Norman's pizza bread

I’ve always loved garlic bread and I’ve always loved pizza. This was an opportunity for me to enjoy both at the same time. Since I was indulging, I also made another one of my favorites, a nice thick charred steak. Dinner was good, if I say so myself.

1 28 oz. can of San Marzano tomatoes

1 cup of fresh basil leaves

Extra good extra virgin olive oil

4 cloves of garlic

1 long thin loaf of homemade bread

Fresh ground white pepper and salt

Shredded mozzarella cheese

Red pepper flakes

Preparation

For the bread, make a batch of my normal white bread and knead it. Cut it so you have two pieces, one third and two thirds. Make a normal loaf out of the two thirds piece. Roll the one third piece with your hands into a long thin loaf. Let that rise and bake it until it is golden brown in a 400º oven. Let it cool and continue with the recipe. (Don’t you dare buy a long thin Italian loaf at the store, I’ll know if you do. Make it from scratch.)  

Place the canned tomatoes in a bowl and drizzle them with the olive oil. Break them up with a knife and fork. Chop the basil leaves and stir that into the tomatoes. Sprinkle on some salt and pepper. Stir again.

Take the long thin loaf and slice it lengthwise. Put both halves on a cookie sheet and put it under a broiler. You want to toast it so it is just golden brown. Don’t forget it and let it burn. When it is nicely toasted let it cool enough so you can handle it.

Gently rub each half of the bread with garlic cloves. The cloves should wear down with the coarseness of the bread. Use a lot, the more the merrier! Once the toasted bread is nice and garlicky, drizzle more olive oil over the bread. Cover the surface fairly well with the oil. Now spoon on lots of the chopped tomato-basil mixture. 

Slide the two half loaves together so they are next to each other and cover them with lots of the shredded mozzarella. Sprinkle on some red pepper flakes and broil the pizza bread until the cheese is golden brown. Let the pizza bread sit for five minutes before slicing.

Serving

Pizza bread makes a great appetizer for many meals. Here’s what I did. Serve several pieces of pizza bread along with your salad. Follow that with thick New York strip steaks charred medium rare and a baked potato with butter and sour cream. Now add some sautéed spinach and a bottle of spicy Zinfandel. How’s that for dinner?

Cheesy eggplant

I was in my local Italian grocery the other day. I went to purchase the makings for a spaghetti sauce. As I walked through the produce section, I spied a big beautiful eggplant. I thought of all the cheese I have in the fridge, and had to buy it. Here’s what I did with it.

1/4 cup buttermilk

2 eggs

1 cup of flour 

Cajun seasoning

Garlic salt

1 eggplant

1 eggplant

Olive oil

Sea salt

Fresh ground white pepper

Asiago cheese

Aged Provolone Cheese

Shredded mozzarella cheese

Red pepper flakes

Preparation

Heat a large cast iron skillet. While that is heating, take a bowl and put the eggs and buttermilk in it. Beat the eggs. In a plastic bag, add the flour and sprinkle in some garlic salt and some cajun seasoning. Peel the eggplant and slice it into slices (lengthwise) that are somewhere between a half, and a quarter inch thick. Put the micrometer away, guess. Cut the long slices in half.

One at a time, dip the eggplant slice in the egg mixture and then into the bag of flour. Shake the slice in the flour. Before you place the first one in the skillet, add about a quarter inch of olive oil into the hot skillet. Add the first eggplant slice to the hot oil. Repeat until the skillet has all the slices it can hold in a single layer. As the slices brown on the bottom, turn them over. 

When the first slice is browned on both sides, remove it to a pie plate. As you take one out of the skillet, replace it with a new, dipped and shaken, slice until all the slices have been browned and are in the pie plate. As each slice goes in the pie plate, add a slice of asiago cheese to it.

Sprinkle the pie plate with a little salt, and lots of fresh ground white pepper.. Add a bunch of sliced aged provolone. Don’t ask how much. Kind of a lot. It is called cheesy eggplant for a reason. I didn’t measure this and I don’t expect you to. 

After you have a good amount of asiago and provolone cheese on the hot eggplant, cover the eggplant with shredded mozzarella cheese. Put enough on to cover the eggplant, but not so much that it overflows the pie plate. You want cheesy eggplant, not a cheesy oven. Just in case, set the pie plate on a cookie sheet.

Bake the eggplant at 375º for about a half hour, until the cheese is nicely browned and everything is bubbling. Let set for about five minutes before serving.

