Roast turkey and proscuitto pizza, and other forays into DIY frozen pizza

Early on in the pandemic I did a deep dive into frozen pizza. Not the kind from the freezer aisle, mind you, but the DIY kind.

I went down that rabbit hole partly because I'm aware that my sour dough always makes the most ebullient crust when it's never been refrigerated or frozen after its feeding. So I thought, why not make the crust and parbake it for my own, presumably better than Boboli base? I had made frozen pizza as a kid, but hadn't revisited it as an adult.

After lots of testing, I decided a very lightly topped pizza -- think thin red sauce with minimal cheese -- worked fine enough. If I added additional ingredients at the point I was ready to bake it, that was fine, but putting them on before freezing didn't yield the most satisfactory results: Better than store bought, but still a less perfect crust. 

Mostly I decided it was worth experimenting with frozen pizza, but it wasn't ever going to be as good as a newly raised and formed crust, so I just set myself a reminder to thaw a ball of dough overnight in time for Friday night pizza.

This was probably the most satisfactory frozen effort, a minimalist Margherita.

It wasn't a wasted effort, however, because I also went nuts trying out various pizza sauces to put on those frozen pizza attempts. While frozen crusts aren't all that useful, frozen small containers of sauce are a wonderful thing to have on hand. All the sauces I tried made perfectly fine pizza sauces. Surprisingly, the no-cook sauce using canned tomatoes from the Kitchn.com was a definitely viable repeater, and not just because it's super fast to make. I mostly fall into the cooked sauce camp, but that fast-fix version works just fine and makes plenty to freeze ahead in small containers.

My favorite cooked pizza sauce is probably still the one from "Little Pizza Guides" that I blogged about in this recipe for Roasted Garlic Bacon Pizza. (There's no meat in the sauce itself; it's just a versatile slow-simmered sauce that's handy to make ahead and store in one-pizza size servings.)

Another cheater's pizza sauce version that I've made as a bail-out sauce for years is a riff on Martha Stewart's Spaghetti 101 sauce: Heat 1 tablespoon olive oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Add 3 large garlic cloves thinly sliced and ¼ teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes and cook just until garlic is fragrant. Add 1 (14.5-ounce) can chopped tomatoes and increase heat to high and cook until liquid has mostly evaporated and it's tightened into a sauce. Season to taste with coarse salt.

Pizza: Just another reason to be happy it's Friday.

Roast turkey and prosciutto pizza
Adapted from Cooking Light. This was among the recipes we made on a crust that I parbaked and then wrapped in plastic wrap and tin foil, and then froze until we needed it.

Ingredients
1 par-baked pizza crust or purchased prebaked crust like a Boboli
¾ cup pasta sauce
½ cup shredded fontina cheese
1 cup (or less) shredded cooked turkey or chicken
1 tablespoon balsamic vinegar
½ cup thinly sliced red onion
¼ cup grated Parmesan cheese
3 thin slices of prosciutto, shredded into thin strips
A handful of arugula leaves

Method
Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Place crust on a baking sheet or stone. Spread pasta sauce over crust. Sprinkle with fontina cheese. Toss chicken with balsamic vinegar and spread over pizza. Top with red onion and Parmesan cheese. Bake for 12 minutes or until browned.

Remove from oven and top with prosciutto and arugula.

Rating: When I tried this recipe I commented that I liked this a lot more than I thought I would. To which my husband understandably asked why I had made it then. Not sure if I can explain properly the idea that sometimes a recipe strikes you as something so odd it might just work. Tossing the chicken with balsamic vinegar perks it up quite a bit. I used the full cup of chicken as directed, but if I make it again, I'll probably dial it back a bit for a better balance of flavors. But we enjoyed it.

Basic frozen pizza Step 1: Bake untopped crust at 400 degrees until just set but not browned,
about 8 to 10 minutes.Spread a thin layer of sauce over the cooled, par-baked dough.

Step 2. Top with additional toppings of choice.
Place in freezer on a parchment lined baking sheet until frozen.

