Fresh tomatoes are the best.

One of my favorite ways to take advantage of all the fresh produce around this time of year is to throw a pizza party.  Invite a few friends over, take a trip to the farmer’s market and pick out some really fresh toppings, and then experiment with four or five different pizzas!  The thing about having a pizza party like this is that a lot of the work is front-loaded (making the dough, cutting toppings, grating cheese, etc) so when the party is in full-swing, you can actually relax with everybody else!

The Equipment. Let’s just get this out of the way.  To make really stellar pizza at home, it does help to have some basic equipment.  I happened to use my stand mixer to make this batch of dough, but you 100% do not have to have a stand mixer to make pizza dough.  I used to make it by hand all the time.

The two things that really do help with the pizza process though is a pizza stone and pizza peel!  It’s pretty difficult to get a really good crust on your pizza without a stone and it’s nearly impossible to get your pizzas in and out of the oven without a peel.  If you’re dying to make pizza and in the market for a few new pieces of equipment, here’s a deal that pretty hard to pass up:

Pizza Peel and/or Pizza Stone Sale

Through the rest of July, you can get 20% off the pizza peel and/or pizza stone
I have listed in my OpenSky Store.

Just use the code: July20pct

Back to the pizza…

Neo-Neapolitan Pizza Dough (From American Pie)
Makes 4 10-ounce dough balls.

- 5 Cups (22.5 ounces) unbleached bread flour
- 1 Tablespoon honey
- 2 Teaspoons salt
- 1 Teaspoon instant yeast
- 2 Tablespoons olive oil
- 1 3/4 Cups plus 1 Tablespoon room-temp water

Helpful Equipment:
- Kitchen Scale (Also in my OpenSky Store and you can use the 20% off code for that as well)

Making the dough. This is my go-to pizza dough recipe these days.  I find that it makes a really nice crust that isn’t too thick or thin.  It’s has a great crunch to it but is still a tiny bit chewy in the middle.  It’s pretty all-purpose which I like for a thing like this where I’m making a bunch of different pizzas.

You can do this!

If you’re using a mixer, mix all the dry ingredients together in the mixing bowl and then add the wet ingredients.  Mix on low speed with a dough hook until everything comes together (about 4 minutes), then let the dough rest for 5 minutes in the bowl.  This will help it relax and make it easier to mix.  Then mix it on medium-low for another 2 minutes until it forms a smooth ball that clears the sides of the bowl but sticks slightly to the bottom.

If it’s too dry, mix in water by the Tablespoon.  if it’s too sticky, then do the same with flour.  The dough should pass the windowpane test (Rip off a piece of dough and pull it apart.  Can you see light through it before it rips?  Then you’re on the right track.)

If you’re using hands, stir everything together in a bowl until it forms a ball.  Mix the dough with your hands by continuously dipping your hand in water and work the dough as you turn the ball (think of your hand like a dough hook).  As all the flour gets incorporated, the dough will become hard to work with.  Let it rest for 5 minutes at that point to relax (you and the dough).  Then continue mixing again for 2 or 3 minutes until it passes the windowpane test.

Measuring the dough. Regardless of what technique you use, measure your dough out into 10 ounce balls right away and put them in large plastic bags with some olive oil.

Overnight is best.

Let these sit at room temperature for 15 minutes and then stick them in the fridge overnight.  If you don’t have time for that, you can let them rise at room temperature for an hour, then take them out of the bags, punch them down to get out some of the gas, return them to the bags, and refrigerate them for 2 hours.

I highly recommend just doing the dough the day before (or a few days before).  You’ll end up with better crust and less work to do the day of the pizza making.

This was my dough after a night in the fridge.

Results of the slow rise.

Day of Preparation. Whether or not you decide to give your pizza the overnight treatment, you need to bring the pizza back to room temperature before using it.  Otherwise it’ll be too hard to work with.  At least two hours before you want to make pizza, take out each dough ball, punch it down, form a ball and put it on a baking sheet.

Drizzle on a bit of oil oil onto each ball and cover all of them with a damp towel. (I did 1.5 times a batch of dough which is why I have 6.)

So to be clear, if you want to make the dough the same day you’re making the pizza, you need to make it about 6 hours before dinner time.  Trust me.  It’s easier to do it the day before by a long shot.

Very important.

The Pizzas. Finally, some pizza making.  I picked up a few great things at the farmer’s market for this meal including some heirloom tomatoes, purple peppers, nice yellow squash, fresh arugula, and hot Italian sausage.

I picked up some sopressata and a few other things (like a lot of mozzarella cheese) from the store as well.

Can't go wrong here really.

For the sauce on all my pizzas I used this basic marinara sauce (also from American Pie)

Basic No-cook Marinara Sauce (I changed around some stuff from the original.  Feel free to customize based on what you have in your pantry.)
Makes 6 Cups, enough for probably 18 pizzas.  You can freeze the leftovers!

