Caramelized Onion and Olive Tapenade Pizza

This is a very easy and crowd pleasing pizza! It's pizza so it's casual but the ingredients are a little more special so it can be considered a little more fancy if you want it to be. By keeping a few things on hand in your pantry you can make a quick pizza any day.  This doesn't take any skill at all, you aren't really cooking just combining ingredients.  You can make your own pizza dough if you have the time, I just go to a pizzeria that I like and I buy their dough. You don't even need to have sauce for it to be considered a pizza, at least not in my book.

For this pizza I used caramelized onions, shredded italian blend cheese and trader joe's olive tapenade.  It's made up of mostly kalamata olives and it is delicious!

Caramelized Onions

Ingredients:

One large or 2 medium yellow onions, sliced
approx 1 tablespoon of EVOO and 1/2 tablespoon of butter
salt, pepper and a tsp of sugar

Directions:

Heat large saute pan over medium heat, add butter and oil, add onions, toss to coat in oil.  Allow onions to cook, tossing occasionally but not constantly.  Just like mushrooms you want them to get some color before you stir them.  Once the onions start to soften add salt, pepper and sugar and toss.  You do not want your onions to burn but instead turn a golden brown.  Lower heat if necessary.  Onions will cook for about 30 minutes. 

To assemble Pizza:

Stretch dough with your hands and place on an oiled cookie sheet.  Spread with olive tapenade, shredded cheese and top with caramelized onions. 

Bake at 400 degree for about 20 minutes or until pizza is crispy and golden. 

Stone Hearth Pizza Co. - Local, Sustainable, and Delicious

Last night, I had the opportunity to sit down to a true local dining experience at Stone Hearth Pizza Co. in Porter Square.  I had definitely heard about Stone Hearth Pizza before but I never thought of it as anything more than just another pizza company in the Boston area.  But I was surprisingly happy to find that Stone Hearth Pizza is so much more than that.

I arrived at the Cambridge location a little after 6:30 PM to dine with nine other fabulous food bloggers and social media whizzes courtesy of Citysearch Boston.  The restaurant is small with about forty seats available that were kept full throughout the evening.

We were greeted by the Stone Hearth Pizza Chef Michael Ehlenfeldt who spoke to us at length about Stone Hearth Pizza's menu and direction, which includes:

• An ever evolving menu that incorporates a healthy blend of premium organic and sustainable ingredients that are locally produced, whenever possible;
• Staying local by working with over fifty New England vendors and producers;
• Featuring a seasonal, rotating list of local, craft beers, including some of my favorite Allagash and Cisco Brewery beers; and
• Offering gluten free pizza and pasta.

I really liked how Michael explained his focus on using local and sustainable ingredients but mindfully balancing that with the extra costs that come from purchasing ingredients that aren't out of season or mass-produced.  His ideology really resonated with me and I was eager to learn more from him throughout the evening.  While a restaurant's mission is important, we can't forget about focusing on what the food tastes like and Stone Hearth Pizza was definitely a success on this front too.

We started out with a glass of Original Sin Hard Cider as we were happily bombarded with some tasty starters that included a roasted eggplant dip, mozzarella-stuffed beef meatballs, the most divine ricotta and pickled asparagus and ramps.  The Parmesan flatbread, made with organic dough in an oven-fired grill, was addictive.  The picture below shows about half of what was remaining of just one of the plates at our table. None of the diners could get enough of it!

And the marinated olives were gorgeously plump and briney.

Although I'm not a huge fan of gazpacho, this traditional tomato gazpacho was a welcome relief with yesterday's high temperatures.

And the gazpacho went well with the light Allagash White, which is one of my favorite beers from Maine.

We were then onto the salads, which included a traditional Caesar and a mixed field greens salad featuring asparagus (from Michael Ehlenfeldt's own garden in New Hampshire) and some delightful radishes.  But my favorite was by far the arugula and portobello salad topped with thin slices of a locally-sourced Parmesan-like cheese.  I especially enjoyed the salad while sipping on Nantucket's Cisco Brewers' Whale's Tale Pale Ale.  I visited Cisco Brewery a few summers back and I am always thrilled when a local restaurant or bar carries their beer.

But of course, the main attraction were the pizzas and we tried almost all of them with our family-style dining!  Some of my dining companions loved the Bean (garlic oil, white bean spread, fresh mozzarella, sauteed red onion topped with a spinach salad) and the Farm Fresh (garlic oil, roasted cherry tomatoes, charred peppers, Yukon gold potatoes, artichoke hearts, olives, mozzarella topped with prosciutto).

