1. Roast the red pepper:  Remove the seeds and core, then quarter the pepper so it can be flattened.  Char it under the broiler or on a gas or charcoal grill, with the skin side closest to the heat source.  Alternatively, you can roast the pepper whole on top of the stove, right over a gas flame, turning frequently so that it chars on all sides.  You are finished when the skin has mostly blackened (there can be some red areas).  With most heat sources, you’re done in less than 10 minutes.
2. Drop the roasted pepper (or peppers) into a bowl or pan and cover, so that the pepper steams in its own heat, for about 10 minutes.
3. Allow to cool so it can be handled, then hand-peel the pepper and discard the blackened skin.  Reserve the smoky brown liquid if you are making a sauce.

I use these a number of ways, in ajvar, a roasted red pepper and eggplant spread from Croatia (recipe in Artisan Pizza and Flatbread in 5), which is absolutely fantastic on hamburgers instead of ketchup.

But one of my favorites is a simple sauce that  you can use instead of tomato toppings on pizza.  Simply put a few roasted red peppers, with their juice, into the food processor and blend until almost smooth.  Reduce it a bit over medium heat if it’s too thin.  About two peppers and maybe a little salt makes enough sauce for a Pizza Margherita a la Peperone.  Smoked gouda makes a nice swap here for mozzarella.

Farewell to the mundane.  And soon, farewell to winter, despite Punxsutawney Phil’s recent prediction…

I arrived in Istanbul with my husband and two sons (9 & 11 at the time), after a long trip from Minneapolis. As we entered into the city, with the sweetest cabby in the world, and the fastest driver I have ever seen, we realized we were not in the Midwest anymore. It was a feast of the senses. To say we were overwhelmed by the beauty, smells, sounds and traffic, would have been a gross understatement. No sooner had we put our bags down in the hotel, then the concierge called the room to say I had a “friend” waiting for me in the lobby. He whispered into the phone and said “Please, be careful of people who claim to be your friend in a new city.” His way of warning me about something. I didn’t know anyone in the city, and hadn’t made plans to meet up with anyone, so I heeded his warning and sent my husband to the lobby to find out who this mysterious “friend” might be. It was indeed a friend, a dear sweet woman named Serap, who I’d met in the States. She owns a delightful Turkish restaurant called Depot 62 in Manchester, Vermont. I had told her I’d be in Istanbul, asked her for tips on where to eat, but that was all I ever expected to hear. Here she was, the loveliest surprise in the world. She was visiting her sister in istanbul, and they took the day to give us a tour of the city. They fed us the most glorious foods and she introduced me to her favorite Turkish food; Lahmacun. I will never forget that day and this flatbread is forever linked with one of my most precious memories. I hope you enjoy it as much as I do.

This thin pita is topped with Spiced lamb, quickly baked, so it is still soft, topped with chopped onions, parsley and a squeeze of lemon, then it is rolled up like a crepe. 

Lahmacun:

Makes 1 pita, but enough toppings for 4.

1/4 pound dough (master recipe dough, whole wheat dough, gluten-free pizza dough or naan dough are some of my favorites from Artisan Pizza and Flatbread in Five Minutes a Day to make this with)

For the Lamb topping:

2 tablespoons olive oil

1/2 white onion, finely chopped

1 1/2 teaspoons ground cumin (add a bit more if you want a more intense flavor)

1 1/2 teaspoons ground coriander (add a bit more if you want a more intense flavor)

1 teaspoon paprika

1 pound ground lamb

1 tablespoon tomato paste

1 teaspoon salt

2 tablespoons finely chopped flat-leaf parsley

Garnishes:

1/4 cup flat-leaf parsley

1/4 cup chopped white onions

1/4 cup chopped tomatoes (they are delicious, but I didn’t find any ripe ones to use this time of year.)

1 lemon, cut into quarters

To prepare the lamb:

Heat the olive oil in a large skillet, add the onions and cook until they are soft. Add the spices and ground lamb, cook until the meat is evenly browned, breaking it up as it cooks. Stir in the tomato paste, salt and parsley, cook for another minute. Set aside to cool. Can be made ahead.

To make the pita: Preheat oven to 500°F with a Pizza Stone on the bottom rack for at least 30 minutes.

