Tomato Soup

My deep dish pizza recipe already cribbed from Cook’s Illustrated, so why stop on Tuesday. This is their version of a creamy–creamless–tomato soup, and boy did they nail it. It’s a smooth, thick soup that puts the tomato flavor front and center. The thickness comes not from cream, but from torn pieces of bread that disintegrate into the soup and are then further blended into it. Not entirely unheard of, but still clever. All this makes for a delicious, but still low-fat and low-calorie soup.

A quick note though, this may be a tomato soup, but this is not vegetarian. Cook’s Illustrated uses chicken stock create a richness and depth to the soup. Vegetable stock would work to make this vegetarian and vegan friendly. The only thing that would be missing is the gelatin normally found in small amounts in real chicken stock. Go nuts though, there probably isn’t much gelatin in the store bought stuff anyway—just another good reason to make your own.

Tomato Soup

Creamy –creamless– Tomato Soup
From Cook’s Illustrated. [http://www.cooksillustrated.com/recipes/detail.asp?docid=16872]
Ingredients
1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
1 med onion, chopped
3 med garlic cloves, minced
Pinch hot red pepper flakes
1 bay leaf
2 (28-oz) cans crushed tomatoes (muir glen organic with basil is my favorite)
1 tbsp brown sugar
3 large slices sandwich bread (get something good, tear off the crusts)
2 cups low-sodium chicken broth (I don’t need to say it again, but homemade is best)
2 tbsps brandy (I don’t know why Cook’s Illustrated says it’s optional, it’s excellent)

Instructions
1. In a large pot over high heat, put in 2 tbsps olive oil. Add the onion and red pepper flakes, cook for 3 to 5 mins, stirring often, until the onion starts to get translucent. Add the garlic and bay leaf, cook for a minute more.
2. Add the tomatoes and their juice and mix well. Bring to a simmer. Tear the bread into chunks and stir it, and the sugar into the soup. Continue to simmer, stirring occasionally, until bread starts to disintegrate, about 5 mins. Remove bay leaf.
3. Blend in batches with 1 tbsp oil and process until soup is smooth. Return the soup to the pot, stir in the chicken broth and the brandy. Taste, add salt if needed.
4. Serve with cracked black pepper.

So good!

I’m a big fan of pizza and I’m really pleased by my standard pizza recipe. This deep dish dough is a little more difficult than a basic dough, but the pay-off is worth it. The dough doesn’t get soggy or crumble apart under the toppings. As I was eating this, I realized that this was almost taking the expression of “pizza pie” literally- it’s even baked in a standard pie pan! There are a few tricks that Cook’s Illustrated used to make this dough hold up to the sauces and ingredients piled onto the center. I’ll get into those techniques a bit later.

I know you can't tell, but under that delicious Parmesan topping is sausage and goat cheese. You'll have to click through at the bottom of the post see...

When it comes to choosing toppings for the deep dish pizza, my standard strategy of “less is more” doesn’t hold as true. A heavy dose of toppings, sauce, and cheese is almost required to fill this monster pie. Use anything you want, I suggest sausage and goat cheese, or spinach, onions, and ricotta.

Oh, and a note about making this recipe. I used a stand mixer to make the dough, so the methods reflect that. This could be done by hand, but why would I want to do that when I have my KitchenAid?

Ingredients
Recipe lightly adapted from Cook’s Illustrated.
Dough
3 1/4 cups (16 1/4 ounces) unbleached all-purpose flour
1/2 cup (2 3/4 ounces) cornmeal (it calls for yellow cornmeal for color, I just used regular)
1 1/2 teaspoons table salt
2 teaspoons sugar
2 1/4 teaspoons instant yeast
1 1/4 cups water (10 ounces), room temperature
3 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted
4 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened
1 teaspoon plus 4 tablespoons olive oil

Slice of pie.

Toppings
Pizza 1
1/4 pound mozzarella cheese , shredded (about 1 cup)
1/2 ounce grated Parmesan cheese (about 1/4 cup)
1/2 lb Italian sausage, casings removed, crumbled, browned
4 oz goat cheese
Pizza 2
1/2 pound mozzarella cheese , shredded (about 2 cups)
1 cup thawed, drained, frozen spinach
1 large onion, chopped (or better yet, caramelized!)
1/4 cup ricotta ricotta

Someone took my slice!

