More Pizza: A Few Toppings

I don’t have exact measurements for you today, or much of a method beyond what I mentioned earlier in the week, but I wanted to share two more pizzas we made and loved.

The first was more or less a margherita…a smear of sauce, a few coins of fresh mozzarella, and a scattering of onions and red chilies. Throw fresh basil on after you remove it from the oven so it doesn’t scorch and you get the full flavor.

Nothing wrong with a classic. But at some level, the point of making pizza at home is to experiment with toppings, to put things on your pizza that you might not be able to get at your local pizza joint.

Hypothetically, if you happen upon the mushroom man at the farmer’s market, and he happens to have cute little half-pints of fresh chanterelles, you should probably pick them up. Buy an ear of corn, too, and when you get home, slice the mushrooms up a bit and sauté them. In butter. We’re not messing around. When they’re nicely cooked, add the kernels cut from the raw ear of corn and remove from the heat.

After you’ve spread out your dough into a nice round, thin circle, brush with a little garlic oil, then add your mushrooms and corn, sprinkling with fresh goat cheese, thyme leaves, pepper, and a little parmesan. Cook until the crust is crispy, which melts the cheese and roasts the corn a little.

Three pizzas in two days? “But Maggie,” you say, “isn’t that a lot of pizza?”

Oh, that’s not even the beginning. Shiv will take care of you next week—I’m off to Italy!

Yam, Poblano, and Corn Salad: A Perfect Barbecue Side

We had a perfect barbecue the other night. It came together the way summer parties should—casually—with invites issued when inspiration struck that morning at breakfast. Sure enough, plenty of our friends had no plans, and we had a bunch of sausages in the fridge that needed grilling, and the afternoon sun was golden and the breeze was soft. We haven’t gotten enough use of our balcony this summer, so we were determined to park ourselves out there for at least a few hours.

We grilled up bratwurst and hot Italian sausage,  garlic scapes, and long skewers of mushrooms. We ate a loaf of bread with the delicious ricotta spread from Andrew Carmellini’s cookbook Urban Italian. (By the way, does anyone want to try his new restaurant with me? I really, really want to go.)

The unexpected star of the meal was this refreshing side dish, a salad of sweet potatoes and smoky poblano peppers inspired by a recipe I saw in Bon Appetit. The combination of poblano and yam the magazine called for sounded delicious, but after I read those two ingredients, I pretty much ignored the rest of the recipe. I’m glad I wrote down the ingredients as I improvised, because this one is definitely a keeper, great for any barbecues or potlucks you have planned. The flavors mingle as time goes on, so feel free to make it a day ahead.

Once I’d latched on to poblano and yam, I decided to throw in a bunch of sweet corn and brighten it up with a lime juice based dressing, smoky with pimenton and a bit of chile powder. Instead of grilling the yams—which I’m not sure I could have managed without a huge mess—I simply cooked them in the microwave. Even though the yams ended up more mashed than chunked, giving the dish a bit of a strange appearance, everyone couldn’t stop eating it. The zing of lime and sweetness of the vegetables was so fresh and tangy, a great foil for the richness of grilled sausages.

We laughed and talked and passed the platters of food around until the sun went down, and stayed outside with a guitar and a giant bowl full of blueberries long past midnight. Sorry for the noise, neighbors.

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Faking Summer: Broiler-Grilled Corn

I know, I know.

Corn is not in season yet. And really, neither is grilling.

Luckily, this recipe works perfectly with less-than-stellar ears from the grocery store, and can be prepared within the confines of a small apartment kitchen. If you’re reading this in July, and you picked up lovely Jersey or Ohio corn from a farmstand, then I’m not sure you need this recipe. That corn is delicious raw, or briefly, briefly dunked in a pot of boiling water. But this recipe will serve you well in the pre- and post-season.

I was inspired tonight by some grilled corn I had at Kampuchea on the Lower East Side. They slather theirs in a coconut-chili mayonnaise, and it’s pretty fabulous, bold and spicy and sweet, with the perfect hit of acidity from wedges of lime you squeeze onto it before eating. My adaptation is a little bit lighter, with nonfat greek yogurt subbing in for the mayo, but it’s tangy and delicious all the same. Chipotle gives it just a little smokiness, so you’ll hardly miss the grill. Let me know if you try it with some coconut flakes stirred into the yogurt spread, I bet it would be great. 

Your cooking time may vary depending on the heat and positioning of your broiler. Feel free to check and turn the ears every 5 minutes (and more frequently toward the end) but don’t be afraid of charred kernels: those may be the best part.

Anyone up for some fake tanning while we’re at it?

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