Asparagus Pizza

And so, I am back. I made some tasty dishes last week, but nothing too remarkable. There was a strawberry salad that I made for a picnic with the Sugar Daddy, with mint leaves and a honey-lemon vinaigrette dressing, but that's the most spectacular thing.

Last night, however, I was on my own for dinner - we were going to the Pub for trivia night, and sadly my current food policy prohibits my traditional fish and chips. (Not the beer, though, thank God.) I wasn't entirely sure what I would make for dinner, but I saw this as a pretty good opportunity, as I had some asparagus in my fridge that needed to be used. (Asparagus has been in season now for a couple weeks, by the way! If you're interested in eating seasonally, like I am, check out this page at Epicurious.com. It will tell you month-by-month what's in season for your state or any other state you like, and that way, you can find local ingredients at their freshest.)

And then, while I was at work perusing my RSS feed reader, what should arrive but this little gem? Mark Bittman, of Edward Schneider, a frequent contributor to the Bitten blog, frequents farmers' markets and focuses on seasonality; he got a bit tired of all the asparagus, as it's been around for a while now, and wasn't sure what to do with it. And then, he had one of those moments that people like me adore: when you see a few ingredients laid out in front of you, and a flash of inspiration hits and you build the perfect dinner in your head. Asparagus pizza! Brilliant!

I modified his plan slightly - I only used ricotta cheese, and I added thinly-sliced garlic to my pizza toppings (seriously. EVERYTHING.). It turned out extremely well - I'd recommend the garlic, but not my ricotta-only strategy. It doesn't melt as well as, say, mozzarella, and you get a drier pizza with toppings that tend to fall off a little. Still, it turned out quite delicious.

Asparagus Pizza (compiled from Mark Bittman's Bitten blog and www.smittenkitchen.com)

SmittenKitchen's Really Simple Pizza Dough

1 1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon salt
3/4 teaspoon active dry yeast (I used a whole package. It won't hurt anything.)
1/2 cup warm water
1 tablespoon olive oil

Mix together the dry ingredients in a large bowl. Stir in the water and olive oil, and stir the mixture into ball-like form.

Dump the mixture out onto a surface. (I found that the dough was oily enough not to need flour, but flour the countertop if your dough is sticky.) Knead it for a couple of minutes - just enough to develop a little gluten, but you don't want a super-elastic dough. If you're having trouble getting everything to become, or stay, a homogeneous lump, Deb at SmittenKitchen recommends upending the bowl over the whole mess and walking away for five minutes. When you come back, your dough should be much better-behaved.

Oil the bowl you mixed the dough in. You won't need much, and the bowl should be relatively clean. Turn the dough-ball in the oil to coat it, and then cover it with plastic wrap and let it rise until doubled in bulk, about an hour for me. (While my dough was rising, I made my Ricotta Cheese, recipe below.)

Once the dough is doubled, dump it out on the counter again and, with flat hands, press the gas out of it. Then fold it (don't clump it or knead it) into a sort of ball-ish-shape, throw the plastic wrap back over it, and let it sit for 20 minutes. (I chopped my veggies while the dough was resting.)

Ricotta Cheese (based on Daniel Meyer's efforts over at Bitten)

1 quart whole milk
1/2 teaspoon salt (or to taste)
Juice from 1 lemon

Pour the whole milk and salt into a saucepan over high heat. When the milk begins to simmer, turn the heat down and pour in the lemon juice. Like magic, curds will form and float to the top of the liquid in the pan. Give it three minutes or so, and then scoop the curds out with a slotted spoon. (I had a colander standing ready, lined with paper towels. Once I got toward the end of the curds, I just poured the whole mess through the colander - three layers of paper towels held up ok.) Drain the ricotta in the paper towels, pressing out all of the liquid and letting it dry for about an hour and a half. Voila!

Making the pizza

8 (or so) asparagus stalks, trimmed
3 cloves garlic
1/4 large onion
Ricotta cheese

Cut the asparagus stalks in half lengthwise, and then into 1 to 1 1/2 inch lengths. Slice the garlic cloves as thinly as possible, and do the same with the onion.

Once the pizza dough has rested (see above), preheat your oven to its hottest setting. Roll out the dough - I think pizzas look better when they're blobby and not round, but maybe I'm just sublimating my own inadequacies. Crumble the ricotta cheese all over the pizza. (Mark Bittman leaves the ricotta cheese off during the baking, and uses mozzarella for his base, adding the ricotta at the end - I'll try it his way sometime and let you know how it turns out.) Top the pizza with the vegetables, keeping it light so the crust can puff up. Then bake and serve! The pizza should bake for about 10 minutes, until the crust browns and blisters slightly. Mmm-mmm, good.