Naptime Goals: Catch up on blog posts, stamp Christmas cards, weed through mounting stack of store catalogs, laundry = no time for Naptime Chef-ing today!
Tonight's Meal: Artichoke Rosemary Pizza - simple, delicious and requires no preparation.
Parenting Lesson of the Day: Toddler's will eat almost anything when you call it "pizza."
I don't read many parenting magazines, I read food magazines. It's not that I don't like monthly volumes dedicated to parenting, it's just that I find food writing infinitely more interesting and inspirational. This month, while reading Food and Wine, I was particularly taken with Eugenia Bone's December Food Diary where she chronicles what she cooks and why, for the month of December. In a household with two kids, Eugenia's cooking outlook reads very similar to mine. She bakes on Sundays as a way to relax, makes large meals on Mondays that will last for a couple of days, and loves to entertain her friends. One of the dishes she writes about making is artichoke and fontina pizza. Given my love of all things artichoke, I knew this would be a great recipe for us.
With all the craziness of the holidays it is harder to cook every single day. Earlier this week I made stew and it lasted us for a few nights, freeing up time for me during the day to get items checked off my holiday list. Tonight, since I am working all afternoon, I am taking one of my favorite shortcuts and using fresh pizza dough I picked up at the parlor (for $4!) to make homemade pizza for dinner. Sure, there are many times when I love to make my own pizza dough. But, in this case, buying a fresh pre-made ball from the experts down the street is the best way to go.
Eugenia's pizza recipe calls for marinating artichoke hearts for three days. It is simple to do - and I plan to in the future - but since I wanted instant gratification after reading the article the day before the first time I made this, I cut out that step. Instead, I used olive oil flavored with herbs on the pizza dough, then added fresh chopped rosemary and a few dollops of fresh ricotta. These additions more than compensated for the un-marinated artichokes, rounding out the pizza with a fresh herbaceous flavor.
Preparing this pizza in the evening is very simple and doable for even the busiest home cook. The longest part for me is grating the fontina, which takes all of 2 minutes. Then I just layer on the ingredients, pop it in the oven and go about rounding up the troops for dinner. My daughter didn't love the artichokes because that flavor is still a little foreign to her. However, once we plucked them off she loved the rest of the pizza with the cheese and herbs. For a quick, tasty supper I was very pleased with it's warm reception. In addition, the clean-up was minimal. Leaving me plenty of free time after my daughter went to bed to continue with Santa duties.
Artichoke Rosemary Pizza
adapted from Food and Wine, December 2009
1 8oz. ball store-bought pizza dough
1 9oz. package frozen artichoke hearts, thawed and chopped into bite size pieces
1 1/2c. freshly grated fontina
3/4 c. fresh ricotta
1 t. fresh rosemary, chopped
2 T. olive oil, or a flavored olive oil of your choice
cornmeal for baking
1. Preheat oven to 425ºF. Prepare a pizza stone with cornmeal, or rub a 9x13 jelly roll pan with plain olive oil.
1. Preheat oven to 425ºF. Prepare a pizza stone with cornmeal, or rub a 9x13 jelly roll pan with plain olive oil.
2. Roll out the pizza dough to 1/8" thick on a lightly floured surface. Drizzle plain or flavored olive oil on top of dough. Place on pizza stone or on pan. Bake for... or until bubbles start to form on the surface of the dough. About 8 minutes.
3. Remove dough from the oven and scatter fontina on top. Then layer on chopped artichoke hearts, chopped rosemary, and dollop the ricotto on randomly by the Tablespoon-full.
4. Return to oven and bake for 13-15 minutes, or until cheese is melted, crust is golden around the edges and pizza is piping hot. Cut and serve.
Naptime Notes:
Naptime Recipe Variation Ideas: The possibilities for homemade pizza are endless. There is nothing wrong with buying fresh pizza dough, this will free up your time and leave your schedule to spend more time thinking about toppings! When coming up new ideas I suggest trying different cheeses, sauces, vegetables, thinly sliced meats and even fruit.
Naptime Stopwatch: Making this pizza takes very little time. I had it on the table in 30 minutes from the start it's preparation.
Naptime Reviews: My daughter ate what essentially amounted to a white pizza, but the adults loved the artichokes!
Posts
This is a rather busy time of year. It's understandable that anyone would have a hard time keeping up with the Christmas shopping, planning, organizing, wrapping, etc. etc.
ReplyDeleteThis pizza looks awesome, I adore artichokes as well.
Take time to care for yourself. :)
We'll be having this on Friday for dinner (our weekly pizza night)! I buy the fresh pizza dough at Whole Foods for $2 and it's very tasty and easy to roll.
ReplyDeleteThat does look fantastic! I'm feel overwhelmed, too, trying to get all the holiday stuff done and cook.
ReplyDeletePizza dough less expensive at Trader Joe's and they offer ww dough...
ReplyDeleteYum... love this one! Great flavors in a pizza, and I love that it can be easily fit into a busy day!
ReplyDeleteI read Eugenia Bone's food diary too! I loved it! She seems so elegant and her food delicious but simplistic. I was inspired by her meatballs with peas-very good too.
ReplyDeleteLike you, I read food magazines all the time.
mmm such a great idea! do you have a favorite nyc pizza joint that you get your dough from? Will def have to try this. You know how I feel about fontina :)
ReplyDelete