D.I.Y. Delicious: Recipes and Ideas for Simple Food From Scratch (19 page)

Preheat the oven and pizza stone to 550 degrees F.

Punch down and divide the dough into two balls. Flour a work surface generously and lay the balls down, flattening them slightly with your hands. Dust the tops with more flour. Let them rest for 10 minutes. Stretch or roll each ball out to about 15 inches and place one on a cornmeal-dusted pizza peel. Stretch until the dough covers the peel. If making a pizza without sauce, brush lightly with olive oil before topping. Top as desired. To slide the pizza onto the stone in the oven, make sure it slides easily on the peel first, then hold the peel right over the stone and jerk it back sharply with a slight upward motion of your wrist. The pizza should slide onto the stone effortlessly. If it sticks, help it along with a spatula and use a little more cornmeal next time. Bake until brown and crisp, about 10 minutes. Repeat with the other pizza round, or freeze the pizza dough, well wrapped, for up to 2 weeks. Thaw thoroughly before using.

Once you perfect your
Sourdough Pizza Crust
, you’ll want to make it all the time. It’s economical, easy, and fun, and everyone loves it. I like to create pizzas with the seasons from what’s available in my pantry and at the farmers’ market. Here are some of my favorite seasonal combos:

WINTER

• Thinly sliced boiled potatoes, sautéed chard, salami or prosciutto (optional), fontina cheese

• Sliced and roasted butternut squash, sage leaves, mushrooms, fontina cheese, mozzarella or
Fresh Whole-Milk Soft Cheese
.

• Sausage,
Simple Wild Sauerkraut
, and aged cheese such as Pecorino Romano or gouda

SPRING

• Asparagus, spring onions, and fresh pecorino or
Fresh Whole-Milk Soft Cheese

• Prosciutto or thinly sliced smoked wild salmon or trout, cooked on the pizza, and then topped with
Crème Fraîche
and fresh arugula lightly dressed in olive oil after it comes out of the oven

• Roasted baby artichokes, fresh herbs, and goat cheese

SUMMER

• Corn, fresh cherry tomatoes, basil,
Fresh Whole-Milk Soft Cheese
or mozzarella

• Freshly made tomato sauce, basil, and mozzarella

• Arugula, cilantro or mint pesto, sautéed summer squash, and
Fresh Whole-Milk Soft Cheese
or feta

FALL

• Roasted red peppers, eggplant, olives, and
Fresh Whole-Milk Soft Cheese
or feta

• Tomato sauce, sausage, and thinly sliced fennel (added after cooking); with or without cheese

•
Shredded Mustard and Bourbon–Glazed Pork Roast
, cooked on the pizza and then topped with
Garlicky Cucumber Pickle Relish
after it comes out of the oven; no cheese

This pasta combines the healthful, nutty characteristics of whole-wheat pasta with the crowd-pleasing traits of regular egg pasta. It’s light enough to pair with delicate vegetable preparations like
Fresh Pasta with Asparagus, Homemade Cheese, and Lemon
or anything with fish. For the
Fresh Pasta with Cabbage, Bacon, Sage, and Brown Butter
, I like to substitute buckwheat flour for the wheat flour. You may want to experiment with the ratio of wheat to white flour, depending on your sauce. You can roll and cut the pasta on a stainless-steel pasta maker or you can roll and cut the noodles by hand
.

TIME REQUIRED:
35 to 50 minutes active, depending on how you roll and cut it; 20 minutes passive

YIELD:
about 1 pound; 4 to 5 servings

1 cup unbleached all-purpose flour, plus more for dusting

½ cup whole-wheat or buckwheat flour

2 large eggs

½ teaspoon kosher salt

In a small bowl, mix together the flours, eggs, salt, and ¼ cup water with a fork until it forms a ball. If it doesn’t come together easily, dip your hands in water so the dough doesn’t stick and knead the dough with your hands just until mixed. Cover with plastic wrap or a towel to prevent drying and let the dough rest for 20 minutes.

IF USING A PASTA MACHINE:

Dust a clean, flat surface with flour and then separate the pasta into six equal pieces. Flatten each portion of pasta between the palms of your hands until it is about ½ inch thick and narrow enough to fit into the pasta roller. Dust each pasta piece generously with flour. With your pasta maker set at #1 thickness, start rolling the pasta disks out, progressing through #2 and #3 and ending with #4. Use the fettuccini cutter on the pasta machine to make flat noodles. Separate the noodles and lay them out on a floured surface. If they seem sticky, dust them lightly with flour and finish rolling and cutting the remaining pasta.

TO ROLL AND CUT BY HAND:

Dust a clean, flat surface with flour and then separate the pasta into six equal pieces. Flatten each portion of pasta between the palms of your hands until it is about ½ inch thick. Using plenty of flour on both sides of the pieces of pasta, and a rolling pin, roll one of the pieces of pasta out as thinly as possible into a sheet 7 to 8 inches long and 3 to 4 inches wide. Starting on the short end of the sheet, roll the pasta up jelly-roll style. With a sharp knife, cut the roll into strips
inch wide, and unfurl the resulting noodles. Lay the noodles out on a well-floured surface, not touching, and repeat the process of rolling and cutting the remaining pieces of dough.

