After a long and cold and wet spring the garden is starting to produce. We have tons of spinach and the basil is going gangbusters. That was the inspiration for tonight’s supper, white pizza with basil, and spinach with hot pepper vinegar.
It was so delicious we gobbled it before I could snap a picture, but here’s the recipes. For both of these you need to do some prep at lunch time, and then finish them at supper time. Semper Paratus[1].
Based on a Food and Wine magazine recipe
For 2
1 serrano chile ( jalapeño would be fine too)
1 cup vinegar
A salad spinner full of fresh spinach
2 cloves garlic
Onion (red or white or shallots or green, whatever you have)
Olive oil
Slice the hot pepper thinly and put in a heatproof bowl
Bring the vinegar to a boil and pour over the sliced pepper.
Cool and put in the refrigerator for at least a couple of hours or overnight.
Wash and dry the spinach.
Slice a good handful onion thinly
Slice the garlic cloves thinly too
Heat about a 1/4 cup of olive oil in a big pan. You don’t want it real hot.
Cook the onion until tender
Add the garlic cloves and cook until they’re just browning.
Add the spinach and give it a good stir to get it coated with oil
Cook until wilted
Put about 3 tablespoons of the hot pepper vinegar on it and taste
Add more hot pepper vinegar unless you’re a sissy.
Delicious when hot or when cooled.
That is a great way to use up a bunch of spinach. You’ll end up with extra hot pepper vinegar for another use. It’s good fun to just drink a spoonful and then run around the kitchen shrieking, “hot, Hot, HOT!!!”
To accompany the spinach I made a white pizza with fresh basil. White pizza seems really weird if you’re used to pizzas with tomato sauce. But they’re delicious and light and well worth a try.
Based on a recipe from Mark Bittman’s How to Cook Everything
One good sized crust, plenty for 2
1 1/2 cups flour
1/2 cup cornmeal (you can just use 2 cups of flour, but the cornmeal gives it a nice texture)
1/2 t salt
1 t yeast
2 tablespoons olive oil
water
Put all the dry ingredients in a food processor and give it a burst to mix
Add the olive oil to about a 1/2 cup of water and pour it into the food processor while it’s running
Add more water until the dough forms a ball
You can make the crust following the same process by hand or using a mixer of course
Turn the dough out on a floured surface and knead for a minute or so
Form it into a ball, put it in a big bowl and pour a little olive oil over it
Roll it around in the olive oil until it’s coated
Cover it with a towel and let it rise for a couple of hours
About a half hour before you’re ready to cook punch it down and reshape into a ball and cover again.
See the pizza recipe below…
For 2
1 head garlic
A nice handful of fresh basil leaves
salt
olive oil
A nice handful of freshly grated parmesan cheese
About 2 hours before you’re going to eat heat your oven to 350 degrees. If you have a pizza stone put it in now.
Slice the top off the head of garlic
Put it on a sheet of aluminium foil and pour a little olive oil on the cut top
Wrap it up tight in the foil and put in the oven for 45 minutes or so.
Take the garlic out and crank the oven as high as it will go.
Roll your pizza dough out as thin as you can, it will puff up when cooking. If you have a pizza stone you can roll the dough out on a floured cookie sheet and slide it onto the stone. Otherwise just rolling it out on the cookie sheet and putting that in the oven is fine.
Squeeze the roasted garlic out over the rolled out crust.
Pour a tablespoon or so of olive oil on it and smear it around with your hands, smearing the roasted garlic as best you can.
Sprinkle with kosher salt, 1/2 teaspoon or so.
Slide it into the oven.
After about 5 minutes take a look. It will probably be puffing up. Poke it with a sharp knife all over to deflate those bubbles.
Cook until it’s starting to brown a bit.
Pull it out of the oven
Give it another nice swirl of olive oil, just a teaspoon or two.
Sprinkle the parmesan cheese over it and smear it around again with your hands.
Put it back into the oven and cook until the cheese is starting to brown
Pull it out and scatter the basil leaves over the pizza evenly
Back into the oven for just a minute or two until the basil wilts.
Let it cool a bit and then slice and eat.
This pizza recipe is infinitely variable for whatever you have on hand. Instead of basil thin rings of red onion are delicious. Bitter greens like arugula are great. Thin slices of fresh tomatoes and/or peppers. Whatever you have, just sprinkle a bit of it on at the end and cook until it softens. Deliciousity!
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