pasta sauce – Cooking the Books

OK, I think I’m officially on board with the bread-baking phenomenon. It just took me a little longer to get there than everyone else.

I’ve long liked the calming effects of kneading and the comforting aroma of bread rising, so I’m surprised I haven’t satisfied my soul sooner. Besides, as I have shown, I’ve long loved being a baker.

Even better, after making Serious Eats’ focaccia, I perused their other bread options and was delighted to find the double comfort of pizza and bread.

It sounded pretty easy, and because it called for a pound of pizza dough, and my measurements for my favorite dough don’t lead to exactly a pound, I just made a double batch and hoped there would be some leftover to have a homemade pizza later in the week. I was not disappointed.

With ingredients like garlic, dough, pepperoni, Parmesan, and red pepper flakes, it’s impossible for it to have turned out bad.

My only issue was pre-cooking the pepperoni with the garlic resulted in slightly crunchy pepperoni pieces in some cases after baking. It still didn’t taste bad, but I question if it’s totally necessary to pre-cook the meat, or maybe I’d just cook it for the barest minimum amount of time or on a lower setting to ensure the garlic gets cooked into the butter and crisps a little.

Still, we had no problem eating all 24 knots in just a few days.

Here’s what I did, mostly sticking to the recipe, only making my own dough:

Ingredients

2 T. butter
2 T. olive oil, plus more for drizzling
4 oz. pepperoni, cut into ¼ in. squares
Red pepper flakes, to taste
6 cloves garlic, minced
¼ c. chopped fresh parsley leaves
2 T. chopped fresh chives
¾ c. Parmesan cheese, grated, divided
Flour, for dusting
1 lb. homemade or store-bought pizza dough (I used about ⅔ of a double recipe of my favorite dough recipe here and reserved the rest for a thin-crust homemade pizza)
Pizza/Pasta sauce, for serving

Directions

Heat butter and oil in a 9- to 10-inch cast iron skillet over medium heat until butter melts. Add pepperoni and cook until it starts to crisp, about 2 minutes (see note above about doing this for slightly less time). Add pepper flakes and garlic, and cook for about an additional 1 minute. Remove from heat and add the parsley and chives, and stir to combine. Transfer mixture to a large bowl and stir in ½ c. of the Parmesan. Do not wipe out the skillet.

On a lightly floured surface, divide the dough in half. Take one piece and roll or stretch into a rectangle about 8 in. long by 4 in. wide. Use a bench scraper or sharp knife, and cut crosswise into 12 strips. Repeat with the other half, to yield 24 total strips.

Tie each strip into a knot and transfer to the bowl with the pepperoni, etc. mixture. Use your hands to toss and fold to coat the knots in the mixture. Place the knots in the skillet in a single layer, and drizzle with more olive oil.

Cover the skillet with plastic, and set aside until doubled, about 4 hours. Or, do as I did, and refrigerate for about 12 to 16 hours.

When ready to bake, heat the oven to 425 degrees, and place oven rack in the center. Remove the plastic wrap. Sprinkle on the remaining ¼ c. cheese. Place skillet in the oven and bake until golden brown and crisp, about 25 to 30 minutes. Brush on additional olive oil and enjoy with pizza sauce!

Another week of self-isolation, another simple recipe for the end times.

My sweetie found this simple egg dish from the Add a Pinch blog that managed to use ingredients we mostly had lying around the house. We did end up needing to get more eggs by the time I worked up the energy to make it, but so much of the dish called “eggs in purgatory” includes household staples that make this a simple and tasty breakfast, brunch, lunch, or dinner.

As is typical when I try to poach eggs, I overcooked them. I pretend that one day I’m going to solve this but I have eaten eggs where the whites aren’t quite done and I would rather eat hard yolks for an eternity than have to eat underdone eggs ever again. So, I will live with my choices.

However, for you dear reader, know that 9 minutes is likely waayyyy too long; three minutes definitely was still too short, so somewhere in between is probably good.

Other than that (not very) helpful advice, the only other key is to use a good tomato sauce as it makes up most of the flavor. I ended up using a straight up pre-made pasta sauce, particularly arrabbiata, so if you have that on hand, it’s even better. Oh, and a good bread to serve this with makes this dish go from good to great.

Here’s what I did, slightly adapting the recipe:

Ingredients

~1 T. olive oil
1 small onion, chopped
1 ¼ c. tomato sauce or pasta sauce (the more flavorful the better, but whatever you have on hand will work)
2 large cloves of garlic, minced
¼ t. red pepper flakes (I didn’t measure but did not use a lot as arrabbiata is already semi-spicy)
Salt and pepper, to taste
¼ c. fresh parsley, chopped, divided
4 eggs
¼ c. grated Parmesan cheese
Toasted bread, for serving (optional)

Directions

Drizzle olive oil into a 9- or 10-inch skillet set over medium heat. Once the skillet warms, add the onions and cook about 3 minutes until tender. Add the garlic and cook another minute.

Then, stir in the tomato/pasta sauce, red pepper flakes, and salt and pepper. Add about half of the parsley and cook for about 5 minutes to allow the sauce to thicken and flavors to meld.

Break eggs into each quarter of the skillet on top of the sauce (the recipe, of course, says to place it into a small bowl first, but I’ve never dirtied another dish *embarrassed face*). Top with the grated cheese and any additional salt and pepper, as desired.

Cover the skillet and cook until the whites are set and the yolks are done to desired level (see note above for how long-ish to do that). Remove from heat, sprinkle on the remaining parsley, and any additional cheese, and enjoy with a fancy bread!

Tag: pasta sauce

Pizza bread!

This is hell, time for purgatory eggs