Excellent Easy Pizza Sauce

In the past several months, I've been making a fair amount of pizza, and trying out a lot of recipes in doing so.   The various cooking magazines to which we subscribe have featured some pretty good pizza recipes in the past year.  For example, the March 2012 issue of Bon Appetit featured a pretty good recipe.  The one I've been using the most, though, and the one I consider the best, is the pizza dough recipe from the April/May issue of Fine Cooking.  That recipe, for Make-Ahead Pizza Dough, was featured in the article "Pizza Your Way, Any Day," and is also at this link.  This recipe makes for fool-proof dough that lasts for days in the refrigerator and makes for as many as eight pizzas, depending on how thick a crust you want.  We prefer the cracker-thin crust option, though the photos with this post show one with a slightly thicker crust.

I go pretty simple for toppings, for the most part.  Sliced grape tomatoes, a crimini and shitake mushrooms and a mix of cheeses (mozzarella, gruyere and Parmesan, most of the time), plus some chopped, fresh basil and oregano.  Occasionally we'll toss on some arugula as well.

Good pizza requires good sauce, though, so I've been experimenting with sauce recipes and developed one we really like.


Easy Pizza Sauce

yield = 2 cups pizza sauce

1 can (28 oz) whole, peeled plum tomatoes (I use Hunts)
2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
1 teaspoon minced garlic
1/2 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes
1/2 teaspoon freshly-ground black pepper
1/2 teaspoon sea salt

Pulse the tomatoes in a blender or food processor until smooth.

Add the olive oil to a 3-quart saucepan and heat until shimmering.  Add the garlic and pepper flakes and cook 1 minute. Add the tomato, pepper and salt, stir thoroughly and bring to a boil.  Reduce to a simmer and cook, stirring occasionally, for about 40 minutes, by which time the sauce should have thickened and reduced to about 2 cups.

This sauce refrigerates in an airtight container for about 5 days.

Paradise Italian Grill

During a recent review of another restaurant, I mentioned the Des Moines' Ultimate Pizza survey Cityview was doing.  Last week we got around to checking out another of the contestants in that survey, and we found it quite to our liking.  That restaurant is Paradise Italian Grill.

In the interest of fairness, and to avoid any perception of conflict of interest, I should note that my immediate supervisor at work is the wife of one of the co-proprietors of Paradise Italian Grill.  That didn't influence our decision to eat there - we were visiting with my son and looking for a place to eat, and Paradise happened to be nearby - nor has it influenced the review, but facts are facts.

Paradise Italian Grill used to be known as Paradise Pizza, and had been open in West Des Moines for several years before switching owners this summer.  It was closed for renovation for awhile and had its grand reopening this past weekend.  We ate there a couple days before that event.  I wasn't familiar with Paradise Pizza, but when we visited Paradise Italian Grill, we were told that the renovation greatly changed - and improved - the appearance.  Apparently Paradise Pizza was painted in colors that remind one of the flash and emptiness of the 1980s ala Miami Vice, plus for some strange reason its decor included a huge mural of cats.  The turquoise blue and neon pink and cat mural are (thankfully) gone now.  The new decor is more neutral, with some classic bistro-style touches.   The overall feel was comfy.

The transformation from Paradise Pizza to Paradise Italian Grill has expanded the menu to include pasta dishes, sandwiches, salads and a range of appetizers, but since we came because of the Ultimate Pizza challenge, we decided to sample three of the restaurant's signature pizzas.  We'll probably try some of the other menu items some other time. 

The pizzas we got were the Spicy Thai Chicken pizza, a simple, rustic pizza with tomato chunks, fresh basil and Buffalo mozzarella and one of Paradise's crock pizzas.  The crock pizza is an individual pizza, with sauce and toppings layered atop ample amounts of mozzarella, the entire thing covered with dough and cooked in a crock.  The server brings it to the table and turns it over to serve, removing the crock.  The result is something of a bread bowl pizza.  Our own pictures, unfortunately, didn't do it justice so I chose to run the picture below, which was taken from the Paradise Italian Grill website.  My son got the crock pizza with mushrooms and black olives, and he said it was delicious.  It certainly looked wonderful. 