To cook, plunge the noodles into boiling, salted water until tender but chewy, 2 to 3 minutes. Drain and use immediately.

Rich and deeply comforting, this is a dish to make on a cold winter or crisp fall evening. It’s wonderful with either the wheat or buckwheat version of Fresh Pasta. I like to make it with the buckwheat noodles because it reminds me of a classic Italian dish called pizzoccheri, which involves cabbage, potatoes, lots of cheese, even more butter, and sage. Once the pasta is made, this dish comes together very quickly.

TIME REQUIRED:
40 minutes active (excluding pasta and butter preparation)

YIELD:
4 servings

6 pieces thick-cut bacon (about 6 ounces)

½ large head cabbage (about 1 pound)

1 recipe
Fresh Pasta
, or about 10 ounces packaged, dry pasta

½ yellow onion, thinly sliced

3 tablespoons
Cultured Butter
or store-bought butter

20 whole sage leaves

Salt

Freshly ground black pepper Parmesan cheese for garnish

Cut the bacon crosswise into ½-inch slices.

Core the cabbage, pull off the outer leaves, and slice it into ribbons ¼ to ½ inch thick.

In a medium, heavy skillet over medium-low heat, brown the bacon in its own fat until all the fat is rendered and the bacon begins to crisp, stirring occasionally, 12 to 14 minutes. With a slotted spoon, remove the bacon to a paper towel-lined plate. Pour off all but about 2 teaspoons of the fat and refrigerate it for another use (it’s great for cooking beans).

Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil. Have the pasta ready.

While waiting for the pasta water to boil, turn the heat under the skillet to medium-high, add the cabbage and onion, and cook, stirring often, until the cabbage and onion wilt and begin to brown, 7 to 10 minutes. Add the bacon and toss to mix. Turn off the heat.

In a deep pan or skillet large enough to contain all the noodles, warm the butter over medium-high heat. When the foam subsides, add the sage leaves and fry, stirring occasionally, until they become fragrant and the butter browns and develops a nutty aroma, 2 to 3 minutes. Add the cabbage, bacon, and onion mixture and toss. Set aside, off the heat, while you boil the noodles.

Plunge the noodles into the boiling water until tender but chewy, 2 to 3 minutes; drain. Do not rinse. If using dried pasta, follow the package instructions.

Add the drained pasta to the pan with the cabbage mixture. Toss to coat. Taste and correct the seasoning for salt and pepper. Serve immediately on warmed plates, shaving thin shards of Parmesan cheese over each portion with a vegetable peeler.

When you first start making crackers, you might notice that your crackers taste great, but there will be something different that you can’t put your finger on. It’s the lack of sugar. Read the labels on even some of the “healthier” brands of store-bought crackers, and you’ll find that most of them contain sugar—or worse, high-fructose corn syrup. It’s sad how our tastes have become accustomed to industrialized food “products.” I happen to think crackers don’t need sugar, and when you taste these and the Cornmeal, Parmesan, and
Poppy Seed Crackers
, I think you’ll agree. Plus, they’re both fun and easy to make for pennies!

TIME REQUIRED:
about 15 minutes active; 45 minutes passive

YIELD:
12 ounces

2 cups whole-wheat flour, plus more as needed

¼ cup olive oil

1 teaspoon kosher salt

½ teaspoon baking powder

3 tablespoons sesame seeds

Salt for topping (use flaky
fleur de sel
or other fancy salt if you have some; otherwise, kosher is fine)

Put the 2 cups flour, ¾ cup cool water, the oil, kosher salt, and baking powder in a food processor and process until the mixture forms a ball, 2 to 3 minutes. Remove from the processor, cover with a towel to prevent drying, and let the dough rest at room temperature for at least 30 minutes and up to 2 hours.

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F. If you have a pizza stone, preheat that as well. If not, a baking sheet will work fine, but there’s no need to preheat it.

Divide the dough into two equal portions. On a lightly floured work surface, roll out the dough very thinly and evenly, flipping it over and continuing to roll while adding more flour as needed if the dough sticks. Stop rolling just short of
inch thick. Sprinkle the dough lightly with the sesame seeds and flaky salt and continue to roll just to embed the salt and seeds into the dough. Cut into strips about 2 inches wide and poke the strips evenly in several places with the tines of a fork. Using both hands, pick up either end of each strip carefully and lay it down on the pizza stone. Bake until the crackers begin to brown and become crisp, keeping in mind that they will continue to crisp up as they cool. If they don’t crisp up properly after they cool slightly, you can put them back in the oven for a few minutes. Total baking time takes about 10 minutes on a stone and 15 minutes on a baking sheet. You will need to bake in two or three batches.