Instructions
First, make the dough.
1. Combine the flour, cornmeal, salt, sugar, and yeast in the bowl of a stand mixer. With the dough hook running on the lowest speed, add the water and melted butter and mix until fully combined–scrape down the sides as needed. Increase the speed to medium (#4). Allow to run until the dough is smooth and pulls away from the bowl (almost 5 minutes). It should be fairly smooth and only slightly tacky.
2. Coat a large bowl with 1 tsp olive oil and transfer the dough to the bowl. Turn the dough ball once or twice to coat lightly with oil. Cover with plastic wrap and allow to rise (room temp) until nearly doubled. [Dough can be held overnight if placed in the refrigerator.]

Butter coated dough.

3. Here is a fairly unique technique for pizza dough used by Cook’s Illustrated. This technique appears to me to be a bit unorthodox in the pizza world, but it works wondering in this case. Laminating the dough.
Remove the risen dough from the bowl and roll it out on a dry work surface into a large rectangle (approx 15×12 inches). Spread the softened butter over the dough using a silicone spatula (see above). Leave about 1/2-inch along edges unbuttered (this will allow the dough to seal again). Roll dough into a cylinder starting from the shorter side. Place seam-side down and gently flatten into an 18×4 rectangle (see below). Cut rectangle in half to make two 9×4 smaller rectangles. Set one of the halves aside for the moment and cover loosely with plastic wrap so it doesn’t dry out.

Click for larger photos…

Roll the dough into a tight cylender.

Dough now flattened

4. Take the other half and fold into into thirds like business letter (the top folds about a third of the way down, then the bottom comes up to cover it). Pinch the seams together to seal it into a taught ball, don’t force the dough too much or it may tear (if this happens, don’t worry too much, it will still be fine). Repeat with remaining half.

Like a business letter! But don't mail this!

5. Place the two balls into oiled bowls and cover tightly with plastic wrap. Let the dough rise in the refrigerator until nearly doubled in volume, 40 to 50 minutes.

6. Oil two 9-inch round cake pans with 2 tablespoons olive oil each. One at a time, roll out the dough balls to make 13-inch disks about 1/4 inch thick. The trick to transferring the dough into the pans without tearing is to loosely roll the dough over the rolling pin and gently unrolling it over the cake pan. Press the dough into the cake pan and 1 inch up the sides. If dough is tough and resists stretching, let it relax for at least 5 minutes before trying again. Repeat with remaining dough ball.

Roll out the dough...

Deep dish dough in the pan.

Building the Pizza
Deep dish pizzas are best built on a series of layers to allow the ingredients to settle out and fill the dough nicely. Both sets of ingredients should be treated the same (as well as any additions you want to contribute).
First, sprinkle the shredded mozzarella over the dough. Then add any “toppings” such as spinach, sausage, cheeses to be mixed in, etc. For the ricotta pizza, I waited until the end to dollop over the top of the pizza, but I mixed in the goat cheese for the sausage & goat cheese pizza. Finally pour in the tomato sauce and sprinkle with any last minute additions–like Parmesan or ricotta to brown in the oven. (Just be aware that this will bake for a while and may dry some types of toppings.)

Baking the Pizza
Adjust oven rack to lower position and preheat oven to 425 degrees. Bake until crust is golden brown, 20 to 30 minutes. Remove pizza from oven and let rest 10 minutes before slicing and serving

Pizza Sauce
I generally always use my sauce, but I was worried that in these sauce-heavy pizzas, the amount of red pepper flakes I usually use would be too much. Make this while waiting for the dough to rise.
Melt 2 Tbsps butter in a large saucepan over medium heat. Add onion, oregano, and 1/2 teaspoon salt and cook until the onion turns golden brown, about 5 minutes. Add garlic and cook for 30 seconds more. Stir in tomatoes and sugar and bring to a simmer. Continue simmering until the sauce is reduced to 2 1/2 cups (about 30 min). Before using, stir in shredded basil and oil, then season with salt and pepper to taste.

Pizza! Ta-da!

