 

Good things that go with tomatoes? Garlic.  And Wine. Lots of wine. So that is what I did. I took the tomatoes, squeezed out the liquid, and in a bowl mixed them with wine, salt, and about two cloves of garlic. 


Take the rolled out dough and a shmear of sauce, some thin slices of fresh mozza (less is more, I'm reluctantly learning), some thinly sliced fennel, and a driz of olive oil later, that's all she wrote...

Until it comes out of the oven, that is.  I finished the pie with a sprinkle of salted capers. And boy is that the hidden hero of this pie. The joy of biting into a salted caper in the middle of enjoying creaminess of the mozza, the herbal licorice zing of the fennel, and classic pairing of tomatoes and wine is quite other worldly. I recommend you try it some time.

Wine Margarita Pie

1 can San Marzano whole tomatoes

1 cup red wine

2 cloves garlic

1 tsp salt

1 bulb fennel

4 oz fresh mozzarella

some olive oil

1 tbsp salted capers

Take each tomato and carefully squeeze! (they will squirt!) out most of the liquid. Roughly dice the tomatoes, dice the garlic, and mix in a bowl with the wine and the salt.

Spread some sauce on the dough, top with mozzarella, thinly sliced fennel. Drizzle with olive oil.  Bake at 500+ degrees for 5-7 min. Remove from oven. Immediately top with capers and serve.

-E

    A few weeks ago my two wonderful friends came to visit New York.  We discussed options of things to do and ended up deciding on an evening at my apartment making pie and hanging out.  Growing up sometimes means growing apart physically so it's always nice to catch up with old friends over some slices in the quiet of your home.  Also, Erich and I never miss an opportunity to lay down some pies for our friends to get some feedback.  I am sure if Erich were writing this he would replace feedback with praise in the last sentence.  I'm a bit more modest.  A mutual friend also accompanied our dinner, which is why the title of this post is called "A Trio of Pies, for a Trio of friends."

   For the first pie, I used the base recipe from the previous post, and then added finely sliced sweet potatoes and a touch of rosemary. Delish!

   For the second pie, Erich whipped up his Wine Margherita with salted capers pie.  Recipe coming soon.

   Lastly, Pam had requested we use figs and goat cheese for a pie. (See picture above)

Figgy Pie

4 black mission figs sliced

one large onion (we used red)

mozzarella 

2-4 tbsp. goat cheese

1 tsp. chopped rosemary

olive oil

salt and pepper

Balsamic Drizzle

1/4 c. balsamic

1 tsp. sugar

    First caramelize the onions for about thirty minutes or until they appear soft and brown.  Jam like.  Next  top your pie, and begin to reduce your balsamic for a few minutes before placing the pizza in the oven and then continue until the pie is finished baking.  Once the pie is finished, drizzle the balsamic.  The balsamic should have reduced to the consistency of chocolate syrup.  There will not be much to use, but you only need a little bit.  Manga! Manga!

Check back soon for Erich's Wine Margherita Pie!

     It's a bit funny that our first pie as a newly engaged couple turned out to be a white pie.  I had been planning to make this pie for a while, but life has been a bit of a whirlwind these past few months to say the least.  Not sure if it was the wintry weather, or the need for simplicity or the subconcious wedding thoughts at the back of my mind that compelled me to make this.  All I know is it's delicious and pretty easy to make.  

White Pie with Thyme Oil

Pie Ingrediants

1 dough

1/2 c. ricotta

1/4 c. pecorino

mozzarella

1/2 of a roasted head of garlic

salt and pepper

Thyme oil

A few thyme stalks

2-4Tbsps. olive oil

salt

   First roast a head of garlic in the oven for around 15-20 minutes at 350 degrees or until the garlic is soft to the touch and looks caramelized.  In case you are unfamiliar with roasting garlic, chop the head off so you can see the raw garlic cloves.  Season with salt and pepper, and then drizzle a bit of olive oil on the open area.  Cover in tin foil.  Roast it up.  While the garlic is roasting make the thyme oil.  Simply add thyme, a pinch of salt and olive oil to a pan and simmer for a minute or two.  Remove the garlic from the oven, and mix in half the head of garlic with the ricotta and 2 Tbsps. of the thyme oil.  Smear the pie with the ricotta mixture, add small chunks or grated mozzarella, and then finish it off with the pecorino.  Bake in the oven at 550 for 7 minutes or until you see some brown bubble on the surface like the picture above.  Finish the pie with another drizzle of thyme oil, and sprinkle some of the thyme from the oil onto the surface of the pie.  Beware, you will be salvating impatiently as you wait for this pie to finish as the garlic ricotta mixture bake and infuse your kitchen.  You're definitely going to want to make this pie over and over again.  The recipe also makes a great base for other great pies as well.  Tonight I will be having a few friends over for pie and I will be using this recipe as the base for one of the pies.  Post coming soon!

Have a wonderfully delicious weekend!

-ash