Pizza night

Pizza! I just ate at some fancy pizza places and was amazed that they were charging about 15-20 dollars a pizza! I felt rather neutral on the subject, but figured that I give it a go and made some pies I've been craving for quite some time. We ate, a total of five pizzas that night; Smoked salmon, bbq chicken, arugala, fennel and dessert. Three simple things to remember when throwing a pizza party is...


Make your own dough

• I like to make a simple dough. The recipe is as follows. 
• 3/4 tablespoon dry yeast
• 3/4 cup warm water
• 1/2 tsp sugar
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 table spoon olive oil
• 2.5 cups flour
• 5 tbsp of warm water

• Add yeast, and 110 degrees water together and let sit for about 5 minutes
• Combine salt, sugar, and flour in a food processor and pulse
• Add olive oil, and yeast mixture together, then add into food processor
• Process until everthing looks like parm cheese/dip and dot ice cream
• Stop food processor and add1-2 tblspoons of warm water. Pulse. Stop. Repeat until dough is soft sticky but still comes off fingers.
• Put in big metal bowl and let proof for about 1 hour or until double in size. 
• Punch down and cut with dough cutter in to baseball sized dough pieces. Place in tray with 1 inch spacing in between.
• Homemade dough is a key to pizza success vs pizza failure!

Make your own sauces

•  To make pizza sauce just cut up 3-4 cloves of garlic, add to about 3 tbsp of olive oil, add 1 can of tomato sauce, simmer 10 minutes, add dry basil.
• Making sauce will give that homemade taste and will absolutely impact the taste of your pie

Use a pizza stone

• Stones are a must and should be pre-heated in your oven. Put stone in the oven while the oven is preheating to 500 degrees
• Once stone is preheated, slide your pizza onto the stone in the oven. This is the hard part, but if you heavily flour your pizza slider thing, ( I use a bamboo cutting board heavily dusted with flour) it shouldn't be that bad). If you don't feel comfortable doing this. You could make your pizza on the stone and then place in the oven, but the results won't be the same. 

Remember Dough, sauce and pizza stone! Athough there are other things that make a great homemade pizza, without these you might as well buy pizza from the frozen section or your local takeout. So the next time you make pizza try these techniques out, and be sure to tell a friend about it, you won't be disappointed.

BBQ chicken pizza, with shaved fennel.

Smoked Salmon, cream cheese, ewa sweet onions, capers, Local Italian parsley, olive oil

                                               &

Arugula chicken sausage pizza

More Gnocchi Video - In Italian

I thought this video would add to the previous posts about gnocchi. The best part it is in Italian.
Buon Appetito

Gnocchi-My own recipie

1           Pound potatoes russets
1/2        Cup flour
1           Egg Yolk (local medium egg)
1           Pinch of Salt

Makes enough for 2-3 people

Directions

1. Bring water to simmer and place whole potatoes inside
2. set timer for about 20-30 minutes
3. Pull Potatoes out, peel off skin while holding it with towel, and Rice potatoes while hot. (if no ricer use a cheese grater or push through strainer using back of spoon).
4. Let potatoes steam and slightly cool, put egg yolk inside and sprinkle on flour like snow on a mountain.
5. Mix till it comes together and wallah! you got gnocchi dough.
6. * hint if dough is too sticky that means you can add a small amount of flour more, a table spoon or so. But don't add a lot of flour! It makes your gnocchi gummy. No bueno! 

Watch videos on gnocchi for the rest or read other parts of the blog labeled gnocchi.

Buon appetito!

Gnocchi With tomato sauce, finished with cheese.

Sage and brown butter Gnocchi

Both on a Plate with Salad :)

Risotto

I am kind of new to making risotto because it was only introduced to me two years ago.

What is Risotto? Imagine creamy al dente pasta in rice form. Risotto is a versatile starter or main dish that is exciting and surprisingly simple. There is no real recipe for risotto, just technique. Here is a video by Gordon Ramsey to give you a better idea. I prefer Carnaroli Rice, but Arborio works just as well. Happy eating. :)

Marinara

Disclaimer (Italian grandmothers and locals, Please don't judge me).

Everyone likes to do Marinara a little differently, but basically it consists of tomatoes, olive oil, garlic and fresh herbs. Here is the basic recipe which you can adjust depending on availability and preference.

