Meat Lovers Pizza

I normally don't make pizza but when I do, this is what I make. When I first had this was at Tony's Pizza in Willimantic, CT, I was sold. You can also make this if you're a vegetarian and you love the taste of fake meat (because seriously, the REAL reason YOU are a vegetarian is because you want to be COOL).

I get my pizza dough from Whole Foods, which is very convenient coz you don't have to make 'em and they hold up pretty good inside the freezer. You can find these frozen dough on the frozen aisle. I don't really have exact measurements for the meats in this pizza because it's a meat lovers pizza so put as many meat as you want in it!

Ingredients:
1 Whole Foods pizza dough (defrosted)
Pepperoni
Bacon (cooked)
Italian sausage
Hamburger meat (or frozen patty)
2 cups cheese (mix of mozzarella and yellow cheese. I used mozzarella and cheddar)
3/4 cup of pizza sauce (more if you like them saucy)
1 teaspoon oregano
(Optional) 1 teaspoon pepper flakes (if you like it spicy)
(Optional) 1 tablespoon McCormick's Grill Mates Roasted Garlic & Herb Seasoning
Some oil to grease the pan

Preheat oven at 500 degrees. Grease the pizza pan with some oil. Put the dough on the pan and start kneading it towards the edge.

Once you spread the dough all over the pan, pinch the sides to raise the dough's edge.

Once that is done, pour pizza sauce on top of the pizza dough and spread it evenly. Sprinkle oregano on top of the sauce.

Sprinkle cheese on top of the pizza, reserving 1/2 cup for later.

Now you can start layering your toppings. First, you want to put the pepperoni. Arrange them neatly over the dough.

Then put in sausages and hamburger meat. Ironically, I don't have any Italian sausage at home but instead I'm using vegetarian breakfast links (jokes on me, HAH!).

Then sprinkle in the bacon. After that, sprinkle pepper flakes and Grill Mates seasoning.

Sprinkle the remaining cheese on top of the pizza.

Put the pizza in the oven and cook for about 15 minutes (less if you are only using vegetarian meat). Let your arteries start clogging!!

Connecticut-Style Pizza

Hi there! I'm Raymond's partner, Vance, and he's asked me to guest-blog one of my favorite recipes:



Throughout my youth I enjoyed thick, cheesy, savory pizza slices that couldn't be folded in half if you wanted to. Some people immediately think this must be Chicago deep-dish pizza; they're wrong. It's Connecticut-style pizza! Locals usually refer to it as "greek pizza", although the connection to Greece is questionable at best. It's almost exclusively made by Italian pizza joints. Personally, I think the best is from Tony's Pizza, in Willimantic, CT.

During my high school years in Connecticut, I worked at a local pizza parlor, and so I luckily have some insight into how this pizza is made. Info about it is very scarce online. I don't remember my restaurant's exact recipe (gosh, it's been over a decade!) but I remember the basics, and was able to recreate it by modifying standard pizza recipes. Without further ado, I give you ... Connecticut-style pizza!

Prep time: ~2 hours
Bake time: ~15 minutes

Crust ingredients
3 cups all-purpose flour
1 cup luke warm (not hot) water
1 package (1/4 ounce) quick-rise yeast
1 tsp. salt
1/2 tbsp. sugar
2 tbsp. olive oil
2 tbsp. vegetable shortening

Sauce ingredients
10 oz. store-bought pizza sauce
2 tsp. oregano
1 tsp. basil
1/2 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. ground black pepper

Cheese ingredients
3 parts whole milk mozzarella (about 8 oz.)
1 part mild white cheddar (about 3 oz.)

There are several secrets to Connecticut-style pizza dough: a little bit of sugar, more oil than usual, and rising in the pan for part of the time. First, whisk the water, yeast, sugar, and 1 tbsp. of the olive oil in a bowl. Let stand for 5 minutes. Then, manually mix in the salt and 1 1/2 cups of the flour with a fork, beating until it's smooth:



Using either a hand-mixer with dough hooks (what I used) or stand-mixer with same, gradually mix in the remaining flour in 1/4-cup increments. You may not need all of the flour. Once the dough pulls away from the sides of the bowl and forms a fairly dense lump around the dough hooks, you know you've added enough. Continue to mix for 5 minutes, on a high setting.

Coat the bottom of a large bowl with the remaining 1 tbsp. olive oil. Remove the dough from the mixing bowl, and gently form it into a sphere using your hands. It should be soft to the touch. Put it into the oiled bowl, and add another dash of oil to coat the top:



Cover the bowl, and set it in a warm area of your kitchen. Let it rise for 45 minutes. In the meantime, "season" your pizza pan if this is your first time making pizza with it; this is another secret of Connecticut-style pizza! Coat the pan with a thin layer of vegetable shortening:



and bake it in a 500 degree oven for 10 minutes. Immediately turn off the oven and remove the pan, wiping the excess shortening off with a paper towel. Don't leave it in too long, or you'll have rubberized glue. Also, don't wash the pan: the coating is very important for crust texture. Set it aside to completely cool. Then, coat it again with vegetable shortening.