The simple, rustic pizza was also quite nice.  The fresh basil and mozzarella tasted great, and the crust was really nice...crunchy yet still having a bit of chew to it.  The Thai pizza was, quite frankly, wonderful, and it truly was spicy (though not overly so).  The peanuts on top, accenting the Thai peanut sauce used in place of a red pizza sauce, was a great touch.

Overall, we were quite pleased with the pizzas we got at Paradise.  While not our favorite pizza (that would be Fong's), it was good enough to rate more or less a tie with our second-favorite local pizza, Bordenaro's.  We'll probably eat at Bordanero's more often than either Paradise or Fong's, but that's mostly a matter of location and convenience.   Bordy's has the others beat in that regard simply because it's on the route we take home after work.   We don't eat out in West Des Moines that often, and when we do, it's usually somewhare further west, but when we're in the Valley Junction area and in a mood for pizza, Paradise will be our go-to choice.  Even if we don't have anything else going on in the Valley Junction area, I'm pretty sure we'll go out of our way to eat at Paradise Itailan Grill again sooner rather than later.   The pizza was really good, and we're looking forward to trying out some of their other offerings.

Paradise Itallian Grill is located at 2025 Grand Avenue in West Des Moines, Iowa.  They're open weekdays 11 an to 10 pm and weekends 10 am until ... well, I'm not sure, as the hours listed at the website are "weekends 10 am to close."  2 AM, perhaps, since they have a bar?

In any case,  Paradise Italian Grill is on Facebook.

Fong's Pizza

Des Moines' weekly alternative paper, Cityview, is doing a survey in an attempt to identify Des Moines' Ultimate Pizza.  They've selected 42 local pizza places, including some old standards and some relative newcomers, and representing a variety of different pizza styles, from among which readers can vote.  The first round of voting will narrow the field down to 16, while subsequent votes will narrow things further yet, until the Ultimate Pizza is crowned. 

In looking over the list, we noticed that there are a fair number of pizza places in Des Moines that we've never tried, and some others we've not eaten at in a long time.  We took that as a challenge, so over the next few weeks we plan to try out a bunch of pizza places and write about them.   I don't think we're going to get close to 42, but our plan is to try to hit a few places we've never eaten at during the first rounds of voting, and to try to hit all of the contenders still in the contest for the last few rounds of voting.  With this goal in mind, we started with one fairly new to the Des Moines pizza scene:  Fong's Pizza.

Fongs, which opened in 2009, is located in downtown Des Moines.  It's a bar as well as a pizzeria, and in the short time it's been around it has gotten a lot of notice, both in Des Moines and on the national level.  Fong's has been mentioned on blogs from Chicago and elsewhere, and was recently featured on a segment of one of the shows on the Cooking Channel, in addition to being mentioned in Food Network Magazine.  Locally, it has gotten great reviews in the local papers and rating websites, and it has won a bunch of Cityview reader's awards, including Best Pizza and Best New Bar.

Fong's decor is certainly unique.  The restaurant website summarizes it as follows:  "Our decor is a mix of Chinese, Oriental, Polynesian & Italian with a 40's & 50's feel. Think of a 'frozen in time' dive bar with delicious food, great service & tasty tiki drinks that pack a real punch."  We chose to eat in the back dining area, but there are also tables by the bar. 

Fong's serves up pizzas with all of the traditional ingredients, plus several not-so-traditional ones.   Various combos are available, some pretty traditional, some not.  Some of their combo pizzas , such as Thai Chicken, Moo Shu Pork and Crab Rangoon, are strongly Asian in flavor, but there are also more traditional choices such as the Meatarian (all-meat), Veggie Supreme and Taco Pizza.  Their appetizer selection is also unusual for a pizza place, in that it includes several Asian selections, including vegetable or pork and chicken egg rolls.   Fong's also serves a diverse batch of salads, sandwiches and desserts.