- 1 28 ounce can tomato purée
- 1 1/2 Cups water
- 1 Tablespoon dried parsley
- 1 Tablespoon dried basil
- 1 Teaspoon dried oregano
- 1/2 Teaspoon dried thyme
- 1/2 Teaspoon dried marjoram
- 1/4 Cup olive oil
- 2 Tablespoons garlic powder
- 1/4 Cup red wine vinegar
- Salt and pepper to taste

Just mix all that together in a big bowl and you’re ready to go!  It’s actually a really delicious sauce.

Cooking the Pizzas. I used the exact same technique to make each of the below pizzas.  Roll out the dough until it’s the desired size (I shot for about 12 inches across).  Place the dough on a pizza peel that’s been dusted with corn meal or semolina flour.  Add a few Tablespoons of sauce.  Add your toppings.  Slide it onto a 500 degree (pre-heated) pizza stone.  Each pizza should take 10-12 minutes to be done.

Pizza Margherita.  The first pizza I made was a take on a classic Italian pizza with fresh mozzarella, heirloom tomatoes, and basil.  It’s also the pizza in the first photo for this post.

Don't over top the pizzas...

Meat Lovers. I had some meat lovers in attendance so I did one with just the Italian sausage (I pre-cooked it) and the sopressata.

For the meat lovers...

The Purple Pepper Pizza.  This one had these nice little purple pepper slices on it along with fresh yellow squash, cheese, and sopressata.  The purple peppers lost a bit of their color in the oven, but it was still tasty.

The Purple Pepper Pizza!

The Leftovers.  I made a pizza at the end of the night with just the leftovers so it had some meat, some peppers and squash, a few tomatoes, and I topped it some fresh arugula when it came out of the oven which gave it a peppery flavor.

Last one...

I’ve posted a lot of pizza posts on Macheesmo, but hopefully they make it accessible.  The thing that made all these pizzas very tasty was the nice fresh veggies.  Their flavors really came through nicely.  I was really impressed by how much I liked the squash actually.

Pizza is really one of my favorite things to make and with just a bit of time you can blow 95% of restaurant pizzas out of the water.

Here’s a few other pizzas I’ve made over the years:

- Mashed Potato Pizza
- Shrimp Pizza with Red Pepper Pesto
- 3 Tasty Pizzas
- Deep Dish Pizza

Hummus is good for so many reasons.  First, it’s good for you.  Second, it’s really easy (and fairly economical) to make.  Third, you can add all kinds of delicious stuff to it to spice it up if you get bored with the standard.  For these hummus varieties, I added some beets to one and a few roasted red peppers to the second batch.

Can you guess which batch had the beets?

Take your pick!

You can kind of make hummus your own.  There’s a ton of recipes out there.  For me though, a hummus dish has to have a few things in it:

- Chickpeas
- Tahini Paste
- Olive oil
- Garlic
- Lemon

Helpful Equipment for Hummus:
- Blender or
- Food Processor

After that you can go a bit crazy with ingredients.  This first hummus I made is pretty standard and you can buy it in your grocery store.  It’s better (and I think cheaper) if it’s homemade!

Roasted Red Pepper Hummus (Adapted pretty seriously from a Pinch My Salt Recipe)

- 1 can (16 ounces) chickpeas (garbanzo beans), drained and rinsed
- 2 red peppers, roasted, peeled and sliced
- 1/8 of a red onion, diced
- 2 Tablespoons Tahini
- 1 cloves garlic
- Juice of 1 lemon
- 2 Tablespoons olive oil (or more depending on how creamy you like your hummus)
- 1 Teaspoon honey (optional)
- 1 Teaspoon cumin (optional)
- 1/2 Teaspoon sriracha (optional)
- Salt and pepper to taste

Roasting the Peppers. The only hard part about this recipe is roasting the peppers (it’s not that hard people).  You can buy jarred roasted peppers that will work perfectly for this.  If you want to do some DIY peppers though, just crank up your gas stove to high heat and carefully set the papers on the burner!

And yes, this will only work with gas.

Gas stoves rock.

Turn them with a good pair of metal tongs every 30 seconds or so to make sure they are evenly roasted on all sides.  They’ll probably take about 5 minutes to get nice and charred.  They should be almost completely black when they come off.

Charred goodness.

Put your peppers in a bowl and cover them with plastic wrap.  The heat from the peppers will steam off the skin so it’s easy to remove.  Let them sit, covered, for about 10 minutes before trying to peel them.

When peeling the peppers, gently pull off the skin.  It should come off really easily.  It’s okay if you don’t get it all.  I don’t like to wash my peppers because it washes away all the flavor, but if for some reason you wanted them to be perfectly clean, then wash them I guess.