But I was distracted by the Prosciutto Pineapple pizza which made up half a pie with the BBQ Chicken.

And I could NOT stop raving about the pesto pizza that had huge dollops of pesto and ricotta cheese.  This was by far my most favorite slice of the night!

The pizzas were all served on thin whole wheat crusts and went down smoothly went some additional fabulous local beers that I have never tried before.  First up was Pretty Things' Jack D'Or, which had a gorgeous label.

And our last beer was the dessert-like Allagah Curieux, which is barrel-aged with a hint of bourbon flavor in it.

As if the evening wasn't fabulous enough, Michael Ehlenfeldt provided us with our own basil plants to take home.  I couldn't think of a more perfect way to send the message that Stone Hearth Pizza Co. is about staying local and sustainable.  I think we were all in agreement that this was the best swag party favor ever.

Thanks Citysearch Boston for a fabulous evening and for introducing me to Stone Hearth Pizza Co..  I couldn't fall in love more with Stone Hearth Pizza for it's message and mission, while never compromising in taste or flavor.  Although there are no locations in my neighborhood, I know that this won't deter me from becoming a repeat customer for years to come.

Stone Hearth Pizza has three locations in the Boston area, including Belmont, Needham and Cambridge.  The Cambridge location is at 1782 Massachusetts Avenue, located a short walk from Porter Square T Station.

Flatbread Pizza

Hi! It's been a couple of weeks and I have a good reason for not posting. I've really been trying to cook healthier this month and nothing I made seemed to be blog worthy. Grilled chicken, brown rice, whole wheat blend pasta, pretty boring right? However, I think that this recipe for Flatbread Pizza is one worth sharing. In addition to all the wonderful cookbooks I got for Christmas, I won a cookbook from Bakespace. I didn't even realize that I entered a contest (it was that easy) and actually felt guilty about it since I won those tickets to see Julie and Julia along with Julia Child's cookbook, over the summer. Babette insisted that I won the book fair and square and sent it to me. ((By the way, Bakespace is having a cookbook a day giveaway this month on facebook.  You should become a fan and check it out.) The cookbook is called "The Perfect Recipe for Losing Weight and Eating Great" by Pam Anderson. It was a perfect time for me to receive this "perfect" book so I started using it right away.

I've never made bread before since I have this fear of yeast, so I was really excited when I saw how easy it was to make flatbread which has only four ingredients, none of which are yeast. They came together very quickly and easily. I am not very experienced at rolling out dough so mine weren't exactly the 12 by 4 inch rectangle Ms. Anderson suggests but it was perfectly fine. We topped some with pizza sauce and part skim mozzarella, some with caramelized onions and prosciutto and added some sliced kalamata olives to both. I made this recipe twice (since it was so quick to make I could do that and when I realized that they were pretty small) so we were able to have different topping combos. My favorite was the caramelized onion and olives which were sweet and salty. These heated up very well in the oven the next day for lunch.

Quick Flatbread Dough

by Pam Anderson

Yield: 4 flatbreads

Ingredients:

1 cup bread flour, plus extra for dusting
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/3 cup warm water, plus extra if necessary
1 teaspoon extra virgin olive oil

Directions:

1. Mix flour and salt in a food processor. Mix water and oil and pour over flour mixture; process to form a soft dough ball. If dough is too stiff (hard-clay texture), process in another tablespoon of warm water. Continue to process until dough is well kneaded, about 15 seconds.

2. With floured hands, turn dough out onto a lightly floured surface and cut into quarters. Working with one quarter at a time, roll dough out to about a 12-by-4-inch rectangle, dusting with flour and turning as necesary to keep it from sticking.

3. Preheat oven to 500 degrees. Line a large cookie sheet with parchment paper or a silicone mat. Top with whatever toppings you like (Pam's cookbook gives a lot of great suggestions)and bake for 10-12 minutes or until crust is crisp and golden.

Click here for a printable recipe of Flatbread Pizza.

Grilled Pizza, Wine Pairing and a Guest Post

My nagging has finally paid off! I finally have a post from a guest blogger! Check it out!



Hello everyone! I'm sure you're wondering who the other person is enjoying all these meals that you find here on Michele's blog. Well, that person is me...Steve. Michele asked me to write a guest post for her blog this week after a weekend of grilling. I guess you could say I am the resident wine connoisseur and grilling fanatic. It seems I am writing this to talk to you about both this week.



This is a recipe that we've come up with in the past and used a couple of times before. Since we first made pizza this way, it has been tough to top it! While it isn't an overly difficult way of making pizza, you do have to use the right ingredients and be vigilant while it's on the grill. Let's get down to it...