Roll the dough out to 1/16-inch (see this post if you are having trouble getting the dough thin enough) round. Dust a Pizza Peel with flour and place the dough on it. Top with the lamb mixture. Bake for about 5 minutes. The crust should just be set, but still soft enough to roll.

Put 1/4 of the parsley, onions and tomatoes on the pita.

Squeeze a lemon wedge over the top.

Roll the pita up like a crepe.

I wrapped it in parchment to make it easier to eat and served it with Tzatziki (p. 209 Artisan Pizza and Flatbread in Five Minutes a Day)

Colin is about 10 times funnier than we are…

Everyone knows that cracker-crust pizza needs to be stretched really, really thin in order to get a crunchy and super-thin result.  But before you even start with that, two things to do:

1. Pre-heat your oven for 30 minutes or longer, with a glazed or unglazed baking stone in the bottom third of the oven, and use the highest heat your oven allows (for me that’s 550 degrees F).
2. Prepare all your toppings before you start stretching the dough:  Otherwise the dough will glue itself to the pizza peel while it’s waiting to be topped and you’ll never get it into the oven.  Today I used a smooth, plain tomato sauce (less than 1/4-cup), and about 1.5 ounces of fresh mozzarella.  Cracker-crust pizzas need very little topping– if you use lots, it won’t crisp and the whole thing may turn to porridge.

In Artisan Pizza and Flatbread in Five Minutes a Day, our cracker-crust pizzas call for a dough-round that’s only 1/16-inch of an inch thick.  Maybe there’s someone out there who can do that with their bare hands, but I can’t.  I need a rolling pin, and I’ve come to love the handle-less French milled rolling pins, which give you better control in this situation.  Use a small ball, about 4 ounces (peach-sized) of refrigerated dough from one of our recipes.  You need “lean” dough here (those not enriched with eggs and lots of sweetener) from our books:  white dough, or the whole-grain are just two examples, see the books for more.  Using some whole grain makes it easier to get very thin–plain white dough is the most difficult to stretch because of its gluten-strength.   If you use a large ball, you’ll have a very hard time getting it this thin:

(You don’t really have to weigh it, but it can be nice when you’re learning).  Briefly shape it into a ball as in our other posts, and if you have time, let the ball rest under plastic wrap or an overturned bowl at room temperature for up to 60 minutes; that will make it relax and be easier to roll out.  So start with the rolling pin and your fingers…

It’s pretty easy to get it to 1/4-inch thick, and then 1/8-inch.  But for my ball of dough today, it needed to get to a diameter of about 14 inches in order for the thickness to be down to 1/16-inch…

Use plenty of flour…

Getting it to 1/16-inch takes a bit of perseverance.  Some tricks:

1. If it just won’t “relax” and thin out, cover the partially-stretched dough-round with plastic wrap and give the glutens five or ten minutes to relax.
2. Use the dough’s own stickiness to force it thin:  although you’ll need to dust with lots of flour, allow it to stick to your work surface a little.  That pins it down and allows the work surface to oppose its natural tendency to shrink back into its thicker self.
3. Use a dough scraper:  It’s very difficult to make cracker crust without one, because this dough will try to stick miserably to the work surface, and as I say, you want a little of that.  But periodically “un-stick” it, like so:

As you gather it up in your other hand, you can see that the top surface is going to need lots of dusting flour.  Don’t be stingy with it; most of it will fall off as you work with it. You know you’re getting close when the dough is looking paper-thin, and draping your hands like a glove:

When you get to 1/16-inch thickness, place the dough-round onto a pizza peel dusted with flour.  Periodically shake the peel to be sure that you’re not sticking.  Start with the sauce; you can use a spoon, but a pastry brush is quite handy for the thin coating of sauce that’s called for here:

… OK, maybe a little more than that, but don’t overdo it:

In our pizza book, our cracker-crust pizzas don’t call for the big cheese chunks that work so nicely on Neapolitan-thickness pizza– go for grated cheese if you’re using commercial mozzarella, or small pieces of fresh mozzarella as in these pictures (you really can’t grate the fresh stuff, it just disintegrates).  And not so much– 1.5 ounces is enough here:

… so you’re spacing the cheese a little. Now slide it onto the pre-heated stone (more on that technique in the book).  Hopefully the 30-minutes preheat was enough, but if you’re not getting the crispiness you like, next time preheat for up to an hour:

In my oven, which runs hot (and I’m never getting that fixed), this was ready in 5 minutes.  If your oven runs cooler, you’ll need more time, but check early– this is thin stuff and you don’t want it burning.  Check your oven with a thermometer or it can be challenging to get the crispiness you want.  A little scorching is OK– see the blackened bits on the underside and at the edge, and yes, the light should shine through it:

Give my regards to Siena!

