California Dreamin'

Pizza Reconfigured

Anthony Vacchiano’s Greenwood farm is a “one stop shop” at the Montclair Farmer’s market. Not only do they have beautiful locally grown fruits and vegetables but they also have naturally raised, free range poultry including quail and pheasant, grass fed Black Angus beef and spring lamb. They make their own fresh & smoked mozzarella the night before each market and Anthony’s mom does the baking. Check out her fantastic peach or blueberry pies. They’re jam packed with the ripest fruit imaginable!

It was hard to decide what this week’s recipe should be, but being inspired by my recent trip to California and the healthy fresh twist they put on everything, I thought I’d put a spin on one of our local favorites …pizza! California pizza is a tad more adventurous then what we’re used to. Nontraditional pizza toppings and sometimes no tomato sauce … e-gads! Here’s a recipe with a nod to our west coast brethren. You can get all the fresh ingredients at the farmer’s market and with a quick run by any local grocery store you can pick up the crust ingredients.

Pizza:

Crust
Pre-heat oven to 400 degrees
Rosemary Garlic Flat Bread

1 cup all purpose flour
1 cup semolina flour
1 Tbs. + 1 tsp. Finely minced fresh rosemary
3 cloves finely minced garlic
Big pinch of salt
1 Tbs. olive oil
¾ cup warm water

Combine first 5 ingredients in a bowl
Make a well in the center of the dry ingredients and add the olive oil
Slowly add some of the warm water
With your hands mix the water into the dry ingredients till the dough comes together
Add additional water until the dough forms a soft ball. You don’t want the dough to be either too dry or too wet so add the water slowly. You may not use all of the water.
Wrap dough in plastic wrap and gently flatten into a disc shape
Refrigerate for a half hour
Dough can be cut into up to 8 pieces depending on how you will use it
Roll dough out very thinly and bake on a pizza stone or pizza pan until lightly golden brown and crispy

Serves up to 8 people
Serving suggestions: crackers, larger flat bread torn into shards, pizza crust

Topping

Caramelized Onion, Mozzarella & Proscuitto

Peel then slice two yellow onions into thin rings
Sauté till they have a caramelized color, season with salt & pepper and set aside
Roll out crust thinly and top with chunks of mozzarella,
onions & shreds of proscuitto
Bake till crust is golden brown and crispy