Fong's egg rolls come 4 to an order (5 if you order the
vegetarian ones), but I was so hungry and they looked
so good I started in on one before Juli had a chance
to snap a picture.

For appetizers, we purchased an order of the pork and chicken egg rolls.  They arrived piping hot and were exceptional, with wonderfully flaky wrapping and a lot more - and more flavorful - meat than one usually finds in egg rolls.   Ours were served up with sweet chili sauce and hot mustard, and they really hit the spot. 

We also purchased a large thin crust pizza with a fairly traditional mix of ingredients - pepperoni, Canadian bacon, fresh mushrooms and tomatoes - along with the house red sauce and the house blend of cheeses.  It was literally steaming hot - I doubt it had been out of the oven for more than three minutes by the time it came to the table - and it was just plain delicious, with choice ingredients and a subtly smoky flavor.  Fong's is generous with its toppings.  The thin-sliced meats were layered on the pizza, and there were ample amounts of mushrooms, tomatoes and a delicious blend of cheese.  The crust was thin and crispy, and there was just the right amount of the wonderfully seasoned sauce.

This was the first time we've eaten at Fong's, but it won't be the last.  We're looking forward to returning, to try some of the less traditional pizza choices and to sample more of the great appetizers.  I suspect Fong's will become our go-to pizza place, because after a single visit it has pushed Bordenaro's out of the top spot on our "favorite Des Moines pizza places" listing.

Fong's Pizza is located at 223 4th Street, Des Moines, Iowa 50309.  Their hours are 11 am to midnight for the kitchen, and 11 am to 2 am for the bar.  Their phone number is (515) 323-3333.  Fong's Pizza can also be found on Facebook.

Dining in Des Moines: Gusto Pizza Co.

NOTE:  I apologize for having to post a lot later in the day than usual.  Our cable service, including our cable Internet, is out right now.  Things will likely be disrupted for a few days until the never-dependable Mediacom people get things working again, but we'll be doing our best to keep our schedule of posting at least once daily. 

At my workplace, we often have representatives from pharmaceutical companies drop by to provide us with informational presentations about their products.   These often also include a free lunch, plus the representatives generally leave medication samples for our medical staff to dispense.  These are passed along to some of our clients who aren't able to afford their medication.  All in all, it's a pretty good deal.  We hear about upcoming medications, new research, changes in prescribing guidelines and so forth, mentally ill individuals get access to medications they might otherwise not be able to afford, and my colleagues and I get a free lunch out of the deal.

A couple months ago, one of the representatives brought several pizzas from a new place:  Gusto Pizza Co.  In addition to more typical offerings, the representative provided us with some of Gusto's specialty pizzas, including the Thai Kwon Dough, a Thai-flavored pizza with spicy peanut sauce, chicken, carrots, peanuts, bean sprouts and cilantro.   I liked the slices I tried,  but it wasn't until last night that Juli and I finally got around to visiting Gusto.

Gusto has a fairly good number of offerings for a place that advertises themselves mostly as a pizza place. In addition to appetizers, salads and, of course, pizzas, they offer sandwiches, desserts, wine,  a wide range of beers and both fountain and artisan sodas.  The pizzas,  though, are the centerpiece  of their menu. 

Gusto features a wide range of pizzas, plus a "Create Your Own Gusto" option, in 10 or 14-inch thin-crust pies.   They also offer gluten-free crust in the 10-inch pizza, and vegan mozzarella for a small additional extra charge.  Some of their pizza specials include the Vincent Van Goat, with maple-glazed ham, Genoa salami, goat cheese, rosemary olive oil, capers and fried peppers, the Pizza de Burgo with garlic butter, sauteed shrimp, tomatoes, fresh basil, mozzarella and romano, the Duke with smoked BBQ brisket, colby jack, red onion and cilantro and the West of Philly, with alfredo cream sauce, skirt steak, roasted red peppers, onions and relish, plus the Thai Kwon Dough, which I described above.  The make-your-own ingredient options are quite diverse, including artichokes, meatballs, blue cheese, figs, pears and a diverse assortment of cheeses. 