Serving

You want to serve your cheesy eggplant as a side dish to a pasta with tomato sauce. I served mine with an Italian spaghetti made with Polish sausage. What I did was to place a big helping of the eggplant on the plate next to a big pile of spaghetti. I then smothered both with tons of the sauce (with lots of sausage). 

Along with that, I had a plate of mixed Italian olives, fresh homemade bread and a bottle of Chianti to wash everything down.

Prosciutto calzones

I was in the mood for pizza the other night and I don’t know what possessed me, but at the last minute, I decided to make calzones instead. I’ve never made them before, but what the heck, it is just a pizza folded in half, right?

2-1/2 cups flour 

2 tbs. instant yeast 

1 tsp. sugar 

1 tsp. salt 

3 tbs. olive oil 

Water

Sliced Prosciutto

1 15 oz. can of Italian tomatoes

Sliced mushrooms

2 cloves of garlic, finely minced

1 tsp extra virgin olive oil

1 tsp. Basil

White Pepper

Tabasco

Shredded mozzarella cheese

Grated asiago cheese

Corn meal

Preparation

For the dough, add the flour, sugar, olive oil, yeast and salt to your mixer bowl. Add enough water - a little at a time - to form the dough. Knead the dough for a few minutes and let it rise for 15 minutes.

Sprinkle some flour on to a very clean counter. Place the dough on the counter and divide it in half. Use your fingers and shape each half of the dough. Be patient. Keep poking and sprinkle it with a little flour as you turn it over. You want two circles about 12” each.

Pour the canned tomatoes into a bowl and use a knife to coarsely chop them. Stir in the basil, olive oil and minced garlic. Sprinkle in a little white pepper and Tabasco.

Now, you’re going to fold over half the dough to make the calzone, so when you add the filling, only cover half the dough and leave the outside inch uncovered. Spoon on the tomato mixture first. Now start adding sliced mushrooms and then the sliced prosciutto to cover the tomatoes. Finally cover the filling with a generous mound of both cheeses.

Fold the uncovered half of the dough over the filled half. Crimp the edges of the dough together tightly. Poke a couple of slits into the top of the calzone and brush it with olive oil. Slide the calzone on to a baking sheet which has been sprinkled with corn meal. Repeat to make the other calzone.

Bake the calzones at 425º about twenty minutes, or until they are golden brown. Let them sit for five minutes before serving.

Serving

To serve these, simply place a calzone on a plate. Add a bowl of assorted olives to the table. You want to start the meal with a large Greek salad. Pick out your favorite Italian red wine. Don’t tell anyone, but I ate both calzones myself. Waste not want not.

Grass fed spaghetti

I was in the mood for spaghetti the other night. I was too tired to drive out of my way to the Italian grocery store, so I stopped at a grocery on my way home. I picked out some marinated olives and then went to the meat counter. I was going to get Italian sausage, but my eye rested on the package of grass fed ground beef. I remember hearing something about the health benefits of grass fed beef, so I decided to give it a try. 

Boy, you can really taste the difference grass fed beef makes in this sauce. Well, I couldn’t, but maybe you can. I know it must taste a lot better, because at $6.99 a pound for grass fed ground beef, it just has to be so much better. This is how I made the sauce.

Olive oil

1 lb. grass fed ground beef

Red pepper flakes

2 medium onions, chopped fine

1/4 lb. sliced mushrooms

3 cloves of garlic, minced

1 tsp. basil

1 tsp. oregano

1/2 cup semi-sweet white wine

1 cup dry red wine

1 6 oz. can of tomato paste

2 cups of chicken stock

1 can of Ro•Tel tomatoes

Fresh ground white pepper

1 lb. spaghetti, cooked and drained

Preparation

Heat a large dutch oven and add enough olive oil to coat the bottom of the pan. Break up the ground beef (remember, grass fed only) into the pan. Sprinkle on some red pepper flakes and stir. Let that brown, stirring often.

When the beef is about half way browned, add the chopped onion, and stir. Now add the sliced mushrooms and stir again. Let that cook, stirring often, until the beef is browned and sizzling. Add the garlic, basil and oregano, stir and let that cook a couple of minutes.

 Add the half cup of white wine and stir until it evaporates. Now add the red wine, stir and let that cook down until most of the liquid has evaporated. When the liquid is almost gone, add the tomato paste. Stir it in vigorously until it is well mixed with the meat.

Add the chicken stock, a little at a time, and stir so the paste has evenly dissolved into the stock. Now stir in the can of Ro•Tel tomatoes. Grind on a whole bunch of white pepper and stir and let that simmer, very gently, while you bring the pasta water to boil. Turn the heat off on the sauce while you cook and drain the pasta.

