Monday, July 14, 2014

Rosie Makes Pizza And Focaccia!

 Rosie is back in her niche.
She's making both pizza and foccacia tonight.

It's long overdue.

And Mr. Hawthorne, Middle Hawthorne, and I
all worked on this pizza.
It was a family effort.
Good times.
Youngest Hawthorne was AT WORK.
As in, he HAS A JOB!


 I have half a bag of spinach, some red onion slices,
3 baby bellas, mozzarella cheese,
and the proofing yeast in the back left.

For the Dough:
 Into my Cuisinart:
3 1/2 cups King Arthur Bread Flour
1 1/2 tsp Kosher salt
Mix it up.

Proof:
1/2 cup warm water
1 pkg yeast
1 tsp sugar
Mix together.

After yeast has proofed,
pour it into food processor bowl,
along with 1 cup warm water.
Pulse until you have a sticky ball.

Place onto lightly floored board
and semi-bring together into a ball.

Let rest 15 minutes.

Knead for a few minutes until dough is smooth and elastic,
about 5 minutes.

Turn dough into an oiled bowl,
turning it to apply oil all over.
Let rise until doubled.

Turn out onto lightly floured board
and cut dough in half.

One half is for the pizza,
the other for the foccacia.

Here's the shaggy pile right out of the cuisinart.




Let rise in oiled bowl until doubled.

Turn out onto lightly floured surface.

Cut into halves.

Start rolling the dough out.
Take your time.
Roll a bit, then let the dough rest.
Roll again, rest, have a glass of wine.
This gives both you and the dough time to relax.

The top round is for my pizza.
The bottom dough gets spread out in an oiled pan for foccacia.

Keep working on the focaccia dough.
Push it out.
Let it rest.
 Spread it to fill the baking pan.

For theTomato Sauce
1 onion, chopped
1 bell pepper, chopped
I had grilled hamburgers in the fridge.  Why not use them?
And I had a little baggie of frozen tomato paste
leftover from some recipe that called for a tablespoon of paste.
First, sauté the onion and pepper in a little butter.
Then add in the tomato paste
and enough water - a cup or so -
for a saucy consistency.
Simmer sauce until thickened, stirring occasionally.
Break up the hamburgers and add to the sauce.
Add oregano, salt, and pepper to taste.

I baked my crust.
450° for 7 minutes.


Middle Hawthorne is grating the mozzarella.
Mr. Hawthorne artfully arranges provolone slices.

And that was extent of M&M's involvement.

I have sautéed spinach and shrooms,
sliced red onions, tomato slices, and grated Mozzarella.


Spread the sauce on the beautifully bronzed crust.

Add spinach and mushrooms.

Red onion.

Sliced tomatoes and Mozzarella.


Torn basil.


Drizzle some extra virgin on top.

Bake 450° 10 minutes


Yup.
That's the ticket.


On to the focaccia.
Let it rise.
Add the extra virgin.
As it rises, keep dimpling it with your fingers.


Fresh rosemary over top.




Sprinkle on homemade sea salt.

Bake 'at bitch!

Bake at 450° for 10 minutes.
And that's focaccia!

And it is excellent.

Such earthiness:
Yeast.
Bread.
Rosemary.
Such oceaness:
Sea salt.

Garden bounty in the background.

Rosemary and sea salt foccacia.


A glass of red wine and torn pieces of focaccia.

Doesn't get much better than this.

Oh, wait...
Yes it does.

 Blood orange infused olive oil for dipping.

Focaccia pieces sop up the oil.
Heady.
Exuberant.
Happy face of rosemary in the plate.

1 comment:

Marilyn said...

I've been meaning to make focaccia for a while now. It is so easy to make and much better than what you can get at the grocery.