Collard Greens Pesto

 What? Yes, you can pesto anything.  Normally when I make a salad pizza, I'll use an arugula pesto but this week I didn't have any left in the freezer, and I wasn't about to go and buy more greens when I had a bunch of collards, half a bunch of kale and a good amount of lettuce still sitting in the crisper.  And the collards were from the CSA almost 3 weeks ago!  I will say, that's the advantage of CSA/farmer's market produce, it's so generally so fresh that it lasts a long time in the fridge (especially if you clean and package it like this), unlike the bags and boxes of salad you get at the grocery store that seem to turn to slime after a few days. At any rate, I hadn't had a chance to cook the collards, but I had cleaned and chopped them as soon as I got them home (they fit in the fridge much better that way) so they were ready to be turned into my first attempt at collard pesto.  

Collard Pesto (Recipe adapted from Garden & Gun)

Makes about 12 ounces of pesto

• 4 cups chopped collard greens (a small bunch will give you this much)
  
• 3 cloves garlic, peeled
• 2/3 cup EVOO
• 2 oz grated parmesan cheese
• 1/2 tsp grated lemon zest
• 1 1/2 tbs lemon juice 
• 1/2 cup toasted pecan halves
• 1/2 tsp kosher salt (adjust to taste)
• 1/2 tsp freshly ground black pepper

Directions:

In a food processor, combine the pecans, garlic, ¼ cup of the oil, the cheese, lemon zest, and lemon juice and blend or pulse several times to combine. Add the greens and pulse a few times to get them started (you can use a spatula to push the greens down between pulses). Add salt and pepper Add the rest of the olive oil slowly through the feed tube while the food processor is running and process to the desired consistiency. Taste and adjust seasoning.  

This will keep several days in the refrigerator and also freezes well.

Here it is going on the pizza dough:

I use the parchment to help me slide the pizza onto the pizza stone, I bake the pizza for 5 minutes at 500°F, then remove the parchment and bake for 5 more minutes. 

The finished product - I drizzled the lettuce with about a tsp of olive oil and lemon juice and grated a bit of parm on it:

 Full salad pizza recipe and process here. Overall collard pesto was a success! 

Pizza and greens

Pizza with greens is one of they ways I use up the avalanche of greens that hit us in the spring in the CSA.  I make "salad pizza", Kale Pizza and Spinach Pizza pretty regularly in those early weeks of the CSA.  As the greens slow down in the heat of the summer to make way for squash, tomatoes, eggplant, okra and peppers, I don't make it as much, or make pizza with other toppings from the CSA.  But hands down, I really think that pizza is one of the best ways to turn a mountain of greens into something delicious (pasta is a close second).  This week I was surprised w/a bunch of rainbow chard in the box, and while I've got a go-to pasta I make with chard, I wondered if I could give it the pizza treatment. It turned out pretty well! The only downside compared to the recipes linked above is that I had to cook the chard for a bit before it went on the pizza, so, pans to wash.  I might try this with bacon instead of pancetta next time chard appears in my box.  For the dough I use a recipe from Mark Bittmann that comes together fast in the food processor and freezes well.  I've recently adapted it to use a sourdough starter rather than yeast, in light of the fact that I haven't seen yeast at my local Harris Teeter since March!  I'll post that later, but until then both Trader Joes and Harris Teeter will happily sell you a ball of pizza dough, andthose also freeze well.

Chard Pizza (adapted from this recipe for White Pizza with Chard and Caramelized Onions, plus all the other pizza recipes linked above!)

Ingredients

• 1 ball pizza dough (12-16 oz Note: My recipe makes 2 12-oz balls, what you buy at the store is usually 1 lb)
• 4 oz pancetta, chopped
• 1 bunch rainbow or swiss chard, stems cut off and discard and leaves roughly chopped ( usually roll up a few and cut them crosswise into strips about 1" wide)
• 1 garlic clove, minced
• 1 onion, cut in half through the root and thinly sliced crosswise
• 2-3 garlic cloves, peeled and sliced thin
• 1-2 tbs olive oil 
• 1 tsp red pepper flakes (optional)
• 3 oz shredded gruyere 
• 2 oz shredded mozzarella (you could sub all mozzarella if you don't have gruyere)  

