Snowball Pizza

That's right, Snowball Pizza. Made famous in Middletown, CT by Giuseppe's (it now has a new name), and the place of my employment for 3.5 years of college.

Giuseppe's was owned by Rose and Joe (Giuseppe). They were from a small town in Sicily and I swear all of their relatives now live in Middletown.

Anyway, I adored working for them. I learned about how amazing ricotta cheese is. Rose made the BEST ricotta pie. Oh my, my mouth is watering just remembering it. She also taught me to make pasta, mix it with spaghetti sauce and then add some wilted spinach and a spoonful of ricotta.

So the famous snowball pizza:
You can start by making your own pizza dough. Sometimes I make my own, often times I buy it from Trader Joe's. It's not hard to make your own, I just find that for $1.50 I would rather just buy it. One less thing to do.

Make sure the dough comes to room temperature, and then roll it out on a floured cutting board. PREHEAT your oven with your pizza stone inside already to 450. Let your pizza stone sit in there for at least 25 minutes - it makes it crispier (or so I hear).

When you are totally ready, pull out the pizza stone and magically put the dough on it. I think the best way is if you have one of those pizza things - the wooden thing with the handle. We don't have one so this is always awkward and terrible. Once the dough has made it in one piece to the stone, spoon on sauce. I like to copy how they did it at Giuseppe's and use a ladle and swirl from the center out. Leave a smaller crust than you think seems normal. I feel like crust GROWS.

Then add a healthy topping of mozzarella cheese to the top. On top of the cheese add an entire layer of baby or slightly chopped spinach. I just cut off the ends and cut the pieces in half or so. It will feel like your whole pizza has been taken over by spinach - this is good. Seriously COVER IT. Then on top of the spinach dump a chopped tomato. On top of that add big wonderful spoonfuls of ricotta. The more the merrier.

Bake for about 20 minutes or so, but watch your oven. When it looks crispy enough then take it out.

Thanks Rose!!

Whitefish with veggies

For this recipe it calls for cod, but I have used sole and it was tasty that way too.

First chop up a green pepper nice and small. Then slice some tomatoes and the recipe calls for chopped onion but I was out so I used scallions. I don't think it was any different.

In a separate bowl add about 1/2 a cup of breadcrumbs (this time I used Panko flakes and they were great). To the breadcrumbs add a few sprinkles of olive oil. Either add some chopped fresh basil or some dried basil to the mixture and stir it around.

Place the fish on a greased (just in case it sticks) baking pan. Put the tomato slices on top and then the green peppers. Add the breadcrumb mixture and then the onions or scallions. Bake at 375 for about 25 minutes. It all depends on the thickness of your fish fillets, so if they are thin they might need a little less time. If they are super thick they might need more.

I like to squeeze lemon juice over it all when it comes out of the oven and I'd serve it with rice or cous-cous. We ate it with Israeli cous-cous  (my first time making it) and I was not super excited with it because it was so pasta-like. I think this one goes better with regular cous-cous!

Spaghetti sauce - meat or not meat

For those of you that buy spaghetti sauce in jars, please stop! Not only is it full of junk (preservatives and god knows what else), it's just plain gross (in my opinion).

So here is a simple sauce that I make all the time. It makes enough to eat a big dinner, have a lunch and freeze enough for another dinner.

Ingredients to buy at the store
2 28oz cans of tomatoes. My favorites are the Muir Glen fire roasted, or San Marzano's. Plain old regular ones are fine but they won't give you as much flavor.
One medium-large onion (yellow or white)
Garlic (a few cloves)
Tomato paste (not necessary, but I think it helps)
Basil (preferably fresh, but dried is ok)
Salt, Sugar, Pepper, Olive oil (hopefully those are staples)
Red pepper flakes (if you like a bit of spice)
Spaghetti or Angel Hair or whatever noodles you want

Chop the onion. If you are not planning on blending this sauce (I use a stick blender that I adore), then cut the onion into the size pieces you would like to eat. Open the cans of tomatoes and either press or mince the garlic (or buy it pre-chopped like I do). Carefully cut up your basil if it is fresh.

Heat oil in a saute pan. If you don't know that means here is an example. You can probably use a dutch oven (like a Le Creuset) or really any sort of pot will probably do. When the oil is warmed up add the onion pieces. Stir so they don't stick or burn. Then add the garlic. Continue stirring for about 5-7 minutes to get out the flavor (I made that up....hopefully it brings out the flavor, I don't really know).

Then add the tomatoes. Here is where you have a choice. If you have a stick blender you can just dump them all in even if they are whole, because you can blend them later. If you aren't going to blend it, then what I used to do is wash my hands and then pick up each whole tomato and break it into little pieces with my hands. It will squirt, so beware!!! Now squeeze in some tomato paste (or from a jar....I am convinced the ones in the squirt tubes are better, but probably not). I don't measure an amount. If I had to guess I would say maybe 2 or 3 Tablespoons. Then I add a spoonful of white sugar (it helps cut the acid of the tomatoes....ok I made that up too, but it might be true) and a few sprinkles of salt and pepper. If you are doing fresh basil then add as much as you can. I'd say at least one cup chopped and loosely packed. If you are doing dry basil then maybe a teaspoon or so. Other people like oregano, but I do not. You can add it if you like it.

I turn up the heat to bring it to a boil. Once it boils I turn it down to simmer and put the top on tightly for about 30 minutes.

If you would like to add meat, I cook the meat in a fry pan separate from the sauce. When it's cooked through (or like 90% through) I spoon off all of the fat and then I dump it into the sauce AFTER the 30 minutes is up. I also like to add a sprinkle of red pepper flakes to the sauce for a bite.

After 30 minutes I take the top off and then I put on a pot of water to boil. Between the water heating up and the pasta cooking, that's probably about 15 minutes or so of more cooking.
First picture is AFTER blending it, second picture is BEFORE blending.

When all done I like to pour more Kraft Parmesan (I know, gross, but I love it) than humanly possible on top and eat eat eat.