Jeff and I are back on the road to bake pizzas. We are teaching a few classes on the way and would love for you to join us. There are a couple of spots left in our class in Atlanta if you are free to join us on 1/14, for more information visit our events page.

What you will need:

1 to 3 pounds of dough: This will depend on the size of your pan and the type of dough. (Whole grain dough will rise less, which means you need more to fill the pan. Doughs made only with white flour will rise more, so it will take less dough to fill the pullman pan.)

Pullman Pan (this is the one I used in the post. It is 9x4x4. If you have a larger pullman pan then you will need more dough.

To make the loaf: Butter the loaf pan and lid very well. Fill the pan 2/3 full if using whole wheat dough (this took 3 pounds of dough for the 100% whole grain oat dough). Fill the pan just shy of 2/3 full if using doughs made with white flour.

Allow the chilled dough to rest for about 1 1/2 hours (unless your pan is much smaller).

Slide the cover on the loaf.

Bake the loaf for about 45 to 60 minutes, depending on the type of dough and size of pan. My 100% whole grain oat bread took 55 minutes.

Turn the loaf out of the pan and allow to cool completely.

Enjoy!

The keys to getting a good toss (video link’s at the end of this post):

1.  Form a nice cohesive ball using the gluten-cloaking method we talk about in the books, and sealing up the ragged loose ends on the underside of the ball.  I do that in the video but there’s one other trick that doesn’t appear in the video:  if you have time, let the ball sit for 20 to 40 minutes, covered with plastic wrap or an overturned bowl.  It will be much easier to stretch when it’s warmed a bit.

2.  Balance the disk on the backs of your hands– the knuckles.  Use them to stretch the dough a little more before you throw:

Throw your hands upward and spin them around each other, extending your dominant hand’s forefinger and middle finger a little at liftoff (very challenging to capture this on film or video):

OK, here’s the video (yes, that’s me breaking Italian law by using a rolling pin):

Buon appetito!  There’s a much more video about pizza and all things bread on our YouTube channel (YouTube.com/BreadIn5).

1 pound of dough (I used the Lighter Whole Wheat Dough on page 83 of Artisan Pizza and Flatbread in Five Minutes a Day)

2 cups ricotta

1/4 teaspoon nutmeg

1/2 teaspoon oregano

Salt and pepper to taste

Oil for frying

Tomato sauce for serving

To make the savory doughnuts:

Bring a pot of oil to 370°F on a Candy Thermometer. The oil should be about 3 inches deep and not come up more than halfway up the side of the pot.

Roll out the dough to about 1/4-inch thick rectangle. Cut the rectangle into 16 equal portions. (I used 1/2-pound piece for these photos, so your rectangle will be larger.)

Mix together the ricotta, nutmeg, oregano, salt and pepper. Put about a tablespoon of the filling onto the dough, placing it so that you can easily close the dough around it. Brush the edge of the dough with water.

Press the dough closed around the filling. Making sure that the dough is sealed well, so the filling won’t come out while it is frying.

Place the doughnuts in the hot oil for about 2 minutes, or until they are golden brown. Put only a few doughnuts in the oil at a time, they should not be crowded or they will not fry evenly.

Flip the doughnuts over and fry the second side for another 2 minutes. Make sure your oil is staying around 370°F.

When the doughnuts are done frying, use a basket skimmer to remove them from the oil and place them on paper towels to drain the excess oil.

Serve with the tomato sauce or pesto.

It was so much fun to talk to journalist Stephanie Stiavetti from the Huffington Post Food Blog about the journey of writing Artisan Pizza and Flatbread in Five Minutes a Day. Here is a link to our interview.