Directions 

• Preheat oven to 500°F (preferably with pizza stone, if you don't have one you could use a baking sheet, adjust cooking time as necessary)
• Heat a 10-12" skillet over medium heat, add chopped pancetta and 1/2 cup water.  As the water heats it will help render some of the fat out of the pancetta, and then as the water evaporates the pancetta can continue to crisp up in the rendered fat. Once the pancetta is lightly browned, remove it from the pan and drain on a paper towel, leaving the fat in the skillet.
• Drain all but 1-2 tsp fat from the pan (reserve the rest), add chard and minced garlic and cook over medium heat for 2-3 minutes until wilted, remove from pan.
• Add 1-2 tsp reserved fat (or olive oil) to the pan, add sliced onions, reduce heat to low.  Cover and cook, stirring occasionally for 20-25 minutes until onions are tender and caramelized (Note: if all the moisture evaporates and the onions start to stick or burn, you can add a little water).
• Place sliced garlic in a small microwave safe bowl, add 2 tbs of olive oil and microwave for 30 seconds.
• Roll out pizza dough into a circle, place on parchment paper on top of pizza peel.
• Brush pizza dough with garlic oil (you don't need to use all of it!), fish out pieces of garlic from the oil and sprinkle them over the dough.  Sprinkle the red pepper flakes over the dough.
• Spread cheeses evenly over dough
• Spread 1/2 crisped pancetta over dough (you could use all of it, this was just all I wanted)
• Spread cooked chard over dough, then onions.
• Slide pizza w/ parchment onto pizza stone.  Bake 5 minutes.
• Remove parchment paper (pizza will now be sitting directly on stone).  Bake another 5-7 minutes until crust is lightly browned.
• Slice and eat!

Some pics!
The chard:

So, ok, I'm terrible at taking photos while cooking, but at least I remembered the final product:

Microgreens Pesto

The past few weeks we've been getting "microgreens" in the CSA basket.  I think they are radish sprouts?  Anyway,they are very peppery, a bit too peppery for me to eat on their own.  I thought they might make a good substitution for arugula in this  this arugula pesto recipe, which I've been making for awhile.  We really liked it on what we call a "salad pizza" and I"m sure it'd be good on grilled meat or fish as well.  The main change I made besides using the microgreens instead of arugula was to use pistachios instead of the pine nuts I usually use.  You can by a bag of them at Costco and they're good for snacks and salads, and work very nicely in this pesto.

Microgreens Pistachio Pesto (adapted from Arugula Pesto from Serious Eats)

Ingredients

1 cup packed microgreens
2 tbs shelled pistachio nuts (roasted and salted)
1/2 oz freshly grated parmesan cheese
2 medium garlic cloves, coarsely chopped
1 tsp lemon juice
2 1/2  tbs olive oil (a little more if you think it needs it)
Kosher salt and black pepper to taste

Instructions
 
Place all the ingredients except olive oil, salt and pepper in a food processor, and pulse until finely chopped, scraping down the bowl with a spatula as required. While the processor is running, add olive oil slowly to form a smooth paste.  Add additional olive oil if you like your pesto a little more loose.  Add salt and pepper to taste.

Can be frozen - I either use an ice cube tray or freeze it in 1/4 cup amounts in snack sized ziploc bags that I press flat and put in a quart freezer bag. The 1/4 amount is just right for a pizza.

This is easy to double if you've got an overabundance of greens.

Moar Pizza - and greens

So, I'm a big fan of pizza.  Also a big fan of anything that uses up the greens.  So both were on display in this recipe from Smitten Kitchen for Crispy Spinach Pizza.  Modifications I made:

• I used my usual pizza dough from Bittmann.
• I didn't have fresh mozzarella so I made do with the shredded stuff in the bag.
• I used 2 oz less of the mozzarella.
• I sliced the garlic, poured a Tbs of olive oil over and microwaved it for 30 sec, fished it out to put on the pizza dough.
• I cooked the pizza for 5 minutes on parchment, then pulled it out to finish.  

Yes, it looks like we "melted Oscar the Grouch" on a pizza, but it still tastes pretty darn good.

 Some pics!
Pull the stems off the spinach:

The dough with all the cheeses:

Pile up the spinach:

Melted Oscar:

Tasty!

everything can be a pizza or flatbread

So you need lunch or dinner fast.  You look in the fridge and see an assortment of odds and ends and think - "Hey, that might make a good pizza/flatbread".  Using this technique described by Kenji Lopez-Alt, all you need is a 10" flour tortilla, a heavy skillet or frying pan and some toppings.  What did I have?  Cheese, some grilled eggplant (from last week's CSA), some grilled chicken and garlic confit in olive oil I'd made using this Vivian Howard recipe for a butterbean hummus I still need to make.