We ended up ordering some garlic butter bread sticks with red sauce, a pizza and dessert.  After considering the various pizza options, we went with a 14-inch Spartacus - red sauce, Graziano Bros. Italian sausage, pepperoni, mozzarella , cremini mushrooms and banana peppers - without the peppers but with Romano cheese and fresh basil.   Although that was plenty of food, I couldn't resist trying out their desserts.  In addition to gelato and cannoli, they offer a revolving selection of chocolate desserts.   I selected with the German Chocolate Brownie, though the other "chocoholic" offering - a white chocolate brownie with Heath bar topping - was also tempting. 

There are several good things to be said about Gusto.  First off, our pizza was excellent.   We would have liked the crust to be a bit more flavorful and distinctive, but it was serviceable.  The toppings, in contrast, were truly excellent:  fresh mushrooms and cheeses, generous portions of quality meat, and a flavorful sauce.  The pizza was perfectly cooked and quite satisfying.    The dessert was also excellent, not to mention a great bargain:  $4 for a brownie big enough to provide ample portions for two people. 

We also appreciated that Gusto uses and offers a lot of quality locally-produced items.  In addition to Graziano Bros. sausage and La Quercia prosciutto, they serve an assortment of Millstream beers and sodas, plus an assortment of Iowa-brewed beers, including some from Peace Tree Brewery.

Gusto is mostly a serve-yourself place along the lines of a fast-food restaurant - you place your order at the counter, fill your own drinks and seat  yourself, though the wait staff does bring your order to your table when it's finished cooking.  As such, we didn't interact much with the employees, but the interactions we did have were pleasant.  Juli forgot to bring her umbrella with her when we left, and one of the staff rushed out to return it when she found it.  We really appreciated that.

There were, however, a few things we didn't really like about Gusto.  The decor can charitably be called "modern" but I found it stark and uninviting.  One wall included three big-screen TVs, but none had the captions on, which resulted in them being mostly a distraction or an annoyance.  Plus, the open seating arrangement and more-than-ample space resulted in the restaurant being pretty loud.   The volume of the piped-in classic rock music was a bit too loud, and even over the music, pretty much any sound carried through the entire restaurant.  This last quality was brought home all too vividly when a couple of rather self-absorbed young women seated themselves near our table and launched into a discussion of their romantic adventures that we were able to hear just as clearly as if they'd been sitting with and talking to us.   The restaurant wasn't too busy when we were there, as we arrived a bit early for the dinner rush, but I would imagine the noise level would be quite unpleasant when the place is more packed.

We recommend the food at Gusto.  Everything we've tried was quite good, and their interesting selection of high-quality toppings makes Gusto stand out among the local pizza offerings.   We'd rank it as our second favorite local  pizza, right after Bordenaro's (see also http://www.bordenarospizza.com/ ), and while we like Bordy's excellently-crisp crust better than the Gusto crust, Gusto's premium toppings are of much higher quality.  We were less pleased with the restaurant itself, with neither the decor nor the noise level being to our liking.   The restaurant wasn't distracting enough to keep us from enjoying our visit to Gusto, but in our opinion  the  food at Gusto outclasses the ambiance of the place by a wide margin.    

Gusto Pizza Co. is located at 1905 Ingersoll Avenue in Des Moines.  Hours are Monday through Thursday 11 am to 10 pm, Friday and Saturday 11 to 11 and Sunday 4-9 pm.

A Day Off from Cooking

I love cooking, but there are days when I just don't feel like it.  Yesterday was one of those days.   It was my birthday, and even though it would have been a beautiful day for grilling, I just felt like taking it easy.  So, with that in mind, Juli and I went out for lunch and picked up some pizzas to warm up for dinner.   The lunch was great.  The pizza, sadly, was not so great.