Serving

This is a real tasty meat sauce and I’m sure you’ll be able to taste the difference that grass fed beef made. I don’t know why I couldn’t. 

Anyways, place a huge pile of spaghetti on a plate and smother it in the meat sauce. Grate some more white pepper over it and then hit it with a blizzard of fresh grated parmesan or asiago cheese. Now set out the homemade bread, the marinated olives, a good sharp Italian cheese, and open a bottle of Italian red wine. I had my favorite house wine, Montepulciano D’Abruzzo.

Veal arm chops with mushrooms

One store by my house frequently has fresh veal. The other day, I grabbed a couple of packages of arm chops and some mushrooms. I just couldn’t pass them up. 

There are some people who turn their nose up at veal. I don’t know, I guess it’s the whole baby-cow thing. I find that if you start dwelling on the personalities of your food, you may get sentimental and that might get in the way of a good meal. (Where do you draw the line? That pretty little lettuce plant was happily growing in the sun, until someone with a knife ended it’s poor little life.)

I’m as sentimental as the next guy, but I also like meat. In fact I saw an ad for another store, that is advertising goat leg. You may see a recipe for that of these days. 

Veal arm chops can be a little tough sometimes, but I like them. Don’t skimp on the white pepper. I like that flavor to come through.

Olive oil

2 lb. veal shoulder chops

Fresh ground white pepper

Adobo seasoning

1/4 lb. shiitake mushrooms

2 large shallots

1/4 tsp. thyme

1 cup white wine

1 tbs. butter

Wondra instant flour

1 tsp. paprika

1-1/2 cups chicken or veal stock (approximate)

Preparation

Heat a large cast iron skillet until hot. While that is heating, season both sides of the veal with white pepper and adobo seasoning. Add enough olive oil to coat the bottom of the pan and add the veal. Sear them a couple of minutes per side. After turning the veal over, add the shallots, mushrooms and thyme. Stir until the shallots start to clarify.

Add the white wine, turn the veal over and bring the wine to a boil. Place the pan under a hot broiler. Broil until the veal starts to brown, turn it over and broil the other side. Once both sides are nicely charred, remove the pan from the broiler and set it back on the stove.

Place the veal on a platter and keep warm. Set the cast iron pan back on the stove and melt the butter over medium heat. Sprinkle on the paprika and sprinkle on enough instant flour to absorb much of the moisture. Stir the mushrooms well to distribute the flour. Add chicken stock, a little at a time until you have a nice gravy thickness. Stir and let that simmer for a couple of minutes and add more stock if needed. Taste and adjust the gravy for salt and pepper.

Serving

I like to serve a couple of arm chops next to some boiled potatoes. Just cover both with some of the gravy. Add some sautéed carrots with butter and some homemade dinner rolls. Open up a bottle of Merlot to wash it down with and dinner is ready.

Old fashioned sausage pizza

By now you know that I make a lot of pizza. I make every different size, shape, thickness and style of pizza I can think of. Ironically, when I order pizza for take-out, nine times out of ten, I order a simple sausage pizza like this.

Dough

2-1/2 cups flour 

2 tbs. instant yeast 

1 tsp. sugar 

1 tsp. salt 

3 tbs. olive oil 

water 

Sauce

1 28 oz. can of ground tomatoes

1/4 cup of extra good olive oil

1 clove of garlic, smashed and minced very fine

1 tsp. oregano

1/2 tsp Cajun seasoning

Several grindings of black pepper

A couple of dashes of onion powder

1/4 white wine

1/4 cup grated parmesan cheese

Dash of Tabasco

Pizza

Corn meal

1/2 lb. sweet Italian sausage

1 cup grated asiago cheese

1 cup shredded cheddar cheese

8 oz. shredded mozzarella cheese

Fresh ground white pepper

Preparation

Start by making the sauce. Put all the ingredients in a bowl. Stir to mix well. Allow the sauce to sit at room temperature for about a half hour to blend the flavors.

For the dough, add the flour, sugar, olive oil, yeast and salt to your mixer bowl. Add enough water - a little at a time - to form the dough. Now, donʼt flip out on me. If you added too much water just add a little flour to make the dough right (that will teach you to add the water a little at a time). Knead the dough for a few minutes and let it rise for 15 minutes.

Sprinkle some flour on to a very clean counter. Place the dough on the counter and using your finger tips on both hands (shape your hands like you have bear claws), poke the dough. Turn the dough over and keep poking it while shaping it. Be patient. Keep poking and sprinkle it with a little flour as you turn it over. After about 5 minutes the dough should be a circle about 17 inches. Take a large pizza pan (at least 16”) and sprinkle on a generous layer of corn meal (this will allow the pizza to easily come out of the pan). Slide the your dough into the pan and roll the edges up to form a crust.