Technique:

Heat a skillet (cast iron or  I use a  ceramic non-stick) over medium high heat  and add 1-2 tsp of olive oil.  Pre-heat the broiler and adjust a rack to 6-8" below the broiler. Have all your toppings ready to go.  For this pizza, I used:

Large flour tortilla
Garlic confit in olive oil (see recipe above - used garlic from the CSA)
Chopped grilled eggplant (from last week's CSA)
Chopped grilled chicken
Mozarella cheese

For this, I used 1-2 tsp of the oil from the garlic confit to spread over the tortilla as "sauce".  
Once the oil in the skillet is smoking hot, use a paper towel to wipe the oil out of the pan, leaving a thin coating behind.  Drop in the tortilla, rough side down (oil side up!) and reduce heat to low.  Add your toppings (chopped confit garlic clove, eggplant and chicken) and cover w/ mozzarella.  Try to spread the cheese to the edge of the tortilla.  Put the plan under the broiler and heat for 2-4 minutes until the cheese is browned and bubbly.  Remove from oven and use a spatula to release the pizza from the pan - if it's not quite browned and crispy enough of the bottom, heat carefully over medium heat, swirling the pan.  Remove from pan to a cutting board, slice into pizza-style triangles or squares if you're a rebel and serve.

Adapt this technique to whatever ingredients you have on hand!

Blueberry Barbecue Pizza (Flatbread)

Pizza..flatbread...pizza...flatbread.  What's the difference?  I reckon if something is called a "pizza" it should be vaguely Italian, which this was not.  What's used from the CSA?  Thinly sliced red onion and a chopped red Thai chili from last weeks' basket.

So, I've been working on a lot of Vivian Howard's recipes from Deep Run Roots.  Early this summer, I made her Blueberry Barbecue sauce, and I've used it on pork barbecue, as well as on grilled chicken or pork.  I've also used it as a flavoring for seltzer (like a "shrub").  I found a recipe online in which she used the Blueberry Barbecue sauce on a barbecued chicken flatbread:  Link to flatbread recipe

I love to make pizza, so this was super-intriguing.  Recently I had some leftover grilled pork tenderloin, and I had the sauce in the fridge and, believe it or not, some smoked gouda from some other recipe I can't recall the name of. But there it was, threatening to get moldy so let's use it up!  I used the recipe as a guide.  I substituted chopped grilled pork tenderloin for chicken, and used the red onion from the farm.  I didn't have jalepeños, but I did have some Thai red chilies from last week's basket and I used one of them.  I also used this pizza dough recipe: Link to pizza dough recipe.

I rolled out 12 oz of dough to make a flatbreat, and covered it with 4-5 tbs of Blue Barbecue sauce.  Then I put the chopped pork tenderloin (4 oz) on, and added 5 oz of the shredded smoked gouda.  I added about 1/2 cup thinly sliced red onion, and one chopped red Thai chile.

Before baking:

note: I start my pizzas on parchment - bake 5 min, then slide off the parchment onto the stone and bake 5 more min.  Much easier to get the raw pizza dough onto the stone.

After baking:

Ugly, but very, very tasty.

Slowly but surely...

Last night, pizza again.  I found this recipe for Kale Pizza here.  Since I had two big bunches of greens staring at me, along with a ball of premade pizza dough (from Saturday's post  - it gets better if it sits in the fridge for a couple of days, you can also freeze it) I thought this would be a good way to go.

The recipe is from Kenji Lopez-Alt of Serious Eats.  He's known for his meticulous work on developing recipes, sort of an Alton Brown meets Cook's Illustrated on steriods.  I had to adapt the recipe a bit, but the two main ideas I used were:

1.  Pre-cook the pizza w/ cheese for about 5 minutes, then add the kale and cook for another 5-7 minutes.  This means the kale doesn't burn before the pizza cooks.
2. Massage the roughly chopped kale for a few minutes with olive oil, salt and pepper to soften it up.

