Grape and Gorgonzola Pizza

Last Friday night T and I had a date with my parents and sister at Zupan's yearly champagne gala. No one knows why we keep getting invited; we don't know anyone else present, and only my father buys champagne. But we go, because you can taste as many glasses of fancy champagne as you like and there's a phenomenal oyster bar, along with other delicacies like smoked scallops and manchego with quince paste. Besides, it's fun to dress to the nines and then watch all the trophy wives struggle to remain upright against the weight of their diamonds.

But the party begins late, and by 6:30pm our stomachs were growling. We wanted something satisfying, but fast and light enough to brook a 10pm oyster splurge. And that's how our grape and gorgonzola pizza was born.

I love the combination of of sweet and savory on pizza, and often bake pizzas with pears or figs and crumbles of sharp cheese, or slivers of prosciutto. I make these pizzas with an olive oil base, lightly rubbed with garlic, and then drizzle the toppings with more olive oil and large sea salt crystals. I love a good tomato-sauce and cheese pizza, too, but those tend to be heavier, and T and I are locked in a permanent pepperoni vs sausage debate that nearly always results in Canadian bacon. Last Friday all we wanted was a snack, something to add substance to a green salad. A quick trip to the store yielded red grapes on sale, a tiny wedge of raw gorgonzola, and premade pizza dough. (I know, LAZY.) I thought the high heat from the oven would wilt the grapes and make the strong cheese run a bit, permeating the crust with pungent salt and sweet juice.

It did. The grapes do release a little more juice than is desirable, but you can always pre-roast them to prevent the juices from running all over the top of the baked pizza. As with all pizzas, make sure not to overburden this one with toppings. A healthy smattering will do. Reducing the number of toppings to 2-3 helps you to taste each one individually as you eat, which also allows you to appreciate how they combine to create new, complex flavors. Go easy on the cheese, too; while not a delicate foodstuff, you don't want your pizza to be a gut-bomb.

Grape & Gorgonzola Pizza

1 batch homemade or store-bought pizza dough

1 clove garlic, peeled and halved

healthy handful of red or concord grapes, halved

healthy handful crumbled strong blue or gorgonzola cheese

smaller handful of good-quality Parmesan

extra-virgin olive oil

sea salt

Balsamic vinegar (I used white)

• Preheat oven to 500 degrees. If you have a baking stone, put it into the oven now so that it can thoroughly warm up.
• Roll your homemade or store-bought dough into a large circle. The thickness of the crust is up to you--I like them on the thin side, because I enjoy the toasty flavor of caramelized flour.
• Prick the dough all over with a fork to encourage it to remain flat.
• Rub the surface of the dough with raw garlic and then spread a thin layer of olive oil on top.
• Scatter the top with grape halves and gorgonzola crumbles.
• Sprinkle Parmesan cheese over the toppings, and add a few sprinkles of coarse salt.
• Drizzle a small amount of olive oil over the top, followed by an even smaller drizzle of balsamic vinegar.
• Bake pizza for 8-10 minutes, or until golden brown and bubbly. Cool slightly and enjoy.

Warm Bread

T passed his national and Oregon boards today! Which means, of course, that he's out celebrating with the other soon-to-be doctors, and the wives are at home doing...whatever it is we all do when left to our own devices. Or at least I'm at home. Drinking rum. Watching romantic independent films. Baking bread.

Now that the CSA box is coming to an end, and with it the weekly free loaf of Grand Central bread, there's flour in the kitchen crevices again, and the sleeve ends of my house sweaters are caked in dough. (Oh, don't grimace. I do launder them. Occasionally.) This is homely bread--you can see the giant crack in the loaf above--but it's soft and tender, and very convenient. I mix a big batch, store it in the fridge for days, tear off a piece and let a loaf rise in the evening for a late baking. It's not as precise or professional as the breads I make with the Merry Bakers, but it's good and the house smells divine. Plus, a warm slice of bread is perfect for sopping up the rum before bedtime. And the tears, if that movie's kind of sad.

The Humble Loaf
adapted from Artisan Bread in 5 Minutes a Day

6 1/2 C flour: 3 1/2 C white and 3 C white whole wheat
2 C warm water
1 C warm milk
1 1/2 packets of yeast
1 1/2 T coarse salt
a handful of sesame seeds (optional)

1. In the bowl of your standing mixer, combine the yeast and warm liquids. You can let sit until frothy, or proceed--as I do--with no regard for that chemical process.
2. Add the 6 1/2 C flour, the 1 1/2 T salt, and the sesame seeds, if using. Stir with the paddle attachment (or by hand) until integrated.
3. Do not knead! Once the flour and liquids are well-mixed, top the bowl with some plastic wrap and set aside to rise for a few hours. You'll know it's done when the the dough has risen and fallen into a large, flat-topped mound.
4. At this point, stick your dough in the fridge for up to 2 weeks, or bake a loaf immediately. The chilled dough is easier to work with, and gains more flavor the longer it ferments in the fridge.
5. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees at least 20 minutes before baking. (If the dough is cold, pull off a loaf-sized chunk--1-2 lbs--and shape it and put it into a greased loaf pan to come to room temperature...around 1 hr and 40 minutes.)
6. Place the loaf pan in the hot oven and bake for 35-45 minutes, The loaf should be risen and golden, with a firm crust and corners. When tapped, the bottom should feel hollow. If it doesn't, or the corners seem soft, remove the loaf from the pan and stick back into the oven for 5-10 minutes.
7. Let cool completely before slicing for optimal crumb.

Beans and Freedom

Those two words, analyzed from a global socio-political perspective, can be seen as opposites. After all, and I don't mean to be glib here, impoverished people the world over eat legumes while their political leaders misdirect foreign and domestic capital to their pleasure yachts. But for me, beans are a symbol of a smaller freedom, the personal sort, because they're one of the first things I cooked when I moved into my own apartment; dried beans are the graduate student's Platonic ideal of dinner because they're cheap, you feel hip shopping the bulk bins, and a big pot of beans yields an incomprehensible number of meals.

Tonight, however, beans are synonymous with neither the third world (I'm beginning to suspect that analogy is tasteless, no pun intended) nor my college days. Tonight I happened to meet with my book group to discuss Jonathan Franzen's new novel Freedom and then came home, realized there's no lunch for tomorrow, and threw together a black bean, butternut squash and kale stem (yes, stem) stew in the crockpot. I hope it's good. If it is, I'll post the recipe.

You might want to read Freedom. It's very good, and that's coming from someone who'd thrown Jonathan Franzen into the detested Jonathan Safran-Foer Over-Rated Writers Club. A.k.a. Authors Who Write About Things They Know Not Club. A.k.a. You Tricky Little Man, I Read Yet Another Of Your Novels And It Took Me Until The End To Realize What A Senseless Dodo You Are AGAIN Club. You get the picture. I don't like Foer's gushy sentimentalism or Franzen's condescending "oh I'm so not the elitist white liberal I am (but if you're not like me, you must be a hillbilly)" subtext. But I liked this book a lot.

Maybe because Franzen owns and explores liberal pretensions (while obviously fantasizing about being a rock star). Though I think the book is much more about the true limits of the American freedom concept, applied to romantic and familial relationships. We had a really nice discussion, which included the female readers' fascination with the rock star and the male readers' attraction to Connie. It was fun. I spend so much time sticking labels on books and reading papers about "the Islams" and terrorism (no joke) that I sometimes feel my brain cells holding tiny hands over tiny ears, mouths wide and howling. I enjoy having an outlet for my under-stimulated brain.

So here's to beans and Freedom. May the stew be as tasty as the reading!