Monday, March 05, 2007

Focaccia con formaggio e cipolla, pizza con capperi (e acciughe), e focaccia con patate dolci e brie

Here are the recipes for the three different pizzas that I prepared for my goodbye parties.

Basic dough
I found out that letting the dough rest longer makes nicer pizzas/focaccias.
Mix 2 tsp yeast in ~2 cup warm water. Add 1 tsp sugar, and mix until yeast is dissolved and bubbles. Start adding flour to the mixture, until the dough becomes workable (it should be a total of about 2 lbs, but I really go by eye!!). At this point, kneed the dough on a floured surface, and add salt during this operation. Add little by little, while kneeding. In the end you probably have added 3 tbsp salt. I usually taste the dough to see how salty it is. Keep working the dough and add flour if necessary, for about 10 minutes. Then cover and let it rest for at least two hours (the longer the better especially for focaccia). Then, deflate the dough, and flatten with a rolling pin. There should be enough for ~ 3 pizzas/focaccias. Spread olive oil on your baking pans and put the dough on it. Let the dough rest while you prepare all the ingredients (another 30 min at least), then add the ingredients, and cook at 400 F for ~10 minutes, depending on where in the oven the pizzas are and how much topping you have.


Focaccia con cipolle rosse e formaggio / Red onion and cheese focaccia
Sautee 1 red onion finely cut in a little bit of olive oil, add salt to it. Spread on the focaccia and add small pieces of cheese (ricotta and brie in this case). Do not overdo with the cheese. The same focaccia can be transformed into a pizza by adding tomato sauce to the onions. Cook at 400 F for ~10 min.

Focaccia con patate dolci, brie e rosmarino / Sweet potato, brie and rosemary focaccia
Finely slice two small sweet potatoes and place slices on the dough. Pour some olive oil on top, and sprinkle with salt (better if you have salt in large grains). Add pieces of brie cheese and in the end rosemary. Cook at 400 F for ~15 min.
Note: focaccia with potatoes is a very typical Italian thing. Why not try sweet potatoes, I wondered? And it was a good try :)

Pizza con capperi e acciughe / Capers and anchovie pizza
(there are no anchovies in this picture, sorry). Prepare a tomato sauce by sauteeing 2 cloves of garlic, finely cut, in olive oil, and adding diced canned tomatoes and salt. Cook for ~20 min and blend to eliminate pieces. Spread the sauce on the pizza. Add pieces of cheese (cheddar in this case), capers and anchovies. Cook at 400 F for ~10 min. It's delicious. It's called 'Napoletana', in Italy.

3 comments:

chumly said...

Man I am getting hungry looking and reading about your cooking. Thanks for the recipies.

chemcookit said...

Thanks! and thank you so much for your comment, it made me happy :)

emilia said...

Alla pizza non si puo' rinuncire...neanche all'estero. :)
EMI