Puff Pastry Pizza with Prosciutto

This recipe comes from a new friend named Katie and has travelled all the way across the Atlantic Ocean to meet you. Katie’s blog, Thyme for Cooking has been entertaining foodies since 2006, and is not only full of stories about Katie’s life and cooking overseas, but also boasts a sister site with an extensive section of kitchen tips I go to regularly, sometimes out of necessity, sometimes just to learn a new kitchen factoid and tuck away for future use.

If you ever need guidance on soup bases, how to pit an avocado, freeze an egg, or store a pumpkin, you couldn’t do better than starting with Katie!

And then there’s her puff pastry pizza with prosciutto.

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Ultimate Sausage Pizza

Me to MG: “You and I… we were pigs last night!”

MG (confused) to Me: “We were? We only ate one pizza.”

If I had made a second one of these, there still would not have been any left over. If we had had to share this single pizza with a third party, MG and I would have gone to bed with little pouty frowns on our faces. MG and I are pure-blooded pizza pigs.

I will admit right here and now that aside from being a pure-blooded pizza pig, I am also a closet Boboli pre-made pizza crust purchaser. For the amount of homemade pizza we consume, it’s just the way it has to be. I have made pizza dough from scratch to moderately successful results, and even experimented with the pre-made dough from Trader Joes. I don’t bother anymore. The crust is just the delivery device for everything on top of it as far as I’m concerned. Protest me if you want. Or, better yet, send me some kick-ass pizza crust recipe that you think is divine enough to change my mind by clicking right here. I always welcome suggestions.

The fun of pizza-making is striking that perfect balance between vegetables, sauce, cheeses and meat, and I’m happy to say that I’ve run this recipe through the oven two weeks in a row and it’s pretty damn solid.  It will certainly put any local delivery spot you may have pinned up on your refrigerator to shame.  Please click on the pics below for big-screen full-res images.

Any tips or hints on my never-ending quest to perfect the pizza pie? E-mail me or leave a comment below. Have a great weekend!

Ultimate Sausage Pizza

• pizza dough or store-bought crust of your choice
• 1 can (15 oz) canned tomatoes, diced
• 1/2 white onion chopped
• 1 jalapeno pepper, chopped
• 1/2 red bell pepper, chopped
• 1/2 yellow bell pepper, chopped
• 1/2 green bell pepper. chopped
• 1 small Roma tomato
• 1 – 1 1/2 mild Italian sausages, uncooked
• 1 cup shredded sharp cheddar cheese
• 1 cup shredded Havarti cheese with dill
• 1/2 cup shredded Reggianito cheese
• 1-2 large basil leaves
• oregano
• pepper
• olive oil
• cornmeal (optional)

Spread cornmeal over your pizza pan to keep your crust from sticking.  This also helps to keep the crust from getting overly-crunchy.  Lay out your dough or pre-bought crust and coat lightly with the olive oil.  Add the diced tomatoes and spread evenly, then the vegetables and 75% of your cheeses.  Break apart your uncooked sausage into pieces and spread across the top.  Slice your Roma tomato and then halve each slice and place. Tear basil leaves into small pieces and spread across the top.  Add oregano and pepper to taste, and spread the remaining cheese over the top. Cook for 13-17 minutes.

30 Rock Pizza

It’s a pizza. There’s not much more to say, other than I don’t think any other meal photographs better than pizza. We cooked this sucker up and watched Thursday night’s episode of 30 Rock together. Jenna and Tracy are problem solvers. Hope you had a great weekeend!

Wine and Honey Pizza Dough

When I see “dry active yeast” in a recipe, a number of things occur:

I make a sour face
I look for another recipe
I think about the free clinic

Unfortunately, I don’t think there’s another way to make pizza crust from scratch. I’ve already mastered the arts of chopping, grating and spreading with a spoon in a circular motion. But to be able to make an entire pizza from the ground up, especially considering how much pizza I’ve consumed in my life, seemed like a talent I should have acquired years ago.

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