For lunch we went to Kwong Tung Restaurant on Ingersoll Avenue in Des Moines.  As Chinese restaurants go, Kwong Tung is generally pretty average.  Their lunch specials offer a generous amount of food for around $5.00 (give or take a bit depending on what you order), but there's nothing particularly memorable or unique about their daily offerings.   Sundays are quite another matter, though.  They offer dim sum every Sunday from 10 am to 2 pm, and their dim sum is worth writing about. 

For those unfamiliar with the tradition, dim sum is a Chinese meal consisting of small portions of various sorts of food, typically served up in steamer baskets or on small plates.  In China, it is usually associated with drinking tea, but I don't recall anyone - including the Asian customers - drinking tea at Kwong Tung yesterday, unless you count iced tea. 

Dim sum restaurant fare typically offers several dozen dishes from which the customers choose.  Some are familiar Chinese restaurant fare, often served as appetizers (pot stickers, crab rangoon, fried wontons, egg rolls, spring rolls and barbecued pork, or char sui).  Other dishes typically include numerous types of dumplings, or gao, usually steamed but sometimes fried, and baked or steamed buns and rolls filled with meat, vegetables or bean paste.  As far as the dumplings, sui mai is one of the standards served at Kwong Tung.  These tasty steamed dumplings are filled with chicken, pork or shrimp.  Cha siu baau - fluffy buns filled with barbecued pork - are among the standard sorts of buns.  Fried squid, spare ribs, steamed meatballs, taro dumplings and chicken feet (fung zao) are some of the other standard dim sum dishes served at Kwong Tung. 

Dim sum also typically includes a few sweet dishes, and Kwong Tung follows this tradition by offering standard dim sum dishes such as egg tarts (pastries filled with egg custard) and sesame balls (jin deui). The latter are among Juli's favorites.  These balls of dough filled with red bean paste are rolled in sesame seeds then deep fried to make a chewy, tasty snack.  KwongTung's dim sum also includes a variety of noodle dishes, characterized by ample portions of soft- or crisp-fried noodles, vegetables (most prominently baby bok choy and mushrooms) and chunks of chicken, beef, pork or shrimp. 

At Kwong Tung, one orders Dim Sum by selecting what one wants, and how many servings, on a half-sheet of paper that lists the various dishes and their prices.   We ordered two helpings of crab rangoon, fried crescent dumplings and pan-fried potstickers, plus sar har (egg noodles) with beef, pan-fried noodles with shrimp and one order each of sesame balls and pork egg rolls.  Every single one of these dishes was excellent.  The fried crescent dumplings - little crescents of rice flour dough filled with spiced meat - and the potstickers are particular favorites of ours. 

As usual, we ordered a bit more than we could finish, because the leftovers are one of  the great things about going to Kwong Tung's dim sum, but we could have been more than stuffed even if we'd entirely skipped the noodle dishes.  All of that came to about $30, including tip, which isn't bad considering how much food we got.  Considering how good it was, that price is a bargain!

We had to do a bit of shopping, so I decided to drop by the Gateway Market on Woodland Avenue in Des Moines.  Gateway Market features organic produce, fine cheeses, excellent meat, imported pastas and a wide range of hard-to find spices, condiments, snacks and imported food items, plus an excellent cafe.  Although it is a bit pricey, Gateway Market has become one of our go-to places to shop for various odds and ends.   During previous visits, their store-made, ready-to-cook pizzas had caught my eye.  They looked delicious, and I decided my birthday was a good time to try them out.   We bought two 10-inch pizzas - one pepperoni and one margherita (soft mozzarella, tomato slices and fresh basil) at $7.49 each.

I have generally been quite pleased by my Gateway Market purchases, so I was surprised to find the pizzas pretty disappointing.  I didn't think they were terrible (though Juli really disliked the margherita one), but they weren't particularly good, either.   They struck me as the sort of pizza you get by being more concerned about healthy and organic ingredients than with flavor.  Honestly, I'd have been just as happy warming up a couple frozen Tombstone pizzas, so given the price, I didn't find Gateway Market's pizzas a very good deal at all, and I doubt we'll be buying any more of them any time soon. 

