Binge NYC: A Food Blog

Naming your favorite food. Such a huge question, isn’t it? Now, as someone that fully indulges my insane love for all things edible, you may think that I’d choose something fancy and complicated, requiring fifty stages of preparation and advanced culinary technique. Or something really obscure, that is only found on the north-east corner of a specific street in a tiny town in a country half-way across the world. Maybe something daring, something from which the average person would run screaming, a particularly nasty piece of offal perhaps, or that pufferfish sashimi that just might kill you if prepared incorrectly. It is with a tiny bit of embarrassment (and, to be honest, a tiny bit of pride) that I thus present my favorite favorite FAVORITE food in the world: pizza.

For me, pizza has it all. First and foremost, just the smell of a fresh-out-of-the-oven, golden brown, crispy-but-still-chewy crust…major swoon. And the cheese, all that ooey-gooey-melty-stringy goodness. But where the real beauty lies, the part that just pushes pizza right over the edge, that has to be the toppings. So, in honor of my truly limitless obsession, here are two pizzas I made last week. For the first, start by slicing up a few colorful heirloom tomatoes.

Gorgeous, right? Sprinkle with a bit of salt, and roll out your pizza dough. Now, I know there are fabulous pizza dough recipes out there, but when it comes to pizza, I generally lack the time and patience, being more of the but-I-want-it-I-need-it-I’ve-got-to-have-it-right-NOW persuasion. So I buy dough from either a local pizzeria or Whole Foods. Anyway, once you’ve got your dough rolled out, lay your lovely sliced tomatoes all across, mixing the colors for maximum visual impact, if you’d like to be fancy.

Tear up a nice creamy ball of fresh mozzarella and add to your pizza. If you love cheesy-melty pizza like I do, throw on a lot, if you are a bit more reserved, just scatter a few hunks here and there. Scatter across some pitted and halved kalamata olives too, if you like. A few leaves of basil would be lovely here as well. Add a luxurious drizzle of good quality olive oil, grind over a bit of black pepper, maybe a little parmaesan cheese, and pop into a 500-degree oven for until the crust is golden-brown and the cheese is bubbling.

The tomatoes become all sticky-sweet and fragrant; just heaven with the salty olives and creamy mozzarella. So, so good – check out that first photo! Now, the second pizza is a bit less traditional, but I can assure you, this baby is crazy delicious. After rolling out your dough, brush it with a healthy amount of olive oil. Then, thinly slice four or five shallots, and scatter those across the pizza. Dice two slightly under-ripe peaches, and toss with a bit of olive oil and a good glug of balsamic vinegar. Spread evenly in a single layer across the dough. Finally, take several ounces of goat cheese and crumble all over the top of the peaches. Season with salt and freshly ground pepper.

Bake in a 500 degree oven until the crust is golden-brown and the peaches look slightly roasted and juicy.

While you pizza is in the oven, mix up a quick little dressing of one-part champagne vinegar to three-parts olive oil. Sprinkle in a bit of salt and some freshly ground pepper, and toss with several cups of really gorgeous fresh arugula. Once your pizza is done baking, slice it immediately (trust me, doing so afterwards only creates a mess) and heap all that lovely arugula on top. Between the sweet, juicy peaches, the creamy, tangy goat cheese, and the fresh, vibrant greens, this pizza is absolute bliss on a hot summer day. Give ‘em both a try, but I warn you,  you may find yourself coping with a new pizza addiction.

This entry was posted on Thursday, September 3rd, 2009 at 11:32 pm and is filed under Pizza, Vegetarian. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.