Step. 3. Wrap frozen pizza well in plastic wrap, then tin foil and store in freezer.

Step 4. Bake frozen pizza at 400 degrees for about 20 minutes until golden brown.
Better than store-bought, at any rate.

Drink and a nosh: Bee's Knees and sesame cashews

The impetus for this cocktail was a fairly newish tea from Harney's called Bee's Knees that's reminiscent of the 1920s cocktail of that name. 

Here's the ingredients list for the tea: White tea, juniper berries, lemon peel, gin flavor, honey flavor, lemon flavor. Yes, please. It's a quite lovely tea for afternoon sipping, so I was curious to try the original inspiration.

Bee's Knees
Adapted from TeaSip, which recommended lavender honey tea for steeping the gin. I went with Harney's Bee's Knees.

Ingredients
2 ounces gin
1 tablespoon tea leaves
2 tablespoons honey
2 tablespoons water
1 ounce lemon juice
Lemon wheel or peel for garnish

Method
Put tea leaves in a steeper and let steep in the gin for 30 minutes. (Or you could add the leaves directly and then strain out the leaves.)

To make honey simple syrup, combine honey and water in a pot and heat until honey dissolves into the water. Remove from heat and let cool.

Combine steeped gin, honey simple syrup.and lemon juice with ice in a shaker. Shake well and strain into a cocktail glass. Garnish with lemon wheel or peel.

Rating: Looks prettier than it tastes. Not sure if the tea leaves brought anything to the party. Probably better to savor it as a warm cup of tea, where you get the bouquet of the cocktail on the nose without the sharpness. The tea is a keeper; this variation of a Bee's Knees not so much.

 

Sesame cashews
From “Apéritif” by Rebekah Peppler. While the book mainly focuses on cocktails, it includes a section on some noshes in the back, since woman does not live by cocktails alone.

Ingredients
2 cups raw cashews
2 teaspoons coconut oil, melted
2 tablespoons light, runny honey
½ teaspoon fine sea salt, plus more for finishing
¼ teaspoon smoked paprika
Pinch of cayenne pepper
¼ cup sesame seeds

Method
Preheat oven to 325. Mix cashews and melted coconut oil in a bowl. Spread on a parchment-lined rimmed baking sheet. Bake until light brown, about 8 to 10 minutes.

Meanwhile, mix honey, salt, paprika and cayenne in the same bowl as you mixed up the nuts with the oil. When the nuts are done toasting, toss them with the honey mixture to coat well. Stir in sesame seeds. Spread in an even layer on the baking sheet and return pan to the oven for another 8 to 10 minutes until golden and fragrant. Sprinkle with more sea salt and let cool completely.

Rating: Really pretty gosh darn tasty. They have just the barest hint of heat and aren’t overly salty. I can attest that they pair rather too well with red wine and dark beer, and are reasonably inhale-able. Luckily the recipe makes a fair amount. Mild stickiness factor, but not so much as to not be OK in a finger food setting. They keep fairly well so you can make them ahead; in fact I think they were slightly better the next day. They come together quickly, too, and don't mess up too many dishes, so all the way around a keeper. Mine don’t look quite as pretty as the picture in the book since the seed coating wasn't as even. Guess I’ll have to practice. 

Play along: Lost at Sea by Squirrel Nut Zippers 

3 more takes on fish tacos

If fish tacos are on the menu of any restaurant, it's hard for me to not order them, even if something else on the menu looks fantastic. I just have to check out all possible versions.

Similarly, if I see a recipe for fish tacos, I have to try it. Much like blueberry muffin recipes, as you might have noticed. It's the food equivalent of having to watch/read/attend any movie, book or play adaptation that purports to be Jane Austen-adjacent. But at least unlike the endless string of disappointments in the Austen-wannabe department, with fish tacos you get food out of the attempt.

Sizzling turmeric-dill fish tacos
From Bon Appetit, August 2022. This one gets a nuoc cham salsa on top of turmeric-dill marinated fish.