Next cut out the seeds and roughly chop them up.  Add everything to your blender or food processor!

Lots of flavor in there.

Note that if you’re using a blender, it’s going to be slow going.  Hummus just isn’t quite liquid enough to blend perfectly, but you can use a spoon to stir up the ingredients or add a bit more olive oil to get a nicely blended result.

This took me a few minutes and a few stirs… not a lot of work for a lot of hummus.

Good with all kinds of stuff.

The Beet Variety.  The first time I saw this I knew I had to try it right away.  The original recipe didn’t have any chickpeas in it though so I modified it because, to me, without chickpeas it’s not really a hummus.

Beet Hummus (Adapted from a Simply Recipes version)

- 4 medium sided beets, boiled, peeled, cubed
- 1 can (16 ounces) chickpeas, drained and rinsed
- 2 Tablespoons Tahini
- 2 lemons, zest and juice
- 1 clove garlic
- 2 Tablespoons olive oil
- 1 Tablespoon ground cumin
- Salt and pepper to taste

Besides the beets, I think the lemon zest and juice is the most important part of this recipe.  The citrus flavor it adds is fantastic.  You’ll need a good microplane zester though for the zesting part.

Prepping the beets. Like with the roasted peppers, the prep of the beets is the only hard part really.  Start with 4 medium-large beets.  No need to scrub them or anything like that but trim off any stems that are attached.

Dirty things.

Boil them for about 30 minutes until they are very tender.  Then drain them and let them cool a bit.  You should be able to very easily pierce them with a fork or knife.

Once they’re slightly cool, peel the beets and cube them up!  And yes… they will stain your hands.  It can’t be helped.

Not pictured: My red hands

Once your beets are ready, stuff everything in the blender and it’s the same story as the red pepper version.

Blend it up!

Just pulse up everything until it’s nice and smooth.  The end result will be very colorful!

Umm... can you say colorful?!

Making Pita Chips. You could serve either of these with a variety of things.  Cucumbers with the beet hummus was very tasty and the red pepper hummus goes great on a sandwich or on some carrots.

Pita chips, however, go pretty well with both versions.  You can definitely buy these at the store, but you’ll get more bang for your buck if you make them from fresh pita which is a lot cheaper.

Just take your pita, cut it into sixths, and peel apart the layers.  So you end up with 12 chips per pita.  Then spread out all the pita chips on a baking sheet.  I can usually fit about 4 pita’s worth of chips on one sheet.

Sprinkle with a Tablespoon or two of olive oil and a pinch of salt!

Straight forward

Bake those for about 15 minutes at 350 degrees, turning once just to make sure they cook evenly.  Then let them cool and they should crisp up perfectly!

I liked both, but loved the red pepper.

The beet variety was interesting.  It had a pretty sweet flavor to it which was good, but I couldn’t eat a whole bunch of it.  Meanwhile, I could eat my own weight in the red pepper variety.  That’s just my personal tastes though as I thought both versions turned out really great.

You can store these in the fridge for a week without a problem or freeze them if you make sure to put them in an air-tight container and put a layer of plastic wrap on the surface of the hummus so it doesn’t get a film on it.

Do you have a favor hummus flavor?  Leave a comment!

Sometimes a sandwich isn’t enough.

And so let me introduce my new favorite friend: The one pound rice and bean burrito.

Not my best photo.

I’ve made breakfast burritos before that are much smaller and filled with egg and cheese, but these guys are for lunch purposes.  Super cheap to make, easy to transport and reheat, and very filling.

The base for these burritos is a spicy rice and bean mixture with three different kinds of beans plus some onions and peppers.  Layer that together with some simple guacamole, cheese, and hot sauce and you are ready to rock.

1 Pound Burritos
This makes 8 large burritos.

- 8 large tortillas.  I used the biggest I could find which I think were 12 or 14 inches in diameter.
- 12-16 ounces cheese, grated
- 2 avocados
- 1/4 Cup sour cream

Rice and Beans:
- 1.5 cups uncooked long grain rice (do not use the instant or fast cooking stuff. You want the real deal here.)
- 3 cans of beans.  I used one can each of black beans, pinto beans, and white beans.
- 1 onion, diced
- 1 green pepper, diced
- 2-3 jalapenos, de-seeded and diced. Adjust this amount to your desired heat levels.
- 2 Teaspoons paprika
- 2 Tablespoons olive oil
- Cayenne pepper (optional again for heat.  I used about 1 Teaspoon. I like stuff pretty spicy.)
- Large pinch of salt and pepper

Making the Rice and Beans. Start off by heating your oil in a large pan with lid. I would say you need at least a 4 or 5 quart pan for this.  When your oil is hot, add your onions and peppers and saute for a few minutes.