Kale Pizza  (adapted from Charred Kale Pizza with Garlic)
Ingredients
1/2 recipe of pizza dough (from this post)
4-7 oz  roughly chopped kale
3 tbs olive oil, divided
4 oz shredded mozzarella cheese (about 1 cup)
2 oz shredded gruyere cheese (about 1/2 cup)
2 cloves garlic
salt and pepper

1.  Preheat oven with pizza stone on bottom rack to 500°F
2. Remove the stems and roughly chop the kale (you'll have between 4-7 oz, about 5-8 cups).
3. Put the kale in an salad spinner, wash w/ 2 changes of water and spin dry.
4. Drizzle 1 tbs olive oil over the kale, season with salt and pepper, and massage/rub the kale until it is complete coated with oil.  Set aside.
5. Peel and slice the garlic cloves thinly.  Place in a small bowl or ramekin that is microwave safe and add 2 tbs of olive oil.  Cook in the microwave for 30 seconds to soften garlic.
6. Roll out pizza dough and place on a piece of parchment on a pizza peel.
7. Use a pastry brush to brush the dough with the garlic olive oil (you don't need to use all of it!). Fish out the garlic pieces and sprinkle them over the dough.  
8. Sprinkle the cheese over the dough
9. Bake for 5 minutes.
10. Using the peel, remove the pizza from the oven, discard parchment paper.  Sprinkle the kale over the pizza and put back in the oven for 5-7 more minutes until the kale is crispy on top.

I didn't take a bunch of pics but here are a few:

The massaged kale

The finished product

Overall it was very tasty, but there are a few things I'd do differently (other than take a better picture of the finished product!)

1. Use more of the gruyere cheese, and reduce the amount of mozzarella.  As Kenji points out, the gruyere is really good with the kale.  
2. Add more garlic, and add some of the red pepper flakes in Kenji's recipe.

So, how did we do on this weeks produce?

• 3/4 pound salad mix  just a little bit left, enough for some salad today
• 3/4 pound spicy salad mix (lots of arugula and other spicy greens) Used most of it for the pizza and pesto, I also tossed it into fritatas this week
• 1/2 pound spinach
• 1 pound kale
• 1 pound collards
• 1 bunch beets
• 1 bunch carrots
• 1 bunch turnips I've used about 1/2, but found out I like them cooked too.
• 1 head lettuce (looks like butter lettuce) 

Left over from last week:

•  2 green onions 

Not so worried about the beets, carrots and turnips, they'll keep, but I need to do a better job on the greens (also the beets and turnips come with their greens attached, so you can add those greens to the collards, kale and salads).  CSA pickup is today, so we'll see what's next! (I'm guessing more salad...)

A Royal Wedding and Salad Pizza

Hi y'all-
And y'all for real.  I got to spend the very early morning (up at 4am) watching the Royal Wedding live, and my favorite part was Bishop Michael Curry, who BROUGHT IT. And you should take a moment to watch his sermon, with tea or without. Nothing from the CSA ended up in our breakfast this morning, but it was delicious.
We had:
Sausage Rolls (made w/ PTB Sausage)
Scones  with homemade orange marmalade, strawberry jam and clotted cream (hard to find in the 'boro)
Tea Sandwiches with radish spread from Deep Run Roots and cucumber. (see post here for recipe, sandwiches on Pepperidge Farm Very Thin White Bread)
English Breakfast Tea (a proper brew).
All super tasty.

Cut to life after the wedding, folks that need to be fed and who are not as interested in the wedding...

Time for some pizza!

I made Mark Bittman's Pizza Dough from "How to Cook Everything" which is my favorite. This recipe is very similar, but I use 14 oz of flour (see measuring with weights rant earlier). 

This is a "salad pizza" meaning that after you pull out of the oven, you douse it salad greens.  It's very tasty and makes you feel better about eating a pizza.

The base for the pizza is an arugula pesto that I make using the Spicy Salad Mix from the Guilford College Farm (it's very spicy, and has a lot of arugula in it).  I use this recipe - changes I make are using 1/4 cup of oil instead of 1/3 cup, and I sub toasted pine nuts for the walnuts.  I whirled some up this afternoon, but I got no pics.  I freeze it in a ice cube tray so I can pull it out all winter.

Pizza:
Rolling out the pizza and covering w/ about 1/4 cup of arugula pesto, prosciutto and mozzarella:

Note: I put the pizza on parchment paper, it makes getting in pizza onto the stone in the oven SO MUCH EASIER!  Then after 5 minutes I take it out so the pizza can crisp up ( you can also make this pizza on the grill, that post will come later this summer!) The pizza cooks for a total of 10 minutes at 500°, so 5 minutes with the parchment, and then 5 minutes without.

When it comes out, cover it up with spicy salad:

Then cut it up and eat!