The layers of lasagna bolognese

I didn’t need much more convincing to attempt a go at a new recipe. Replacing the combination of cheeses with bechamel worked like a charm. I didn’t even miss the ricotta or mozzarella from the recipe. The smooth, thick sauce was enough to give flavor and moisture to the dish allowing the layers to remain distinct (and to help hydrate the noodles).

I again found Cooks Illustrated and Epicurious helpful with ideas of where to start and how to assemble this. The assembly follows the Cook’s Illustrated almost identically and had a fantastic result.

Cooks Illustrated suggested soaking the no-boil noodles in hot tap water for 5 minutes before using. I had never done that before but had no reason to doubt their technique. I didn’t do a side-by-side comparison of soak vs no-soak noodles, so I cannot comment on how effective this is, but the result was very good.

Lasagna Bolognese

Lasagna Bolognese
Bolognese Ingredients and Recipe
Use 6 cups of the bolognese recipe from the other day.
Other Ingredients
4 tbsps unsalted butter
1/4 cup unbleached all-purpose flour
4 cups whole milk
3/4 tsp salt
15 sheets no-boil lasagna noodles (9 ounces) (I like Barilla brand.)
4 oz Parmesan cheese, grated (2 cups)

1. Warm the bolognese over low heat while making the béchamel. Stir occasionally.
2. Melt the butter in a medium saucepan over medium heat until it just foams. Add the flour all at once and whisk constantly. Cook and whisk for about two minutes. The mixture should not brown, but it may darken slightly. This is called a white roux. The darker a roux gets the richer the flavor becomes, but as a consequence the thinkening power decreases. A white roux has very little flavor but can dramitcally thicken dishes.
3. Slowly whisk in the milk. Whisk constantly and bring the mixture to a boil. Add the salt, then reduce the heat to a bare simmer (med-low). Simmer for 10 minutes. Continue whisking making sure to scrape the bottom of the dish. Transfer the mixture to another bowl to cool slightly. You should have about 3 1/2 cups.
4. Heat oven to 425 degrees. Soak the noodles in very hot tap water in a 9×13 dish for about 5 minutes. Stir the noodles to prevent them from sticking. Pat them dry.
5. Dry the baking dish, then spray lightly with nonstick cooking spray. Stir the béchamel to recombine. Combine 3/4 cups of the warm béchamel into warm meat sauce and mix together.

Assembly
1. Pour 1 cup béchamel-meat sauce in baking dish.
2. Lay three noodles side-by-side on top of sauce. Place them close together, but don’t let them touch.
3. Spread 1 1/4 cups béchamel-meat sauce evenly over noodles. The sauce should go to the edge of noodles but not to the edge of the dish. You want to cover just the noodles.
4. 1/3 cup béchamel goes on top of the meat sauce.
5. 1/3 cup Parmesan is then sprikled over the béchamel.
6. Repeat steps 2-5 three more times.
7. All the meat sauce should be used but there will be bechamel and Parmesan remaining. The remaining bechemal is used to cover the last three noodles. Any excess should be poured over the dish and fill the sides and any gaps. Sprinkle the remaining Parmesan over the dish.

Baking
1. Cover the dish with a large sheet of foil that has been lightly sprayed with cooking spray. Bake for 30 minutes.
2. Increase the heat to 450F. Remove the foil and bake for 10-15 minutes more, until the surface of the lasagna becomes spotty brown.
3. Allow to cool for 10-15 minutes so that the sauce can set. Cut and serve!

Oven Fries

When it comes to potatoes, I can often do without them. I’m a fan of french fries, but making them requires so much oil that I usually just opt for another starch. Not to mention I usually try and eat somewhat healthful foods. I was really excited when I found this recipe though because it’s easy enough you can make during the week. The other nice thing about this recipe is that it makes considerably less mess, and uses a lot less oil.

If you don’t own any half sheet pans, you should definitely pick some up. They are useful for many things, and are fantastic because they are lipped to prevent your food from sliding off. Half sheet pans are also usually considerably cheaper than many cookie sheets.