Then add your rice and stir for another minute.  Once the rice is hot, add about 3 – 4 cups of water.  Check the instructions on your rice for exact amounts of water.  You can also use chicken stock or veggie stock if you want.  Then drain your beans and add each can to the mix.  No need to rinse the beans really, just try to drain off some of the extra liquid.

Stir everything together, add your spices, cover and let simmer on low for 20 minutes or so.

A solid rice and bean base

After that 20 minutes, my rice needed to cook a bit longer, but it had absorbed all the water, so I added about another cup, gave it another stir and covered it again for 10 minutes.  Your rice should have a small bite to it but still be pretty soft.  If there is one thing I don’t like in a burrito it is mushy rice so try not to over cook this stuff.

Once it’s done, pull it off the heat and let it cool which will probably take at least an hour.  It needs to be room temperature before you start filling your burritos.

In the meantime… While your rice and beans are cooling down, you can do some other prep work like mixing together your crushed avocados and sour cream.

Good guac.

Some people might be inclined to make a more substantial guacamole.  For burritos, I like my guacamole to be pretty creamy and smooth.  Almost like mayo on a sandwich.  It’s personal preference though so if you prefer the full deal then go for it by all means.

You may also want to grate your cheese and get any other toppings you want to add ready to go.

Making the burritos. Making the burritos is really easy once you have your rice and beans done.  Take a tortilla and stick it in the microwave for literally 5 seconds to soften it up.  Or you can warm them up in a low heat oven if you want.  If you don’t warm your tortilla a bit it will be prone to tears when you are rolling it.  That’s why all the good burrito shops have the heated press things that they put your tortilla on before filling.

The great thing about these burritos is how customized they can get.  I started by spreading on a tablespoon or two of my guac, followed by about 3/4 of a cup to a cup of rice and beans.  You want to leave about an inch of room on two sides and about three inches of room on the other sides.  This will make it easy to roll later.

The base.

Then pile on your cheese and hot sauce.  I love experimenting with different combinations.  For this batch I used two different kinds of cheese and four different kinds of hot sauce that I had laying around.  This means that every burrito has a completely different taste to it and it is always a bit of a surprise when I bite into my lunch.

The extras.

Folding the Burrito. To properly fold the burrito, fold the short ends up and then roll it over so that the short ends are tucked under the long ends.  That will keep your burrito from busting open.  If that was hard to envision, check out this video and this one.  Either can give you the basic rolling technique I like to use.  The trick is to have a warm, soft tortilla.  If you have that and leave yourself some room around the edges, you’ll be just fine.

Storing the Burritos. Because we are going to freeze these, I like to double wrap them in foil.  This should keep out any freezer burn without a problem for a month or so.  If you want to go crazy, you can wrap once in foil, then wrap in plastic wrap, then once more in foil.  They would keep like that for a long time.

Almost one pound exactly!

Once i have all of my burritos rolled up and ready to go, I pop them into some gallon bags (2 per bag is all that will fit due to their largeness) and stick them in the freezer until I get hungry!

Ready for the deep freeze.

Then all I have to do is microwave them at work or wherever and I have a spicy, cheesy burrito that can power me through the day.  I microwave mine on hi for about 3 minutes and then flip it over and nuke it for another 3 minutes.  That should get the cheese properly and evenly melted.

Needless to say, my lunches are no longer boring!

Bethany lost a series recently and had to make dinner for Jeff (and me because, well, I live here).  When she told me what she was going to make I thought it would make a great post!  She chose to make a spicy black bean patty with a cilantro yogurt sauce.  It was really good and healthy!

Healthy and spicy. Good stuff.

We ate these with lots of the cilantro sauce and a simple side salad.  When I tried this patty the first thing that came to mind was how delicious this would be as a veggie burger.

Spicy Black Bean Patties

- 2 Cups dry black beans (or 2 16 ounce cans)
- 2 Jalepenos, diced but keep the seeds
- 1 red pepper, diced
- 1/2 green pepper, diced
- 1/2 red onion, diced
- 4 cloves garlic, diced
- 1 Cup breadcrumbs
- 1 Teaspoon cumin
- 1 Teaspoon chili powder
- 1 Teaspoon oregano
- Oil for frying
- Salt and pepper

Cilantro Yogurt Sauce:
- 2 Cups yogurt, Greek works great
- 1/2 – 3/4 Cups cilantro, chopped loosely packed (if you hate cilantro, maybe try parsley)
- 1 clove garlic, crushed
- Juice of 1 lemon
- Pinch of salt

Helpful Equipment:
- Cast Iron Skillet

This recipe is definitely not hard, but it does require some serious chopping.  For the peppers, we took out the seeds, but kept them so we could add some of them later to make the patties spicier.  Use them or toss them depending on how much heat you want.