Spread out a layer of sauce evenly over the dough, right up to the crust. Save the leftover sauce for tomorrow’s pizza. Evenly add the asiago cheese and then add the cheddar. (Note: you can try different cheeses then just asiago and cheddar. These are the ones I had on hand.) Now spread the mozzarella cheese evenly over the pizza. Slice the sausage into inch long segments and place them evenly over the pizza. Sprinkle the pizza with some fresh ground white pepper.

Place the pizza pan in a 450º oven on a rack that is 1/3 the way up in the oven. Bake that for about twenty minutes, until the cheese is golden brown and bubbling. Remove the pan from the oven and let it sit for five minutes before slicing.

Serving

With sausage pizza, I like to start with a Caesar salad.  I usually don’t have much else with it because I have a bad habit of turning a 16” pizza into a single serving portion (yes, I need to be supervised). All I need is a bottle of Chianti to wash it all down with.

Spaghetti with sausage

I was in the mood for pasta last night. I stopped and bought some sausage because it looked good. I then picked up a can of San Marzano tomatoes. 

I never seem to get tired of pasta served with sausage, and this is a real simple version. It may be simple, but I bet if you were served this as an entree at a restaurant, you’d put it in the ‘order again’ category.

1 lb. Italian sausage


Olive oil


1 medium onion, chopped fine


3 cloves garlic, minced


Red pepper flakes


1/2 cup white wine


1 28 oz. can San Marzano tomatoes


1 tsp. basil


White pepper


1 cup grated asiago cheese


1 lb. spaghetti, cooked and drained 

Salt and sugar (optional)

Fresh torn basil

Preparation

Heat a large skillet and add enough olive oil to coat the bottom. Add the sausage and sear the sausage until it is browned on all sides, about five minutes. Add the onion and garlic and then give a good sprinkling of red pepper flakes. Cook that, stirring often, until the onions have softened and clarified.

Slice the sausages into thirds and add the white wine. Cook, scraping the bottom of the pan, until most of the wine has been cooked off. Add the can of tomatoes. Break up the tomatoes with a knife and fork. Add the basil and stir that in. Grate a bunch of white pepper over the top. Cover and let that simmer about ten minutes, again stirring often.

Uncover the sauce and taste for salt and sugar and adjust if necessary. I like to use San Marzano tomatoes when I make this. Some other canned tomatoes need a bit of sugar. Turn off the heat and quickly stir in the asiago cheese. If you have fresh basil, add a quarter cup of torn basil leaves too.

Serving

This one is easy to serve. Put some spaghetti on the plate and bury it in the sauce with lots of sausage. Add some sautéed broccoli and onions, some homemade bread and a crisp salad. Open a bottle of Italian red wine. I popped open a bottle of Nero D’Avola to wash my meal down.

Steaks with mushroom sauce

I am normally a steak purist and really prefer my steak grilled over hot charcoal. The other day, however, my steps were covered with snow and ice and I didn’t want to risk loosing the steaks as my feet slide out from under me.

I decided I can prepare them in the kitchen using the broiler with sliced mushrooms, bacon and a little wine. The steaks should be rare coming out of the broiler. By the time you add the gravy, they'll end up medium rare.

2 ribeye steaks

White pepper

Onion powder

Cajun seasoning

Cayenne

2 slices of bacon

1/2 lb. sliced mushrooms

2 shallots, slice razor thin

Flour

Smoked paprika

1/2 cup of red wine

Chicken broth

Preparation

Season a couple of rib steaks with a good sprinkling of onion powder, white pepper, cajun seasoning and a little cayenne. Let them sit for a half hour. Heat a large cast iron skillet cook a couple of slices of bacon until crisp. Remove and chop the bacon. 

Add the steaks to the hot skillet and place them under a hot broiler. Broil about two to three minutes per side and remove the steaks to a platter. Keep them warm.

Place the skillet on the stove and add the mushrooms to the pan. Let those cook a couple of minutes, stirring often and then add the sliced shallots. Stir that for another minute and add flour a little at a time to the fat, until you have a wet roux. 

Sprinkle on a little smoked paprika and stir. Add the wine and the crumbled bacon and stir to mix and scrape up the pan. Now add chicken stock, a little at a time, to make a gravy-like consistency. Let the gravy simmer for a few minutes, stirring often. Taste and adjust for salt and pepper.