Ingredients
2 tablespoons lime juice
1 tablespoon plus 1 teaspoon fish sauce
2 teaspoons sugar
2 medium tomatoes, chopped
1 small red onion, finely chopped
1 Fresno or serrano chile, seeds removed and finely chopped
3 garlic cloves, finely chopped, divided
¼ cup chopped cilantro, plus more leaves for serving
1 teaspoon kosher salt
1 2-inch piece of ginger, peeled and finely grated
1 teaspoon ground turmeric
5 tablespoons vegetable oil, divided
1½ pounds firm fish, like cod or halibut
1 bunch scallions, dark green parts only, cut into 2-inch pieces
½ bunch of dill, coarse stems removed
10-12 tortillas, warmed
Topping options:
Thinly sliced red cabbage
Sliced chiles
Cilantro leaves
Chopped salted roasted peanuts
Lime wedges for serving

Method
Combine, lime juice, fish sauce and sugar in a medium bowl. Whisk until sugar is dissolved. Add tomatoes, red onion, diced chile, 2 chopped garlic cloves and ¼ chopped cilantro. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Cover and chill if making ahead a few hours.

For marinade, combine remaining chopped garlic clove, ginger, turmeric, kosher salt and 3 tablespoons of oil in a medium bowl. Cut fish into 2-inch pieces and toss to coat with turmeric mixture. Let sit 5-10 minutes. (Or you can cover and chill the fish for up to 2 hours ahead.)

Heat 2 tablespoons oil in large skillet. Cook fish about 4 minutes a side over medium high heat until golden brown and just cooked through. Toss in scallions and dill and cook until scallions are just wilted. Remove from heat.

Serve fish inside tacos topped with the salsa mixture, cabbage, cilantro leaves and other toppings as desired.

Rating: Definitely worth trying. Decent flavor. Fairly mild heat. You don't taste the dill at all amid everything else going on, but maybe you would miss its absence. We were happy to eat them, but I'm not sure they pass the effort-to-reward ratio test.

 

Fish tacos with mango avocado salsa
Adapted from “Fit Food: Eating Well for Life” by Ellen Haas

Ingredients
1 ripe avocado
¼ cup fresh lime juice
1 cup diced mango
¼ cup chopped red pepper
¼ cup chopped scallions
¼ teaspoon ground cumin
2 firm fish fillets, 8 ounces each
2 teaspoons canola oil
4 flour tortillas or up to 8 corn tortillas
1 cup shredded cabbage
2 plum tomatoes, diced
Lime wedges for serving

Method
Peel, pit and chop avocado. Combine with lime juice, mango, red pepper and scallions.

Brush fish with oil and season with salt and pepper. Grill about 5 minutes a side on a medium-high grill setting or pan fry in a bit more canola oil. Flake into pieces a couple of inches thick.

Heat tortillas in foil either on the grill or in a 300-degree oven for 5 to 8 minutes.

To serve, divide fish among tortillas (you may find you need to use two corn tortillas per taco if using or it won’t have enough structural integrity). Top with cabbage, tomatoes and salsa. Serve with lime wedges on the side.  Makes 4 tacos.

Rating: Fine. Fairly fast to assemble. I actually preferred this mango salsa, however.

 

If I run across a recipe that purports to be wickedly good and it involves fish tacos, well, clearly I have to give it a try. I paired this with some fish fillets dipped in cornstarch, then beaten eggs and then a mixture of cornmeal, salt and chili powder. I baked them for 10 minutes or so until done in a 400-degree oven, and paired it with some usual suspect toppings.

Wickedly good fish taco sauce
From SoupAddict.com

Ingredients
½ cup sour cream or Greek yogurt
½ cup mayonnaise
Juice of 1 to 2 limes
½ teaspoon cumin
½ teaspoon ground coriander
½ teaspoon dill weed
½ teaspoon dried oregano
¼ teaspoon ground chipotle chili powder
½ teaspoon capers, minced
1 hot pepper, seeded and minced
1 tablespoon chopped fresh cilantro leaves

Method
Whisk sour cream, mayonnaise and enough lime juice to make a pourable consistency. (I found I needed the juice of two large limes and it really still wasn't pourable, but maybe that makes for less messy tacos anyway.) Mix in spices, capers, pepper and cilantro and whisk thoroughly. Chill until ready to use, preferably at least an hour since the flavors deepen with more time.