Hawaiian Pizza Braids

I've posted a couple times now about Pizza Braids.  These have become one of our mainstays, as they're fast and easy to make, and really good.   Last time I made them, though, I decided to shake things up a bit in terms of ingredients.  Instead of pepperoni and Italian sausage, I decided to go with he classic "Hawaiian" pizza combination of Canadian bacon and pineapple.

Technique-wise, this isn't any different than the pizza braid recipe we published earlier.   I just changed up a few ingredients to make them mesh together better.   However, I did find that these braids cooked up a lot faster than the ones I've previously made.   I'm not sure why that would be the case, but if I'd cooked it for the full time originally directed, these would have been badly burnt.   Which serves to remind that one should not take the cooking times published with a recipe as gospel, since oven airflow, room temperature and other variables can impact cooking time.   Best to use published times as a general guideine, but also keep watch.

These braids turned out just as good as the earlier ones and make for a nice change of pace.   They were a bit more moist than the sausage/pepperoni ones, probably reflecting the juices in the pineapple.  Next time I might try to squeeze out some of that juice, but the higher moisture level wasn't enough to render the crust soggy.  In any case, this experiment was a success, and I'll certainly be continuing to experiment with using different mixes of ingredients to make the pizza braids.


Hawaiian Pizza Braids

1/2         pound sweet Italian sausage
1/4         pound pepperoni
2            tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil + 1/4 cup
1            onion, grated
6            ounces button mushrooms, sliced thin
2            teaspoons minced garlic
1/2         teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes
1/2         teaspoon freshly-ground black pepper
1/4         teaspoon table salt
2            tablespoons cornmeal
2            cans refrigerated thin pizza crust
1 1/3      cup canned pizza sauce (we used Dei Fratelli)
8            ounces mozzarella cheese, freshly shredded
5            ounces Canadian bacon, chopped into small pieces
1            can (8 ounces) pineapple tidbits, drained
2            tablespoons + two teaspoons freshly grated pecorino romano cheese
1            teaspoon dried basil
1            teaspoon dried oreganoyield = 4 -5 servings

Heat two tablespoons olive oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat until shimmering.  Add onion and mushroom and cook, stirring often, until the onion is soft and the mushrooms have released all their liquid. 

Clear a space in the middle of the pan and add garlic and crushed red pepper flakes.  Cook until fragrant (about 30 seconds), then add pepper and salt, stir to mix, and remove from heat.

Heat oven to 400 degrees.  Prepare two rimmed baking sheets with parchment paper or silicone baking mats.  Sprinkle 1 tablespoon corn meal on each baking sheet.

Spread one pizza crust on a baking sheet in a rectangle.  Spoon 2/3 cup of pizza sauce along the middle third of the dough.  Using a pizza cutter or knife, cut even slits on both sides of the sauce.   Sprinkle 2 ounces shredded mozzarella cheese atop the sauce, then top with 1/2 of the mushroom mixture, 1/2 of the Canadian bacon and 1/2 can of the pineapple tidbits.  Spread another 2 ounces of mozzarella atop these toppings, then sprinkle with one tablespoon grated romano cheese.   

Starting at one end, fold alternating strips from the sides of the dough over the filling at an angle.

Brush the top of the pizza braid with olive oil, then sprinkle with 1/2 teaspoon dried basil, 1/2 teaspoon dried oregano and one teaspoon romano cheese.   Bake until nicely browned, (20-30 minutes) then remove from the oven to a cutting board and allow to cool for 5 minutes.  Slice and serve.  Repeat with the other prepared baking sheet and the remainder of the ingredients.

Another Look at Pizza Braids

I recently reported on my first time making Pizza Braids, after being inspired by a post on one of our favorite blogs, For the Love of Cooking.  That first post was fairly popular, but at the time I posted it, I noted that the cooked pizza braids had looked and smelled so delicious that I'd neglected to snap any pictures of them sliced up and ready to serve.   As you can see from the photo above, I recently took the opportunity to correct that oversight, and to once again make a meal that has quickly become one of my fast, delicious "go to dinner" choices.