Basic Marinara

1. 4 generous tablespoons of olive oil
2. 3 cloves of fresh crushed/chopped garlic
3. Pinch of red chili flake, little less than 1/4 tsp (depending on how hot you like yours).
4. two cans of tomato Sauce (you can use one can but put a little less of everything else)
5.  Generous 1/2 tsp of dried herbs (basil is my favorite).
6. Salt and Pepper to taste.

Directions

• Add olive oil to warm pan, not hot because your garlic will burn. Add garlic and chili flake.Wait till garlic sizzles and smells. Do not brown your garlic, sweat it in the oil or let the garlic infuse. 
• Add two cans of tomato sauce and bring sauce to simmer. Simmer for 10-15 minutes. 
• After ten minutes add dried herbs. 
• Presto :)

Variation- Local Marinara (My favorite method)

1. 4 generous tablespoons of olive oil
2. 3 cloves of fresh crushed/chopped garlic
3. Pinch of red chili flake, little less than 1/4 tsp (depending on how hot you like yours).
4. 1 to two cans of tomato Sauce Depending on how big your spring tomatoes are
5. 6-8 Hamakua Spring Tomatoes (or local cherry tomatoes) cut in half or qaurtered, stemy part removed preferably. 
5.  Generous 1/2 tsp of dried herbs (basil is my favorite). Or 1 tbl of fresh cut basil.
6. Salt and Pepper to taste.

 Directions

• Add olive oil to warm pan, not hot because your garlic will burn. Add garlic and chili flake.Wait till garlic sizzles and smells. Do not brown your garlic, sweat it in the oil or let the garlic infuse. Add Spring/cherry tomatoes and cook until slightly broken down (they will break down more when simmered).
• Add two cans of tomato sauce and bring sauce to simmer. Simmer for 10-15 minutes Or until cherry/spring tomatoes are broken down. 
• After ten minutes add dried/fresh herbs, stir one minute.
• Presto :)

 Rustic Chunky Marinara (preferably for Lasagna, Meatballs, pizza).

1. 4 generous tablespoons of olive oil
2. 3 cloves of fresh crushed/chopped garlic
3. Pinch of red chili flake, little less than 1/4 tsp (depending on how hot you like yours).
4. One can of tomato Sauce 
5. One can of crushed tomatoes

5.  Generous 1/2 tsp of dried herbs (basil is my favorite). Or 1 tbl of fresh cut basil.

6. Salt and Pepper to taste.

Directions

• Add olive oil to warm pan, not hot because your garlic will burn. Add garlic and chili flake.Wait till garlic sizzles and smells. Do not brown your garlic, sweat it in the oil or let the garlic infuse. Add Spring/cherry tomatoes and cook until slightly broken down (they will break down more when simmered).
  
• Add both cans of tomatoes and bring sauce to simmer. Simmer for 10-15 minutes. 
• After ten minutes add dried/fresh herbs. Stir for one minute.
  
• Presto :)

Revisited-Gnocchi :)

Check out this cool video!

Ricotta-Make it yourself

I can't believe that you can make ricotta with lemon juice cream and milk. Check out the vid.

Recipe from Gourmet Magazine

2 quarts milk (aka half a gallon)
1 cup cream
3 tablespoons lemon juice
1/2 tsp salt

Batali Recipie Pasta Dough-Good one

For a light egg pasta this recipe has been tried and has worked. There was some left over flour, but all in all I will definitely use it again. Check it out, it's from the man himself.

Mario Batali's Fresh Pasta Recipe at Foodnetwork.com

Ingredients

• 3 1/2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
• 4 extra-large eggs

Pasta dough

Orecchiette dough


How to make Orecchiette Dough(Sorry, can't embed the video)

Egg Pasta Dough

( I know its Jamie Oliver and that he's not Italian nor does his dishes accurately reflect real Italian food, but his explanation about making basic pasta dough is fast and good).

How Pasta is Made

Tortellini

This is how to make tortellini by hand.

Fresh Pasta Method

Don't mess with Italian women, they know what they're doing.

Italian Food-Different types of pasta

Real Italian food is hard to comprehend if Italy has not been one of your recent destination, or the area where you live doesn't serve true Italian food. Here is a website that displays all types of pasta dishes. It just goes to show that Italian food is more than tomatoes and meatballs.

Italian recipes at italianeating.eu