Rating: Is it wickedly good? I wouldn't go that far. It's a tasty enough white sauce for Baja style fish tacos, certainly, but it would be better paired with pico de gallo as well rather than trying to have it stand on its own. As a potential white sauce for fish tacos, I give the edge to the cilantro aioli I tried as part of the elote pizza experiment.

It did work reasonably well as the special sauce on some Impossible Burgers. Better than the burgers, certainly, which were disappointing in flavor, texture and the fact that they made Dave sick. But they do look like burgers.

Don't know that I'll try to replicate the sashimi tuna tacos from New Scenic, but they were a change of pace at the fair this year. And of course we had to try them.

Elote pizza

 

We quickly got addicted to Pizza Lucé’s seasonal option of Elote Pizza, which it describes as Tajin spiced sweet corn, applewood smoked bacon, fresh jalapeño, sliced green onion, mozzarella and feta cheese on top of bianca sauce and drizzled with cilantro aioli.

While we will happily order this as long as it’s on the menu, I was spurred to try to create a version of it at home in case it disappears. Here’s our version.

Elote bacon pizza

Ingredients
1 risen pizza crust dough or a prebaked crust such as Boboli
2-3 tablespoons cilantro aioli (see recipe)
1 ear of sweet corn, grilled, sliced off cob
½ teaspoon or more Tajin seasoning (or other chili lime seasoning, like Trader Joe’s)
Four slices applewood smoked bacon, cooked crisp and crumbled
Half of a fresh jalepeño, seeded and sliced crosswise into rings
2 tablespoons chopped green onion
4 tablespoons feta or cotija cheese, crumbled
Cilantro leaves for garnish

Method
Preheat oven to 450 degrees.  If using pizza dough, form into a crust and place on a cornmeal-sprinkled baking stone. Or place prebaked crust onto pizza pan.

Prepare aioli according to recipe. Spread 2 to 3 tablespoons over crust to coat thinly. 

Toss corn with Taijin to taste. Sprinkle across crust. Top with bacon, jalepeño slices, green onions and feta or cotija cheese. Drizzle with some more aioli if desired.

Bake for 16-18 minutes for a raw crust, or 10-12 minutes for a prebaked crust, until crust is cooked and cheese is browned. Top with a garnish of chopped cilantro leaves.

Cilantro aioli
From julieblanner.com
1 cup mayonnaise
1 tablespoon lime juice
1 tablespoon minced garlic
¼ cup chopped cilantro leaves
¼ teaspoon sea salt
Combine all ingredients in a food processor. Puree until blended.This makes more than you will need for one pizza. So more pizzas! Or fish tacos!

Rating: Usually if I’m trying to replicate a recipe I pursue it relentlessly, refining it until I reproduce it just so. Not this time. That’s because this version is just dandy as it is. It’s not quite the same as Pizza Lucé’s, but if you gave me either version I would be pleased beyond measure. It's a really nice mix of mild heat, mmmm bacon and the freshness of corn and cilantro. It works perfectly fine on a Boboli as well as a freshly risen crust, so it's comparatively pantry friendly if you put up frozen roasted corn in the fall. Might be worth trying without bacon as well, but it's pretty darn tasty with bacon.

If you think about it, this should be the pizza Iowans turn to: Corn, check. Pork products, check. Instead, the latest Iowa pizza gimmick is the beer cheese breakfast pizza from Casey's celebrating the 21st anniversary of its breakfast pizza. (Casey's, if you're not familiar with the stories, is a chain of convenience/gas stations based in Iowa with locations through the Midwest and southern states.) Worse yet, they're calling it bizza. Worst yet, the beer is Busch Light. 

Usually I prefer a home-risen crust, but a Boboli also works pretty well for this pizza.