Chopping lots of stuff.

Making the patties. Once your veggies are chopped, saute them in a few tablespoons of oil until they are a bit soft, but not browned at all.  Just a few minutes should do the trick.

Soften these up a bit.

Cook the beans according to the directions on the package.  If you are using dry beans, which I recommend, you’ll want to soak them overnight so plan for that.

Once your beans are cooked, add your breadcrumbs and using a masher or large spoon, mash up the beans and breadcrumbs.  I wouldn’t use a food processor for these because you run the risk of over-processing the beans.  You want them to still have plenty of texture, but just broken up a bit.

Breadcrumbs never looked so good.

Mix in your sauteed veggies and all your other spices.  Feel free to adjust the spices if you want the patties even spicier.

Then form about 4 ounce patties with the mixture.  You should be able to get about 10-12 patties out of the mixture.  To finish these guys off, cook them in a few tablespoons of oil over medium-high heat for about 4 minutes a side.  These will give the burgers a good crust on the outside and heat them up all the way through.  We sprinkled some more spices (chili powder and cumin) on each patty before frying them up.

These were getting a little too healthy.

Making the Sauce. Ok. Well, there isn’t much to explain for the sauce.  Basically, just stir everything together.  The good news is that you can definitely make it ahead of time.  In fact, if you let this sit for a few hours it gets even better.

Nothing like a good light dressing.

These were really spicy and delicious and the sauce compliments them really well.  Bethany was feeling very healthy and served this with a simple salad, using a bit of the sauce as a dressing also.

Also be good on a burger.

If you’re a regular Macheesmo reader, you’ll know that I’ve been trying to eat less meat this year (and so far succeeding I would say).  These were exactly what I look for as a meat substitute.  They had a ton of flavor and spice and were very filling actually even without a bun.

If you are vegetarian or are planning on going to a bbq were people would be open to a really good homemade veggie burger, I recommend these guys very highly.

But that’s what this site is all about.  I had never made chile rellenos before and honestly I was a bit scared.  I mean, peppers are tender guys, especially after they have been roasted.  And i just couldn’t imagine stuffing them with cheese and having that work.  Turns out I had nothing really to worry about with these chile rellenos. They turned out awesome.

EAT ME.

You can use a lot of different peppers when making chile rellenos.  The classic is the Hatch Green Chile, but you can use any large medium-spiced pepper.  I chose poblanos just because I’m pretty familiar with them and they are large enough to fill and easy to find.

Roasting the Peppers. Step one in this recipe, before we even get to the recipe, is to roast the peppers.  I would assume about two or three peppers per person and just pile the peppers onto a sheet pan and roast them at about 450 degrees for 25-35 minutes.  Be sure to keep an eye on them and turn them every few minutes to ensure even charring.

If I’m just roasting a few peppers, then I would roast them on my stove top like I did in this recipe.  But for large jobs, the oven is faster.

Ready for the roaster boys?

Make a salsa. The chile rellenos are good but they really need some sort of salsa or sauce to top them off.  There are a lot of options for this. You could use an enchilada sauce.  You could make this awesome roasted pepper salsa.  Or if you are tight on time you could just make a quick 10 minute salsa.

Quick Salsa (Adapted from Simply Recipes)

- 1 28 ounce can tomatoes.  I used crushed and just strained out the liquid. Elise recommends using whole and mushing them up.
- 3 roasted jalepeno peppers, chopped fine.
- 1 serrano pepper, fresh and chopped fine.  You can substitute a 7 ounce can of green chiles for all the chiles in my version.
- 1 clove garlic, chopped
- 2 scallions, chopped including greens
- 1 Tablespoon olive oil
- 1 Tablespoon red wine vinegar
- Pinch of oregano
- 1/4 cup loose cilantro, chopped
- Salt and pepper

Basically, just mix all of these things up in a bowl while your peppers roast.  Fast and delicious.  Not the best salsa I’ve ever had, but it’s plenty good.

10 minute salsa is pretty solid.

When your peppers are done roasting, cover them with plastic wrap or wrap them in a paper bag for 10 minutes to let them steam.  This will make them really easy to peel.

Notice the time travel.  The below photo has my roasted jalepenos.  But they are being chopped in the above photo.  The Internet allows for things like that to happen.  Sorry.

Lots of roasting happening here.

But without further ado.  This is actually what you will need to make the peppers.

Poblano Chile Rellenos

- 10 poblano peppers.  Adjust the recipe accordingly if you use more ore less peppers
- 10 ounces of pepper jack or cheddar cheese
- 2 Cups of spinach, loosely chopped. (Optional, but I like the veggie addition.)