I almost prefer these oven fries to the normal French fries. They have a wonderful browned, crisp exterior and creamy interior that often isn’t acheived with normal fries. I’d also like to think they are a bit more healthful then French fries. Anyways, this is a Cook’s Illustrated Recipe. Give it a try and there’s a good chance you’ll be converted to an oven fry lover as well.

On the Half Sheet Pan

Oven Fries:

Ingredients
3 Russet potatoes (about 8 oz each), peeled, each potato cut lengthwise into 10-12 evenly sized wedges
5 Tablespoons vegetable or peanut oil (I prefer peanut oil)
salt (kosher is preferred)
black pepper

Directions:

1. Adjust your oven rack to the lowest level and preheat the oven to 475 F.
2. Place the potatoes in a large bowl and cover with hot tap water, then soak for 10 minutes. While the potatoes are soaking, coat a 18 by 12 inch heavy duty baking sheet (half sheet pan) with 5 Tablespoons of the oil. Sprinkle evenly with Kosher salt and pepper (this gives a little bit of non-stick insurance, while seasoning the fries at the same time).
3. Drain the potatoes and pat dry with paper towels. Rinse out the bowl you used earlier, and place the dried wedges into the bowl. Coat with the remaining Tablespoon of oil.
4. Arrange the wedges evenly on the baking sheet and cover tightly with aluminum foil. Bake for 5 minutes, remove the foil, and bake until the bottoms are spotty, golden brown (15-20 min). Make sure you rotate the pan after 10 minutes.
5. Using a metal spatula, flip the fries, and bake until golden brown on the other side (5-15 min). Transfer to a plate lined with paper towels, and season with additional salt and pepper to taste. Enjoy!

This was something I have been wanting to try for a while: cooking pasta like a risotto. I’ve seen it on several blogs, in How To Cook Everything by Mark Bittman and at Cook’s Illustrated. Everybody knows that with pasta, you just have to boil it in a big pot of water until al dente. Generally, the more water you have, the better, because the starch has more opportunity to be released from the pasta. But if you cook it like risotto, then the starch stays in the dish. While it may sound counter-productive, that is exactly what you want here. The starch is what makes a risotto a risotto. Now, I have to admit, I have never made a risotto. I will try that soon. But I did have some Orzo left over from when I made some soups. I figured I could use orzo to make absorption pasta. I cribbed a bit from How to Cook Everything, Bittman has a slightly different method in his How to Cook Everything Vegetarian (online recipe here, courtesy Google Book Search ), and the Cook’s Illustrated version.

Absorpotion Pasta
2 tbsps olive oil
1 large shallot, minced
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 pound orzo
3/4 cup vermouth (dry white wine works fine, I had no wine on hand, so I subbed vermouth)
4 cups chicken stock
1 Lemon (grate the zest and juice the lemon)
10 oz frozen peas (one 10 oz box. I actually added only about 3/4 of it.)
1 cup Parmesan cheese
2 tbsps butter, unsalted

1. Heat the chicken stock in a small pot over medium high heat. If it begins to boil, reduce the heat. The purpose is just to keep the liquid hot for when it is added to the rest of the dish.
2. Heat the oil in a 12-inch nonstick skillet on medium high heat. When hot, add the shallot, 3/4 tsp salt and cook about 2 to 3 minutes. Add the garlic, cook about a minute more. Add the orzo and cook, stirring occasionally until “toasted”. At this point, most of the orzo should look lightly golden brown. This can take about 5 minutes.
3. Add the vermouth (3/4 cup), stir. Continue to stir using a rubber spatula or wooden spoon and let the liquid absorb into the pasta.
4. Add the lemon juice and zest. Add the chicken stock about a 1/2 cup at a time. Stir each time you add more liquid. Do not add more liquid until the previous addition has nearly been completely absorbed. The orzo should never get “dry” nor should it look soupy.
5. After about 10 minutes, begin tasting the orzo. It will be finished when it is al dente–it should be tender, but still firm. This time it took about 17 minutes for it to reach that stage, but it can happen sooner. Do not worry if you do not use all of the stock.
6. Add the frozen peas and mix until everything has warmed through.
7. Reduce the heat to low, add the Parmesan and the butter.