As a quick reminder, pizza braids are made by flattening out some supermarket pizza dough - the kind that comes in a tube - making slices along both sides, covering the middle area with pizza sauce, cheese and toppings, then braiding the sliced pieces of dough over the middle area to enclose the fillings.   After about 1/2 hour in the oven, they're cooked, hot, delicious and ready to serve.

The recipe is reprinted below.  If you haven't tried these yet, I encourage you to do so.   You won't be sorry.

Pepperoni, Sausage and Mushroom Pizza Braids
yield = 4 -5 servings
1/2         pound sweet Italian sausage
1/4         pound pepperoni
2            tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil + 1/4 cup
1            onion, grated
6            ounces button mushrooms, sliced thin
2            teaspoons minced garlic
1/2         teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes
1/2         teaspoon freshly-ground black pepper
1/4         teaspoon table salt
2            tablespoons cornmeal
2            cans refrigerated thin pizza crust
1 1/3      cup canned pizza sauce (we used Dei Fratelli)
8            ounces mozzarella cheese, freshly shredded
2            tablespoons + two teaspoons freshly grated pecorino romano cheese
1            teaspoon dried basil
1            teaspoon dried oregano


Cook sausage in a small skillet, breaking it into small pieces with the side of a wooden spoon.   Transfer to a plate lined with paper towels to drain.

While the sausage cooks, line a microwave-safe plate with two layers of paper towels.   Spread pepperoni slices over the paper towels, cover with another paper towel and microwave for 60 seconds.  Repeat until all the pepperoni slices are cooked.

Heat two tablespoons olive oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat until shimmering.  Add onion and mushroom and cook, stirring often, until the onion is soft and the mushrooms have released all their liquid. 

Clear a space in the middle of the pan and add garlic and crushed red pepper flakes.  Cook until fragrant (about 30 seconds), then add pepper and salt, stir to mix, and remove from heat.

Heat oven to 400 degrees.  Prepare two rimmed baking sheets with parchment paper or silicone baking mats.  Sprinkle 1 tablespoon corn meal on each baking sheet. 

Spread one pizza crust on a baking sheet in a rectangle.  Spoon 2/3 cup of pizza sauce along the middle third of the dough.  Using a pizza cutter or knife, cut even slits on both sides of the sauce.   Sprinkle 2 ounces shredded mozzarella cheese atop the sauce, then top with 1/2 of the onion and mushroom mixture and 1/2 of the pepperoni slices, 1/2 of the cooked sausage.  Spread another 2 ounces of mozzarella atop these toppings, then sprinkle with one tablespoon grated romano cheese. 

Starting at one end, fold alternating strips from the sides of the dough over the filling at an angle, continuing until all the side strips have been folded over the fillings.

Brush the top of the pizza braid with olive oil, then sprinkle with 1/2 teaspoon dried basil, 1/2 teaspoon dried oregano and one teaspoon romano cheese.   Bake until nicely browned, about 30-35 minutes, then remove from the oven to a cutting board and allow to cool for 5 minutes.  Slice and serve.  Repeat with the other prepared baking sheet and the remainder of the ingredients.

Pepperoni, Sausage and Mushroom Pizza Braids

One of our favorite blogs, For the Love of Cooking, recently featured Turkey Italian Sausage and Mushroom Pizza Braid.  I liked the idea presented there, so I decided to make my own version.  I'm glad I did, because I've now found a really fast, easy and wonderful go-to recipe.

This recipe is somewhat unusual for me, in that instead of making much from scratch, the core ingredients - pizza dough and pizza sauce - are pre-prepared supermarket items.   In general, I'm not real fond of that approach to cooking - it tends to result in a lot of fast but flavorless stuff based on cans of soup and the like - but here it works great.   Of course, it helps that I was able to back up the prefab ingredients with excellent fresh stuff, including sausage, pepperoni and cheeses from Graziano Bros. Grocery.   

These really were fantastically good.  In fact, they looked so great that by the time I sliced one of the braids into servings, Juli and I were in such a hurry to try them that I forgot to take a picture of one of the servings on a plate.   That's too bad, as showing a sliced cross-section would be a great way to show how mouthwatering these things really are.   I suppose that's as good a reason as any to make these again, though.