Beer Batter (From Use Real Butter)
- 1 1/4 Cups flour (I actually used another 1/4 cup because I thought my batter was a bit runny.)
- 1 Teaspoon Kosher salt
- 4 eggs, separated into yolks and whites
- 1/2 Cup beer (save the rest for drinking)

Helpful Equipment:
- Deep Frying Thermometer
- Cast Iron Skillet

Cleaning the peppers. These guys are pretty easy to clean once you get the hang of it and don’t worry if you mess up one or two.  Once they are dipped in batter they will be fine.  These are the ideal steps to clean them though:

1) Run the pepper under cold water and peel off the skin.
2) make a small slit down one side of the pepper.
3) Using your fingers (they are the best tools here), reach in and pull out all the seeds and extra pepper guts.

Try to keep the stems on if you can as they will make for easier dipping later.  As you can see though (bottom right) I lost a stem on one or two and they still worked out okay.

I messed up a few of these. No worries.

Filling the Peppers. Filling the peppers is pretty easy.  Grate your cheese and mix it in with your spinach.  Then, using your fingers yet again, gently fill each pepper with the filling. You can stuff them pretty full, but make sure that you can close the pepper so the two open sides can touch.

These look open, but I squished them closed before I dipped them in the beer batter.

And the pepper says, "Man I'm stuffed."

Making the batter. Mix your egg yolks, salt, flour, and beer in a bowl.  In a separate bowl, whisk your egg whites until they have medium stiff peaks and then slowly fold your egg whites into your beer flour mixture.  Try to keep as many of the bubbles as possible.  You should end up with a pretty light batter.

Can't go wrong with Brooklyn.

Frying the peppers. Using your favorite skillet, heat up about 1/2 cup of vegetable or canola oil.  You want about 1/3 inch or so of oil in the pan.  Get it hot and then lay in each pepper after you dip it in the batter.  You can test that the oil is hot by flicking in a bit of the batter and seeing if it fries.

Remember to lay the pepper with the seam side down.  That will seal the whole thing closed.

No explosions please.

These should fry in hot oil for about 4 minutes a side.  Then scoop them out with a spatula onto a paper towel to cool and drain.

Nice and crispy.

Top these bad boys with a good helping of the salsa and you are all set!

This was a tasty bite.

I was really worried about this recipe.  I thought a lot could go wrong but in reality, it was a pretty forgiving recipe.  I messed up a few peppers, but they still filled okay and fried just fine.  I was also worried about the cheese not being melted when the pepper was fried perfectly, but that wasn’t a problem at all.

These guys may have been a bit of work, but they were really good.  Give them a shot if you are looking for something a bit challenging.  And awesome.

And so I settled on this awesome shrimp pizza with a red pepper pesto sauce.

Spicy shrimp pizza!

I went with a thin crust for the pizza.  It just seemed like a crispy thin crust was the best way to go.  The original recipe actually said to buy store bought stuff, but you can probably guess how I feel about that.

I actually keep a few balls of pizza dough frozen that way I just have to pull them out a few hours before (like 5) and let it thaw slowly.  Then it is just like fresh.

Shrimp and Red Pepper Pesto Pizza (Adapted from Pizza)
This is for one 12-15 inch pizza

- 1/2 pound large (16-20 count) shrimp, peeled, deveined, and halfed
- 1 cloves garlic, minced
- 2 Tablespoons olive oil
- Juice from 1/2 lemon
- 1/2 Teaspoon red pepper flake
- 1/4 medium onion, cut into thin strips
- 1/4 red pepper, seeded and cut into strips
- 2 Cups low-moisture mozzarella cheese
- Fresh basil (I left this off because I didn’t have any. It was fine.)
- 2/3 Cup red pepper pesto

Roasted Red Pepper Pesto (Makes about 2 cups)
– Clove garlic
- 1 jar (16 ounces) roasted red peppers
- 3 Tablespoons grated Parmesan
- 1 Tablespoon fresh basil
- 1 Tablespoon olive oil
- 1 Teaspoon sugar
- 1/2 Teaspoon red pepper flakes

Helpful Equipment:
- Pizza stone and peel

Prepping the Shrimp. If you purchased nice whole shrimp, take your time to shell them entirely and cut them in half head to tail.  Also remove the black vein near the back of the shrimp if there is one.

Then toss your shrimp in a bowl with the garlic, pepper flakes, olive oil, and lemon juice.  Let this marinate for 10 minutes or so.

A garlic marinade is one of my favorite things.

Red Pepper Pesto. The pesto is actually really simple.  Just throw all your ingredients in a food processor and give it a pulse until it is sauce.  It’s okay if it has some lumps.

The original recipe said to not use the oil in the jar, but then the recipe called for added oil.  I thought I would try just pouring in the entire contents of the jar and skipping the extra oil.  That worked like a charm.

This is good stuff.

Besides the pesto, chop up the onions and red pepper.  Try to get them pretty uniformly sliced.

