Friday, July 15, 2011

Three Cheese Garlic Fennel Pizza

I posted on Facebook that I should rename my blog Fajitas and Salad Dressing, because it feels like that's all I make, but I do make a lot of pizza too.

Speaking of Facebook, are you doing the Google+?  How's it working for you?  I have these high hopes that it can replace everything else on the interwebs.  Rather than follow folks and be followed on Twitter, I can connect with all of those people on G+, and also have my friends, colleagues and family circles, replacing Facebook.  But it's not there yet.  I'm connected to a number of food people on there, and it seems like we're collectively not sure how G+ fits in.   I never set up a Saturday's Mouse Facebook page, but that means that I post links on my regular personal page and get comments and input that other readers don't get to see.  Maybe G+ is the answer.

But what are we supposed to do with it, all have a hangout and knead dough on webcam together?

So for now, I post these things here, and link to them on Twitter, FB, G+... I'm trying to keep the Saturday's Mouse-related content fairly consistent between the three.

Anyhow, I make a lot of pizza, right?  Because pizza is good.   Start with dough.   Also preheat the oven.

I got fennel through the CSA, specifically for pizza.   I'm not into licorice, anise, fennel, etc, but when you saute fennel for just a bit it gets sweet and peppery and loses that love-it-or-hate it intense flavor.   The fennel bulbs were super small - weirdly flat too.

I sliced them thin and took at the hardest bits of core.  With a round fennel bulb you just make a wedge-shaped cut in the bottom to core them - with these, I cut the root off, sliced them, and popped out the hardest bits.

And Sous Chef Brian got some garlic going.

And minced that into a pan with the fennel and a bit of oil.

And scooched it around a hot pan until the fennel had softened and the garlic was just turning golden.

Also, I was making ricotta in the background.

I shaped my dough into a pizza, and spritzed it with olive oil.

This is the time to add more garlic.  Add more garlic.  I didn't add more garlic.   You should do that.  Mince three cloves onto your dough.

I dabbed ricotta all over the dough.

And Sous Chef Brian grated some parmesan on top.

And we topped that with some frozen shredded mozzarella, because I'm a poor planner.

And top with the sauteed fennel and garlic.

And quite a bit of black pepper.

And put that in the oven at 400 for 10-15 minutes.   Take it out when it's getting golden bubbles of cheese.

I had some flour drama tonight - my semolina from the bulk bin was infested.  It was still tied up in the bag, so whatever was going on inside started at Whole Foods, but I had really planned to use that because I was light on whole wheat flour.  I ended up making this with 2.5 cups of bread flour and 1 cup of whole wheat.  Between the switch of flours and the hot weather, it got fluffy.  Bubbly even.

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