The peas are optional. I find that they add a nice contrast in texture to the orzo in the dish.
The lemon is optional. I served this with the Pan-roast Chicken which had a lemon-herb pan sauce, so I figured keeping the lemon theme going couldn’t hurt.

Pan-roast chicken with lemon and herbs

I wanted to make a roast chicken the other day, but I can never seem to get a good sauce base when I roast a chicken. All the juices and flavor that come off the chicken basically burn in the bottom of my roasting pan. I am a big fan of pan sauces though. So my problem was this: I want the flavor and crispy skin that you get when you roast a bird, but I want a pan sauce that can only be made with the fond that comes from browning meat directly in a skillet. Fortunately, Cook’s Illustrated was here to help me out.

I came across an recipe in their recent November issue for pan-roasting a chicken, resulting in crisp skin and a versatile pan sauce base. Their suggestion was basically take a cut up whole chicken and brown it in a skillet–I used my trusty cast iron 12-inch skillet for this. Then once a fond has developed and the chicken is golden, pour in some liquid to deglaze the pan and basically steam the chicken. Once nearly cooked through, you pour the liquid out (but keep it!) and re-brown the chicken in the pan. Now you have crispy chicken that you can set aside for a moment and use the remaining liquid to make your pan sauce! Perfect!

Pan-roast Chicken with lemon and herbs

Here is the way I did mine:

Pan-roast Chicken
adapted from Cook’s Illustrated

For the chicken:
1 whole chicken, cut into 8 parts (skin-on thighs, drumsticks, breasts cut in half)
1 tbsp olive oil
1 cup chicken broth (I always use low sodium)
1/4 dry vermouth (you can use dry white wine)
salt and black pepper

For my Sauce
1 tsp olive oil
1 shallot, minced
1 tsp flour (AP is best)
1 tbsp lemon juice
1 tbsp herbs en provence
1/3 tablespoon butter (unsalted)
salt and black pepper
1 clove of garlic, minced

Instructions

1. Season your dry chicken with salt and pepper. Heat about 2 tsps olive oil (I used some regular, not extra virgin. You can use almost any kind of oil) in 12-inch skillet over medium-high heat.
2. When the oil is hot (you should see it begin to ripple) add chicken, skin-side down, and cook 5 to 8 minutes. Try not to move the chicken once you put it in the pan. Moving the chicken will prevent the fond from forming and actually cause it to stick more.
3. Flip the chicken skin-side up. Reduce the heat to medium-low, and add about 3/4 cup broth then cover the skillet. Cook about 10-15 minutes. For those of you like me who like measurements, an instant-read thermometer inserted into thickest part should be 155 degrees for the breasts and 170 for the legs/thighs. If some parts reach that temperature before others, go ahead and remove them to a plate (skin-side up).
4. Pour the liquid from the skillet and reserve. Go ahead and give the skillet a quick wipe with a paper towel.
5. Add about a tsp of oil to the skillet and heat over medium-high heat until hot (again, it should just begin to ripple). Return chicken pieces skin-side down and cook until skin is golden brown and that great crispy texture that we were trying to get all along. At this point, you want the internal temperature of the breasts to be 160 degrees and the legs to be 175 degrees. It should take about 5 minutes, give or take one or two. When cooked, transfer to serving platter and tent loosely with foil.
6. Using spoon, skim fat from reserved cooking liquid and add the rest of the broth and wine-or-vermouth.
7. Heat about a tsp of oil in now-empty skillet over low heat. Add shallot and garlic and cook, stirring frequently, until softened, about 1 minute.
8. If the pan is particularly dry, add up to a tsp more of oil. Then add the flour and stir constantly for 30 seconds.
9. Increase heat to medium-high, add the herbs en provence and the reserved cooking liquid, broth and wine-or-vermouth mixture, and bring to simmer, scraping skillet bottom with wooden spoon to loosen browned bits. Maintain a brisk simmer until reduced to about 1/2 cup, about 5 mintues.
10. Off heat, whisk in lemon juice and butter. Add salt and pepper to taste (go ahead and taste the sauce, it’s good). Pour sauce around chicken and serve immediately.

I garnished with some parsley (to make it look pretty for the pictures, of course). Also, don’t pour the sauce all over the skin, it will make it soggy.