Ingredients:

Pizza sauce (recipe below)
Pizza dough - 1 lb for each pizza you want to make
4 oz. (approximately) or ½ of a regular sized bag of shredded mozzarella cheese – we prefer part-skim
Olive oil – for coating the dough
Fresh basil leaves
Toppings – this time around we used black olives and mushrooms, just use as much as you like

Before you start prepping the dough and making the pizza, you'll want to make the sauce. We basically make just a marinara sauce with some garlic and herbs in it. Michele will write about that.

You'll need a pound of dough for each pizza that you want to make. We've tried using two pounds before, but it just doesn't come out the same. You certainly can try making your own dough for this recipe, but we're lazy and we've found that it's very easy for us to get a hold of dough from Brooklyn. In my personal opinion, for the amount of time and money you have to put in to make your own pizza dough, it's just more economical and less time consuming to just get it from somewhere else. Just make sure it's quality dough!



Place each pound of dough in a bowl that will easily fit all of it in there, drizzling a bit of olive oil in the bottom of the bowl first, so that the dough doesn't stick. Place plastic wrap over the top of the bowl and then cover with a dish towel. Let the dough rise for a couple of hours, until it rises to the top of the bowl or even above it.



Once the dough has risen, pound it down and then take the dough out of the bowl, placing it onto a cooking sheet or something equivalent. Begin flattening out the dough on the sheet, making sure to keep both sides of the dough moist with olive oil so that it does not stick. Once the dough has been flattened and spread out, it's ready to be grilled.



Make sure you have your mozzarella cheese, pizza sauce and toppings ready to go. Turn your grill on to high and let it sit for about 8 to 10 minutes. For this recipe, we used a gas grill. Once the grill is nice and hot, you can bring your dough and other ingredients outside to your grilling area. Turn the burners down to about medium-low heat. Make sure you use some sort of grilling spray (we used Pam for grilling) to spray down the grilling surface so that the dough does not stick to it. Take the dough off of the pan with your hands and place onto the grill, trying to keep something of an oval or even rectangular shape. Since most pizza you find is round, I like being different and creating all sorts of uneven shapes to make it look unique. Once the pizza dough is on the grill, close the lid and let it sit for about 4 – 5 minutes. You'll want to stay by the grill to check it every so often. The bottom of the dough should get nice and crispy, with some prominent grilling marks. Keep in mind that most gas grills have one side that is hotter and cooks faster than the others.










Once you can lift up the dough with ease, use a spatula and flip the whole pizza over in one shot – just like you would a pancake. Once the pizza has been flipped, you can then spread on the pizza sauce, followed by basil leaves (preferably torn into smaller pieces) and then the shredded mozzarella. You can then add on any toppings you may have. After everything has been added onto your pizza, close the cover of the grill again and let it sit for about 3 – 4 minutes. You'll want to check the pizza every so often to make sure that the cheese has melted on the top and that the bottom is nice and crispy, with those same grill marks.

As soon as all that has happened, the pizza is now ready to be taken off of the grill. Use a spatula or two to take it off of the grill and put it back onto the cooking sheet. Cut up the pizza in whatever fashion you like and serve!





For this pizza, I have found that a light white wine goes best. You will want something with a fruity undertone that will bring out the acidity of the pizza sauce and the flavors of the toppings you chose. I like to enjoy a nice Riesling with this pizza. My label of choice is Urban. It is an inexpensive Riesling that is light and fruity, as well as very refreshing. Feel free to experiment with your own palate and find a wine that suits you. Stick to the lighter, fruitier wines, either in the white or red varietals, such as a Pinot Grigio or a Pinot Noir.





I hope you all enjoy making this as I know we certainly have and will continue to do so all summer long!



Michele's Pizza Sauce

Enough for approx 4 pounds of dough.

1 28oz can crushed tomatoes
2 8 oz cans of tomato sauce
4 cloves minced garlic
3 tsp chopped basil
1-2 tsp dried Italian seasoning
salt and pepper to taste
1 tsp sugar
extra virgin olive oil

Feel free to use fresh or dried herbs. This time I used frozen dorat basil, fresh basil leaves and fresh oregano. It's up to you.

Directions:

Saute garlic in oil, add frozen or dried herbs being careful not to burn them. Add tomatoes, salt, pepper and sugar. If using fresh herbs add now. Let it come to a boil and then lower heat. Cook on medium for 30-40 minutes. Taste it and adjust seasoning.