It's the time of year when people start to think about keeping indoors, comfort food and if they are going to be able to afford to heat their homes. For me, homemade anything pretty much falls into the realm of comfort food. Primarily because cooking at home means quality time with carefully selected ingredients, warm kitchens and good friends in a cozy environment. Then, at the end of the night, it means not having to wander any further than the living room to chillax with the fiancée.
This challenge was about pizza. Homemade pizza dough and our choice of toppings. Since we had decided that it was more fun to share the challenge, we chose to invite some of Leah's friends over for a night of pizza and dvr'd television.
One of our primary challenges with Daring Bakers is the sheer amount of
time that has to be committed to making any of the foods that has been
presented. Leah and I live a very busy life, and for us to spend
two or three days prepping food can be hard. Honestly, I would love to see a challenge that only requires one day to complete. So, this time, we shared the
responsibility. Not sure if this is in keeping with the letter of the
challenges, but it was a hell of a lot of fun to split up the
challenge. Leah made the dough, so her blog will cover that process. I was the pizza maker. Meaning, I got to choose the toppings, make the pizza and serve it up to the guests.
I had the day off, so I wandered over to the South End to get a haircut and stopped by South End Formaggio and Foodie's to get my toppings and the salad fixings. Formaggio is one of my favorite places in the city to go for great cheeses and other artisanal ingredients, they have specialists there who will not only help one grab the right cheese for a party, but will also allow people to taste it to make sure. I love these people. I grabbed some great Lomo and Speck as well as a little tasting of Iberian Ham and some amazing cheeses. At Foodie's, I found D'Artagnan Chorizo (I love D'artagnan, they provide many local restaurants with their better meats), pears and the salad fixings.
Getting to Leah's, I pulled the dough from the fridge and got everything started. Leah had made some red sauce from scratch, and I decided to stray from the ordinary and experiment with alternative ingredients. I chose to make a basic pizza Margherita, a chorizo pizza with seasoned black beans and extra sharp cheddar cheese and a pizza that had fresh pears, prosciutto and half was this amazing blue cheese, the other half goat cheese.
Making the pizza was great fun. I have to be honest, I spent some time out of high school working for a pizza place in Carrboro, NC, called Gumby's (this is one of those horrible websites, please accept my apologies. I should send them an email letting them know that I can do this better than whoever they are paying to do it now), so I wasn't that concerned with the process of tossing the dough. As a matter of fact, that was the part I was looking forward to. So, after quickly manipulating the first Margherita pizza into the oven, I tossed the remaining ones while we all chatted about our lives, the election and whatever else happened to pop up.
The Margherita was wonderful. Using Leah's homemade sauce, chunky with veggies and herbs, as well as fresh mozzarella, made a huge amount of difference in the pizza. It was basic, but recieved well by the guests. And that sauce was, to be honest, really great! Thanks, Leah, for going that extra mile! Of course, Leah owning a pizza stone was also a wonderful thing, as it helped make the crust nice and crispy without getting burnt. At home, I use this small metal disk that I grabbed at the Atlanta version of Super 88, which is a wonderful tool for many things, making crispy pizzas among them. The stone was better, though.
The black bean pizza was also really good. We were told that these were the best pizzas that several 
people at the dinner had ever had in Boston. As can be seen from the photo, the pizza might not have looked that great, but it was hearty and tasty. Leah was surprised that I had gone with non-traditional ingredients, but I think that she was pleased with the results.
Finally, the pear pizza. It being Fall, i'm fond of using whatever happens to be seasonal and available to me. At the moment, pears are just coming in. And, as is expected, one must remember that pears ripen better at home than they do on the tree. So, I chose a few nice-looking Bosc. While chopping them up for the pizza, I nibbled a little on them and although I know that pears are better when a little more ripe, I am still fond of them when they are just starting to give up their sweetness and have a good bite to them. This pizza was light, lovely and the ingredients really partnered well. The pears softened up in the oven, the cheeses melted just enough to infuse the olive oil, the meat crisped up nicely and the oregano added a nice side note of herbaceousness to the dish. To be honest, i'm not a fan of blue cheeses, as much of a foodie as I am. It, like raw onions and cliantro, really muck up my tastebuds and I honestly can't taste anything after eating them. So, I was told the blue cheese worked really well since I didn't taste that side; better, in fact, than the goat. Still, the goat did work.
In all, I think that Leah and I made a great team for this challenge. The food was simple, well-prepared and any restuarant in the city would have loved to have been able to serve, for a substantial fee, what we did. The dough was really great and made for amazing pizzas, but again, the time issue mandates that this is again a dish that we might not make as often as we would were it less time-consuming. Which is a shame, as we both love pizza.
For dessert, we had Spanish Oreos (in my opinion, far better than anything I have had in America, no shortening taste in the filling and the choclate was nice and dark), Leah's RIP dark chocolate pots de crème and W's chocolate and oatmeal cookies along with Thursday's episodes of "30 Rock" and "The Daily Show". Finally, it was just Leah, Janet and Avery sitting in the living room talking about the pressures and obligations of owning a small business. Well, their businesses, anyway.