Pepperoni, Sausage and Mushroom Pizza Braids

yield = 4 -5 servings

1/2         pound sweet Italian sausage
1/4         pound pepperoni
2            tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil + 1/4 cup
1            onion, grated
6            ounces button mushrooms, sliced thin
2            teaspoons minced garlic
1/2         teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes
1/2         teaspoon freshly-ground black pepper
1/4         teaspoon table salt
2            tablespoons cornmeal
2            cans refrigerated thin pizza crust
1 1/3      cup canned pizza sauce (we used Dei Fratelli)
8            ounces mozzarella cheese, freshly shredded
2            tablespoons + two teaspoons freshly grated pecorino romano cheese
1            teaspoon dried basil
1            teaspoon dried oregano


Cook sausage in a small skillet, breaking it into small pieces with the side of a wooden spoon.   Transfer to a plate lined with paper towels to drain.

While the sausage cooks, line a microwave-safe plate with two layers of paper towels.   Spread pepperoni slices over the paper towels, cover with another paper towel and microwave for 60 seconds.  Repeat until all the pepperoni slices are cooked.

Heat two tablespoons olive oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat until shimmering.  Add onion and mushroom and cook, stirring often, until the onion is soft and the mushrooms have released all their liquid. 

Clear a space in the middle of the pan and add garlic and crushed red pepper flakes.  Cook until fragrant (about 30 seconds), then add pepper and salt, stir to mix, and remove from heat.

Heat oven to 400 degrees.  Prepare two rimmed baking sheets with parchment paper or silicone baking mats.  Sprinkle 1 tablespoon corn meal on each baking sheet. 

Spread one pizza crust on a baking sheet in a rectangle.  Spoon 2/3 cup of pizza sauce along the middle third of the dough.  Using a pizza cutter or knife, cut even slits on both sides of the sauce.   Sprinkle 2 ounces shredded mozzarella cheese atop the sauce, then top with 1/2 of the onion and mushroom mixture and 1/2 of the pepperoni slices, 1/2 of the cooked sausage.  Spread another 2 ounces of mozzarella atop these toppings, then sprinkle with one tablespoon grated romano cheese.   

Starting at one end, fold alternating strips from the sides of the dough over the filling at an angle.

Brush the top of the pizza braid with olive oil, then sprinkle with 1/2 teaspoon dried basil, 1/2 teaspoon dried oregano and one teaspoon romano cheese.   Bake until nicely browned, about 30-35 minutes, then remove from the oven to a cutting board and allow to cool for 5 minutes.  Slice and serve.  Repeat with the other prepared baking sheet and the remainder of the ingredients.

St. Louis Pizza: Second Try, Still Not a Winner

Awhile back I reported on my having tried the St. Louis-Style Thin Crust Pizza recipe from an issue of Cook's Country.  As I stated on that occasion, I wasn't particularly impressed with the results.   I noticed, however, that the same recipe ended up being reprinted in The Best of America's Test Kitchen 2011.  Usually the recipes that end up in ATK's year-end collection are pretty good, so seeing that one there got me wondering if I'd missed something the first time around.   So, with that in mind, I tried it again last week.

As was the case the first time I tried this recipe, I was not particularly impressed with the results.   The crust was nice and crispy, but not particularly flavorful, while the sauce was both acidic and cloying.  Maybe I'd have liked the results better had I access to provel cheese, but I wasn't particularly fond of the suggested substitution (white American cheese and Monterey jack with a bit of liquid smoke). 

Although I used to go to St. Louis semi-regularly back during my grad school days, I don't recall ever eating pizza there.   My favorite restaurant in St. Louis was, by far, a Jamaican place, and I made sure to eat there whenever I was in town.  So, I can't speak to how accurately this particular recipe captures the essence of St. Louis pizza, but not having liked the results either time I've made the recipe, I can say with certainty I won't be making that one again.