Hay Hay, it's Donna Day!
For ages now I've been stumbling across HHDD themes the day that entries close or just after. In December I decided to take charge of the situation and make a proper effort to keep an eye on ChichaJo 's blog to ensure that I didn't miss yet another one.
And hooray! My obsessiveness has paid off! This month's theme for HHDD is pizza. Double-hooray!
Each edition of HHDD produces amazingly creative and beautiful entries and I'll be the first to admit that I wanted to join the beautiful people—and food. I'm not sure how successful I've been in either the creative or beautiful departments, however I know that this pizza definitely tasted amazing, despite its rather homely looks!
My first instinct upon seeing the pizza theme was to recreate my favourite pizza: caramelised onion and feta with rosemary. It's a triumph of sweet, sour, creamy and salty flavours. One of Mr Waitrose's triumphs, in fact. However, as we're (a) back on the eternal/infernal diet and (b) it's not a pizza that Dave gets excited about—I am far too lazy to contemplate doing individual pizzas—I had to rethink things.
After some thought I settled upon making something more akin to comfort food than conceptual/cutting-edge stuff... meatball pizza.
Unlike 99% of the meatball pizza recipes you'll find in a Google search, my meatball pizza actually contains bona fide meatballs. Lately I've been using an Allegra McEvedy recipe which contains two of my current darlings—pork and fennel—and makes meatballs packed with flavour that always manage to be succulent despite being baked. By happy coincidence, I happened to have a bag of them stashed away in the freezer.
Alas, my sensible stashing of food in the freezer never seems to extend as far as putting tomato sauce in there, so I put together a pretty basic tomato sauce. In deference to my week of regional Italian cooking, I did make a proper soffrito and also let the sauce bubble gently for two hours, but I'd also happily use a quick 15-minute sauce or even a jar of pizza sauce. On this occasion I had the time to let the sauce cook for ages... so I did.
I'm happy to report that the pizza delivers a double-whammy of comfort. It's got all the familiarity and comfort of a pizza plus the spicy, snuggled-up on the sofa feel of a good bowl of spaghetti and meatballs. I was particularly pleased that I thought to drape slices of mozzarella over the meatballs to keep them from drying out. Of course, gooey cheese on top of meatballs tastes fantastic, too!
Boot notes: This is more of an Italian-American dish, although it does have its roots firmly in Naples where all the individual components hail from. So, here's to my second dish from Campania!
Meatball Pizza
If not dieting then please go right ahead and add extra cheeses! I'd happily add some grated Parmesan over the tomato sauce, loads more full-fat mozzarella and perhaps a few teaspoonfuls of ricotta dolloped on after baking...
Serves 2
WW (UK) estimate points per serving: 13
Crust
225g plain flour
1teaspoon caster sugar
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 packet easy-blend yeast (3.5g approx)
2 teaspoons extra-virgin olive oil
approx 140ml of warm water
Topping
basic tomato sauce (recipe follows, or use your own favourite pizza sauce)
6 left-over meatballs, halved
1 small onion, halved and cut into very thin moons
1 ball light mozzarella, sliced thinly or shredded
Basic Tomato Sauce
1 teaspoon olive oil
1/2 small onion, finely chopped
1/2 small carrot, finely chopped
1/2 small stick celery, finely chopped
1 can whole plum tomatoes
approx 150ml beef stock
salt and pepper
If you're making your own tomato sauce then start off with that as it takes a while to make. Sweat the onion in the oil until translucent. Add the carrot and celery, cook until beginning to soften.
Tip the tomatoes in and stir carefully. Don't break up the tomatoes at this stage as it will make the sauce bitter. Season with a little salt and pepper. Allow to simmer for a couple of hours and splash in some stock from time to time as necessary to prevent it from catching.
Heat the flour in the microwave for about 20 seconds. Stir well. Stir in the sugar, salt and yeast. Make a well and pour in the oil and about half the water. Pour about half the water into the well and stir well. Mix to a soft but not sticky dough adding more water as necessary.
Knead for 5 minutes then put in a clean bowl and cover tightly with clingfilm. Leave to rise for about an hour until doubled.
Preheat oven to its maximum temperature and put a baking stone or heavy baking sheet on the middle shelf.
Either roll the dough out on a baking sheet or do the stretchy-twirly thing by hand and then transfer to the sheet. Build up the edges slightly to keep all the sauce on the crust.
Spread the sauce onto the crust--you may not need all of it--arrange the meatball halves evenly, scatter onion slices over the whole thing, and top off with the mozzarella. It's a good idea to put some cheese over the meatballs!
Place the baking sheet in the oven on top of the preheated sheet (or stone). Bake for 12 minutes, turning the sheet around after 9 minutes to ensure that all of the crust is cooked fully.
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Comments
Glad you decided to participate in HHDD, this sounds awesome! (I'm also hooked on pizza and will be getting my entry up sometime soon...)
1. Posted by Brilynn on January 19, 2008
Your pizza looks great. I ahve never seen a pizza with actual balls of meat on before, brilliant idea.
2. Posted by Katie on January 19, 2008
I love this! You are so right...meatballs = comfort! I cannot believe I have never had meatball pizza in my life...well, that is going to end thanks to you! :)
Great entry and thanks for joining HHDD! :)
3. Posted by joey on January 23, 2008
Hmm meatball pizza, I love it :) Thanks for joining HHDD.
4. Posted by barbara on February 3, 2008
Beautiful! Two of my favorite foods and you brought them together perfectly, I definitely have to try this!
5. Posted by LyB on February 3, 2008
Thanks, everyone! I hope that you'll enjoy the pizza if you try it out :)
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on
February 4, 2008