Serving

To serve this, place a pile of steamed barley on a plate and then place a steak with gravy next to that. Spoon some gravy over the barley. Now add a pile of buttered Brussels sprouts to round out the plate. Warm fresh bread, a salad and a bottle of Merlot will complete the meal.

Asiago and prosciutto pizza

I make pizza so often, that I can’t remember all the different versions of it I make. I like deep dish, thin crust, hand tossed, stuffed and even double decker pizzas and I have made several versions of each style. 

The other day, I bought some prosciutto and a wedge of asiago cheese and this version was what I made. Fresh basil leaves would have been good in there with the prosciutto, but I didn’t have any.

2 cups flour

1 cup (approximate) slightly warm water

1 tsp. salt

1 tsp. honey

1 tbs. instant yeast

2 tbs. extra virgin olive oil, plus a little more 

1 cup (more or less) Norman’s Pizza Sauce 

1/4 pound of thinly sliced prosciutto

1/2 lb. asiago cheese, shredded

Fresh ground white pepper

Corn meal

Preparation

Mix the flour, salt, honey, yeast, olive oil and water together to form a dough. Knead the dough for a few minutes and let it rise for twenty minutes. Shred the asiago cheese while that is rising and make the pizza sauce.

Using your fingers, shape out the dough into a 16” circle on a floured surface. Take a pizza pan and sprinkle a generous layer of corn meal over it. Slide the pizza dough into the pizza pan and roll up the edge to form a crust.

Layer the pizza sauce over the surface of the dough. Spread the sliced prosciutto evenly over the pizza and then sprinkle the shredded cheese evenly over that. Grind a bunch of white pepper over the surface of the pizza.

Bake the pizza in a 450º oven for about twenty minutes until the cheese starts to brown. Remove the pizza from the pizza pan to a cutting board. Sprinkle more extra virgin oil over the top of the pizza and let it sit five minutes before slicing.

Serving

The last time I made this, I served it as an appetizer before a dinner of porterhouse steaks, cauliflower in blue cheese sauce, potato skins and homemade bread. It was all washed down with a bottle of Zinfandel. There, I think I covered all the food groups.

Cauliflower with a blue cheese sauce

Nutritionists keep preaching that we should eat more vegetables. Don’t roll your eyes. If you don’t eat your vegetables, the government may come in and mandate that you do. You might as well eat them every now and then, just to keep the government off your back. This recipe covers the cauliflower with enough flavor, that you don’t even notice that it’s in there.

I once had a dinner where one of my loyal readers exclaimed, “I’ve really never liked vegetables, but yours always taste so good!” Isn’t it amazing how some butter, milk, cream and cheese can make vegetables taste good. I mean, once you add enough fat, cholesterol and sodium, you’re good to go. In fact, I could have put ‘optional’ after the cauliflower in the list of ingredients. 

1 head of cauliflower, broken up

Salted water

2 tbs butter

2 tbs flour

2 cups milk

Cayenne pepper

African Smoke Seasoning (optional)

1cup whipping cream

1 cup shredded blue cheese

2 cups shredded gouda cheese

White pepper

Preparation

Place the cauliflower and enough salted water to cover it in a pot and bring that to a boil. Let that simmer about five minutes and then drain. Heat a large sauce pan and melt the butter. Stir in the flour to make a roux. Stir the flour for about five minutes as it sizzles. Add in the milk and stir that until it comes to a boil.

Reduce the heat to a simmer and sprinkle on a little cayenne pepper and the South African Smoke Seasoning. If you can’t find this seasoning, don’t freak out. I got mine at Trader Joe’s (in a little grinder, which I like because it becomes a pepper grinder when empty). If you don’t have it, use smoked paprika, or skip it all together. Add the cream to the milk. Once it returns to a simmer, stir in the blue cheese and once that dissolves, stir in the gouda. Remove from the heat.

Spray a casserole or baking dish with cooking spray and then add the drained cauliflower to it. Pour the cheese sauce over the cauliflower and stir. Grind a little white pepper over the top, and place the cauliflower in a 375º oven. Let that bake for about twenty minutes or until the sauce is bubbling and the top is starting to brown.

Serving

The way I like to serve this is to place a big pile of it next to a giant porterhouse steak, which has been charred rare. Then, I would put two or three of my potato skins (broiled with bacon and cheese, and served with lots of sour cream) next to that. I would also serve homemade bread with lots of butter. For an appetizer, I’d serve an Asiago And Prosciutto Pizza. Finally, pop open a bottle of a good, spicy Zinfandel and ring the dinner bell.