Pizza Friday

Those who know us, know that our Friday evening meal is homemade pizza. We've been doing it for some crazy number of years, and even when we're traveling, we try to find a place that makes pizza in a style similar to what we have at home, namely thin, crispy/crunchy crust, and toppings that are fresh and/or flavor-packed. So basically the antithesis of the typical commerically available thick doughy pizza with red sauce, and lots of mozzarella and greasy pepperoni.

This one is pretty typical: Pesto, zucchini, mushroom, olive, and goat cheese (fresh, like chevre).

I always par-bake our crust before putting on the pesto, that way I can pop most of the bubbles (we do want some in order to get "crispy/crunchy" rather than "crackly" texture); doing so also gives a more even surface to work with when I flip the "blind" crust over and put on the ingredients.

Although we're not strictly vegetarian, we do subscribe to the basic concept that New York Times writer, Mark Bittman, has called "less-meatarianism." It's a term which hasn't really "caught on" (as he expected) when he spoke with Evan Kleiman on her public radio show (Good Food, KCRW, Santa Monica, CA, 12/26/2009). So, this one didn't have any meat, but often I'll throw on a little lean mesquite-smoked chicken, or proscuitto, or cooked chicken Italian sausage...whatever happens to be around and seems appropriate (considering the other ingredients involved).

I took the time to sauté the crimini mushrooms (baby portobellos) in olive oil. At the end, I crushed in a clove of garlic, and tossed in a handful of chopped parsley (that a colleague graciously brought to work from her garden), and S&P. They were actually the flavor highlight of this particular pie. The goat cheese always adds a zingy note, and when the tops of the crumbles start to brown, that's my indicator that it's time to pull it from the oven.

I usually serve it with a small mixed-greens salad, or sometimes (especially in the winter) we'll have a fruit and cheese course afterward, instead. As for wine, I usually have something a little on the "rough side," like a youngish temperanillo, beaujolais, or syrah.