Pretty simple toppings really.

The dough. I’m not going to go into the exact specifics of making pizza dough in this post.  You can check out a really detailed explanation on this post.  I actually made the dough I’m using for this recipe a few weeks before and just froze it in a bag with a bit of olive oil drizzled inside.

You should preheat your oven to about 500 degrees and if you are heating up a pizza stone, make sure you give it at least 30 minutes to get the stone as hot as possible.

Then roll out your dough and slap it on a lightly corn mealed pizza peel.  You can also use the back of a sheet pan if you don’t have a peel.

If at all possible, it's always worth it to make it.

Add an even layer of your red pepper pesto and then top it with the onions and fresh red peppers.

This sauce is maybe the best part of the pizza.

Next pile on your cheese and finally those shrimpies.  Try to keep the shrimp in one layer or they might not cook all the way through.  You can pile them on though as long as they don’t overlap.  They will shrink up when they are cooked.

Nice shrimpies.

About 12-14 minutes in a 500 degree oven and your shrimp should be cooked perfectly, your cheese melted, and your crust super crunchy and delicious.

I could barely wait to eat it.

Honestly, I had never really made a seafood pizza before, but it worked really well.  I ate about half of this pizza for dinner one night and took the other half for lunch the next day.

As with most pizzas, it’s possible that this one was better cold.

This was pretty good cold the next day also.

If you are looking for a spicy and interesting pizza to try, definitely give this one a go.

Be sure to check back tomorrow also to vote on a new dish for next week!

A few months ago in Gourmet they reminded me that you can grill short ribs and you end up with this lovely chewy meat.  It’s how they traditionally prepare short ribs in Argentina.  Rather than braising them for hours, they grill them.  I spent a summer in Argentina with a friend, so I know how delicious these guys can be.

Short ribs on the charcoal.

The truth about these ribs are they are not for the faint of heart.  These guys are for meat lovers.  Short ribs are a fatty, tough cut of meat which is why they are traditionally braised for many hours.  The Argentines push all of that aside though and grill them up for just a few minutes which results in a flavor packed piece of meat which is very chewy, but in a good way.

It’s strange to say, but it I think it brings out the carnivore in people.  It’s impossible to eat these without literally knawing on the bone, and most people don’t even notice they are doing it.  It’s not something you would want to serve at a fine dinner, but man is it good.

In Argentina when you order really anything at all, you are given a big bowl of chimichurri.  As far as I can tell there are about a million different versions of chimichurri, but here is a pretty good one.

Red Chimichurri Sauce (From June 2009 Gourmet)
Makes about 2 cups

- 1 large head garlic, minced (yes, an entire bulb)
- 1/2 medium onion, chopped fine
- 1 Cup extra-virgin olive oil
- 3/4 Cup red wine vinegar
- 1/2 Cup chopped cilantro
- 1 Tablespoon smoked paprika
- 2 Teaspoons Argentinean aji molido, or if you can’t find that, just used crushed red pepper
- 2 Teaspoons cumin

Chimichurri cha cha cha.

Making the Chimichurri. This sauce couldn’t be easier actually. Just chop up your garlic and onion as fine as you can.  I actually stuck mine in my mini food processor and pulsed it a few times just to make sure it was minced really well.

Then whisk in all your other ingredients into your garlic and onion.  Let it sit for at least an hour before serving.  It’s a really potent sauce.  It pairs well with really strong flavors like, say, short ribs!

A serious sauce.

Prepping the ribs. I was able to find short ribs already chopped up, but if you can’t find them just ask your butcher.  They almost always have some in the back.  They are not a very popular cut so sometimes they don’t put them out.  If you do get them from the butcher, make sure you ask him to cut them into about 6 inch pieces.  That just makes the ribs much more manageable.

Give these guys a liberal dose of Kosher salt and pepper and let them sit at room temperature for about 20 minutes before hitting the grill.  Cover them lightly so they don’t attract dust and dirt.

Beauties.

Roasted Salsa.  Since I had access to a grill I wanted to take full advantage of it by trying a salsa idea that I’ve had swimming around in my head for a while.  It’s a tomatillo based salsa with tons of roasted peppers.

Roasted Pepper Salsa
Makes about 4-5 cups

- 1 pound of Tomatillos, papery part removed, halved
- 2 medium onions, quartered
- 2 red peppers, halved and deseeded
- 2 poblano peppers, halved and deseeded
- 3 jalapenos
- 1 lime
- Olive oil
- Salt and Pepper

Luckily, my grill friend had one of these nifty veggie holders which made grilling all this stuff super easy.

Grilled tomatillos are delicious.

I did it in two batches just to make sure the veggies got their fair share of the heat.  The tomatillos and onions need about 15 minutes on a medium heat grill, the peppers need a little less.

