Carbonara Pizza

I love this pizza. I love its thin crust, it's crispy bits of prosciutto, it's little bits of green onion. I love it runny egg and all. I love this pizza so much, that I want to make it Saturday night for dinner, eat the leftovers for breakfast Sunday morning, and then make it again with the remaining pizza dough Monday night.

Oh wait, I already did that.

Did I mention that I've also been trying to eat healthier lately? I'm sure a 3-day pizza diet isn't included in that. But at least we shared the pizza on Monday with my parents, which meant no leftovers to snack on, and we ate it with salad, see?

Salad negates bad diet choices, correct? Yeah, I thought so.

Make this pizza. It's yum. And totally worth a 3-day pizza binge.

Carbonara Pizza
Adapted from Sunset, February 2010

Pizza Dough
I used my favorite pizza dough recipe here
Note: this recipe makes enough dough for six pizzas, extra dough can be refrigerated for two days, or frozen for up to 3 months.

Carbonara Topping
8 or 9 green onions, chopped
9 ounces coarsely chopped prosciutto
1 1/2 cups coarsely grated pecorino romano
Freshly ground black pepper
9 tablespoons heavy cream
3 eggs

If following the pizza dough recipe above, prepare dough, and let it sit at room temperature for 2 hours for the final rise.

Heat a pizza stone or baking sheet on lowest rack of oven at 550° (or as high as oven will go), at least 30 minutes (I like to let mine preheat an hour if possible).

Once dough and oven are ready, working with one dough ball at a time (keeping the rest covered), begin to assemble each pizza. Here are some helpful pizza dough shaping instructions:

To stretch dough into an 11- to 12-in. circle, first tap down the center of the ball with your fingertips to gently deflate it. Next, push it outward from the center with your fingertips. Then pick up the dough circle and, holding it under the rim, turn it like a steering wheel, letting the gravity of the dough help it stretch. Drape the dough over the backs of your hands and gently stretch outward, rotating periodically. Flop the stretched dough down onto the pizza peel.

Spread about 1/2 cup pecorino evenly over dough. Top with a third of green onions, then a third of the prosciutto. Grind on some pepper and drizzle with 3 tbsp. cream. Give the peel a good shake every few seconds to keep dough from sticking.

Using peel or baking sheet, slide pizza onto preheated pizza stone. Bake 2 minutes, then remove from oven with pizza peel or baking sheet, crack an egg onto center, gently push back into oven, and bake 3-4 minutes more. Just before serving, drag a knife through the egg to spread it around.

Repeat with 2 dough balls and remaining toppings.

Asparagus and Cheese Pizza

This is an asparagus pizza.  I can vouch for its deliciousness because it's sitting happily in my belly, even though the dough and I got in a big fight.  All is well now.  We worked it out.  I'll give you the recipe in a minute, but since I've enticed you here with pictures of golden melted cheese , I figure I'd like to say a few things.

The first is THANK YOU!  When Allison and I started writing Butter + Cream back in January, we didn't know what to expect.  The experience has been beyond rewarding, and we're looking forward to writing the site for a long time.  Thanks for your emails, comments, tweets, and ideas.  You rule the school. 

We've talked a lot and we agree that it's time to mix things up a bit.  We'll still be bringing you our favorites from the kitchen, but frankly, there are plenty of times that I get a great dish on the table, and I don't have step-by-step photos to show for it.  We've decided to deprive you no longer.  From now on, not every recipe posted on the site will have step-by-step photos.  We'll still do it as often as we can, especially when we try out a new technique, but this way you can count on more posts, more food, and even getting to know your bloggers a bit more.

Pizza!

Is there anybody out there that doesn’t love pizza? I would find that hard to believe with so many different variations out there. In just the United States alone there are so many different types of pizzas. From the wide foldable slices of NYC to the deep dish Chicago style, to California pizzas with their thin crusts and unique toppings. With so many choices, there’s got to be a pizza for every type of person.

Personally I haven’t found a style of pizza that I don’t like. I even like bad pizza. I’m not kidding. From frozen pizza to the worst restaurant chain pizza, there isn’t a slice that I would turn away. But we’re not talking about bad pizza right now. We’re talking bout goooood pizza. The kind of pizza that you won’t believe came out of your own oven kind of pizza.

Last week I provided you with a pizza dough recipe but no instructions on how to cook it and no topping suggestions. And that’s just not right to leave you all hanging like that. So I’m back at ya, with Pizza: Part Deux!

Pizza Dough

I have been on a bit of a pizza kick lately, and I think that you should join me. Mainly because I don’t want to be the only one who’s gorging themselves on pizza in January while those New Year’s Resolutions are still so fresh (thanks for the reminder Mary). But selfish reasons aside, there are many reasons you should make homemade pizza, one of them being that it’s damn tasty. It’s also one of those foods that may seem tricky to make at home, but is really not difficult at all, which means you can impress your friends with your awesome pizza making skills. And once you master a dough recipe that you really like, you will have the basis for endless variations of delicious pizzas.

Ok, so let’s get down to this dough making business. I’ve only been making pizza for about the past year or so, and in that time I’ve tried many different recipes. And I hadn’t found one that I could see myself using as my go-to dough recipe until now. The recipe comes from Bread-God Peter Reinhart’s American Pie: My Search for the Perfect Pizza, which will tell you just about everything you need to know about pizza. For example, the book contains eleven (11!) different recipes for just the dough alone. Needless to say, this book is for serious pizza devotees and can be a bit overwhelming at first. So I made it simple and just started with the first recipe in the book, and I may not end up going any farther than that.