Once the dough has risen for 45 minutes, transfer it to the pizza pan. Connecticut-style pizza needs to spend the remainder of its time rising in the pan; this is very different from New York-style pizza, which is baked immediately. If your pan is very large, you might use all of the dough. For my pan, about 3/4 of the dough was plenty. Once you press it out into the pan, it should be roughly 1/4" thick. To make a nice edge, don't pinch it. Instead, use your fingertips to press under the edge and make it bulge out.



Let the dough rise in the pan for 15 minutes. While it's rising, make the sauce. The key to the sauce is extra oregano. For the base, you can pick whatever store-bough brand you like most. Mix together the sauce, oregano, basil, salt, and black pepper in a small bowl. After 15 minutes, pour it on the pizza. Holding the pan by the edges, shake the pizza side-to-side to coat the bottom with just the right amount of sauce (this is how we did it at the restaurant). If you want to cheat, you can spread it out with a spoon.



Let the sauced dough rise for another 45 minutes. If any large bubbles rise in the dough during this rise, pop them with the tip of a sharp knife. Towards the end of this time, preheat the oven to 500 degrees again, and prepare your cheese mixture. Unlike New York-style pizza, which often uses pure mozzarella, Connecticut-style pizza uses a mix of mozzarella and mild white cheddar. Mix the two cheeses lightly in a bowl, and after the dough has risen 45 minutes, cover it very liberally with cheese.



Add toppings of your choosing (I just like plain cheese pizza), and pop it in the oven. Bake it about 12-15 minutes, depending on thickness, the number of toppings, and your oven. The cheese should be noticeably browned, and the bottom of the crust should be tan to light brown.

Enjoy your Connecticut-style pizza!

Pignoli Amaretti (Pine Nut Cookies)

I had this cookie for the first time in an Italian cafe and had since tried to find the perfect recipe for it. Vance was highly amazed that this cookie recipe does not require flour. Make sure that you get "Almond paste" not "Marzipan" because they are not the same. Also, make sure you get the canned almond paste instead of the tube ones.

2 cans (8 oz.) almond paste
1 1/2 cups confectioners sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 large egg whites
2 tablespoon honey
1 cup pine nuts

Preheat oven to 350°F. Line cookie sheet with parchment paper (I ran out of parchment paper and used non stick aluminum foil, which was a bad idea because it browns the bottom of the cookies faster so try only using parchment paper to line the cookie sheet).

In a food processor, pulse almond paste into small pieces. Add in confectioners sugar and salt. Pulse until it turns into small crumbles. Add in honey and egg white and pulse until well combined.

With a bowl of water next to you, wet your fingers. This is to prevent the sticky batter from sticking to you. Spoon a teaspoon full of batter and with your wet fingers loosen the batter into the cookie sheet. Place cookies about 2-inch apart. Sprinkle some pine nuts on top of the cookie and flattened it a little bit.

Bake cookies in upper and lower thirds of oven, switching position of cookie sheets halfway through baking until golden. Bake for approximately 15 minutes until lightly browned and soft and springy. Remove from oven and and transfer to wire racks to cool completely.

Spicy Chicken Cacciatore

I love Chicken Cacciatore and I remember making it for the first time when I was in Malaysia about 10 years ago. I jazzed the recipe up by adding red pepper flakes to make it spicy. Just omit the red pepper flakes if you don't want the stew to be spicy. This stew is even better a day or two after it's made. Add some sugar into the stew to cut the tomato's acidity down.


5 chicken thighs and 2 chicken breasts
1 tablespoon salt
1 teaspoon pepper
1/2 cup flour
3 tablespoon oil

1 medium onion, sliced
2 green pepper, sliced
2 cups mushroom, sliced
2 cups baby carrot
1 tablespoon chopped garlic
1 tablespoon dried basil
1 tablespoon dried oregano
1 tablespoon red pepper flakes
2 bay leaves
1 can tomato puree (29 oz.)
2 cups chicken broth
1 tablespoon sugar
salt and pepper to taste

Marinate chicken pieces with salt and pepper. Coat with flour. Heat oil. Brown chicken pieces and then set aside.

Saute onion and garlic in the same oil. Add red pepper flakes. When the oil turns red, add in basil, oregano, mushroom, green pepper and baby carrot. Saute for a few minutes. Stir in tomato puree, chicken stock and bay leaves. When sauce starts boiling, add in the browned chicken pieces. Cover and let it simmer on medium heat for about an hour. Season with salt, pepper and sugar. Stir occasionally.

Serve warm with pasta and Parmesan cheese.