Obviously, if you don’t have one of these baskets this is still a very doable recipe.  Just get out those trusty tongs and get to work.

This is how you really roast peppers.

After everything has come off the grill just stick it all in your blender.  No need to take off the skins even.  Add your lime juice and a few Tablespoons of olive oil.  Buzz everything together for a minute or two and you should end up with this delicious salsa.  Season with a pinch of salt and pepper and you are all set.  It’s got a lot of heat actually and an awesome roasted flavor.

Between 5 or 6 people, we went through two large bags of chips and had no problem finishing off all this salsa.

Killer.

Cooking the ribs. Cooking the ribs is also pretty easy.  Basically, put them fat side down, on the hottest part of your grill.  Don’t touch them for a few minutes and then turn them to sear each side.  Should take about 8 minutes to sear the ribs completely.

Then move the ribs to a slightly lower heated area.  If you are using charcoal, that will be around the outside of the grill.  Let them cook slowly for about another 10-12 minutes in this area.  Still give them a turn every once in awhile, but not need to hover.

Inside are the ribs.

You don’t have to cover them.  In fact, Gourmet advised against it, but I’m a rule breaker so take that Gourmet.

When these guys come off they will have some crispy charred bits and some almost medium parts in the middle.  It’s almost a fight to get all the meat off of a rib.  They are really chewy, but that is the intended texture.  What do you gain in exchange for the chewiness?  A very rich, meaty flavor.

Get in touch with your inner carnivore for these guys.

Are you a carnivore?

I didn’t slather the ribs with the chimichurri.  Instead people kind of spoons what they wanted over their ribs as they ate.  The spicy chimichurri coupled with the strong meaty ribs is a perfect combo.

And so ended my grill fest. The ribs were good.  The salsa was outstanding.  Give both a shot if you can, but seriously.  The salsa people.  Try the salsa.

It’s always nice to trade recipes with someone because it is a great way to get out of a recipe slump.  This is a dish that Jeff introduced me to that I’ll be taking to a few cookouts over the weekend.  It is pretty simple, but packed with flavor.  You can eat it as a salad but I like to play up the name and serve it on chips as I imagine a Texan would do.

Caviar?

Jeff suggested some changes to the recipe because he’s made it a bunch of times.

Texas Caviar (adapted from this recipe)

- 1 16 ounce bag of dried black-eyed peas (soaked overnight in cold water)
- 1 bunch of scallions, only use the white part from half the scallions otherwise it will be too oniony.
- 1 green pepper, diced fine.
- 1 tomato, wash out the seeds and dice fine.
- 3 cloves garlic.
- 1 Tablespoon fresh oregano
- 1 Tablespoon fresh thyme
- 1 bunch of parsley
- 2-3 jalapenos depending on how hot you want it.
- 1 Tablespoon Worchestershire sauce (If you are actually trying to make this vegetarian, be sure to buy the version without anchovies.)
- 1 Tablespoon Tabasco or other hot sauce.
- Salt and pepper.  Jeff recommends adding a bunch of pepper – like a Tablespoon of it.

Vinaigrette dressing:
- 1 Cup olive oil
- 1/2 Cup balsamic vinegar

So as I mentioned, soak these beans overnight.  They will soak up a lot of moisture because, well, they are dry.

An overnight soak.

Drain them and rinse them off a bit with cold water.

Looking good.

Follow the directions on the package to cook them, but basically simmer them with some salt for about an hour until they are tender.  Be careful not to overcook them or they will just get mushy.

While that cooks you’ll need to get chopping.

The real flavor of the dish.

Spend some time chopping up all of the veggies to make sure they are small and uniform.  Especially with the peppers.  The last thing someone wants is a large bite of jalapeno.

How to chop a pepper.

Also, you can prep your vinaigrette dressing now.  I usually use a 3 parts olive oil to 1 part vinegar for a vinaigrette, but Jeff uses 2 parts olive oil to 1 part vinegar so I went with that and it works well in this dish.  The extra vinegar adds needed acid to the dish.

Just drizzle in the olive oil and whisk continuously for a few minutes.  Couldn’t be easier.

A whisk comes in handy.

This was a lot of chopping, but totally worth it.

This is kind of some work.

Then basically stir everything together.  Adjust the flavors a bit to your tastes.  For example, we added a bit more salt and probably another teaspoon of Worchestershire sauce and Tabasco.

Warning: after I took this photo I added some more dressing.

It’s great as a salad, it’s great as a dip, it’s pretty much just delicious.

$5 a chip please.

This is one of those magical salads that gets much better a day or two later.  Not that it isn’t good right away, but it will rock a day after.  No matter what though, make sure you give it time to chill in the fridge for at least a few hours.  Warm caviar is kind of gross.

Happy Memorial Day everybody.