Kickin' It Old School

When I started this blog lo these seven and a half years ago my intention was to make good use of my cookbook collection. Too many of my gems were being underused. Over the years I have found myself using the cookbooks less often, as I find more recipes online. This post pays homage to the original intent of my project. I got out one of my oldest cookbooks New Recipes for Pasta, Rice, and Beans - one of those flimsy magazine-quality numbers you can find at the grocery store checkout line, which I am sure is where I picked this one up, sometime in the '90s. We use it often for its stuffed pepper recipe, but I decided to find a "nueva receta" this time and selected "South-of-the-Border Bean and Bacon Pizza". I frankly don't believe that this is a Mexican dish by any stretch, but I didn't come up with the name. The little cookbook is from Pillsbury, and therefore every recipe includes some name-brand ingredients. I ignored this, and certainly wasn't about to use pre-prepared pizza crust in any case. I made the dough in my bread machine. Nor did I use Joan of Arc Spicy Chili beans. I did used canned kidney beans, and then added some chili powder and other spices. Otherwise, I followed the recipe. It was a tasty and filling meal.

Just like I remember

Sometimes I try to recreate my childhood comfort foods and then wonder what I thought was so great about them. I can never be sure if my tastes have changed, or the formula for the food, or perhaps it was really the memories were what were so good, rather than the food. However, yesterday, I had the happy experience of eating a childhood favorite, and returning squarely to the comfort zone that I was looking for. From whence did these memories come? Why, Don Pepino Pizza Sauce!

Sundays were "pizza kit" day at my house when I was growing up. A local store (no longer in existence and whose name I can no longer remember) in my hometown of Catonsville, Maryland sold the kits which contained three pizza shells, a bag of mozzarella cheese, and a can of Don Pepino sauce. I loved pizza kits, probably as much for the fact that Sunday pizza meant the whole family was dining together as much as for the enjoyment of eating pizza. I also knew that not any old sauce would be good enough for the pizza - it had to be Don Pepino. I have never enjoyed pizza like the Sunday pizza kits, until yesterday (which, was coincidently, a Sunday). I found the cans of Don Pepino at the grocery store while visiting my parents who still live in Maryland (I have not seen them anywhere else I have lived since I moved away 26 years ago). Although it had been a month since we bought the half dozen cans we didn't open any until yesterday afternoon, when my husband, daughter, and I were together after almost a month of being apart. Of course I did not have the pre-made pizza shells that came with the original pizza kits, but I expect the dough I made in the bread machine made for a better shell anyway (we also discovered that substituting water for beer in the bread machine recipe made a pizza dough that was crispier, and that we all liked better - who would have guessed I would ever prefer water over beer!). The comfort of having my family surrounding me, combined with the Don Pepino sauce - just like I remembered it - gave me warmth on a cold winter day.

Comfort Pizza Variations

Advisory: Today's post is more about a comfort food with modest flavor improvements and only modest nods toward health and sustainability. The usual obsessions of this blog will return shortly.

In the Hayes-Boh house, a "usual" pizza order is one cheese -- for our vegetarian daughter -- and one pepperoni and mushroom for us 'rents. This order is placed on average once a month or so, when both our menu planning and our good intentions to cook at home fall short. We've actually resorted to this much less than usual in recent months, proof that the Nueva Receta mindset is taking hold.

Courtesy 123RoyaltyFree

Preparation for this evening's meal began in the early afternoon, when Pam put ingredients for pizza dough in our bread machine. If you have such a machine, it must have a setting and recipe for dough. This is useful both for pizza and for bagels; we make the former fairly often and have prepared the latter only once or twice. As is our wont, Pam modified the standard recipe by adding a little wheat germ (we pronounce that with a hard G in our house) and substituting whole wheat for the portion of the white flour. We then set off on some errands, which included dropping off said vegetarian daughter and stopping by Trader Joe's on the way home.

While at TJ's, we looked for our usual and finding no pepperoni, took a walk on the wild side. We picked up some Canadian bacon, prosciutto being out of the question for its strong saltihood. We also picked up a package of white button mushrooms. (See above note about today's entry not having gourmet pretensions.) I always buy them whole, since slicing is good (if minimal) exercise and pre-slicing simply multiplies the surface area for spoilage.

When we got home, we started heating up the oven and Pam rolled the dough out on the slightly warm baking stone. Meanwhile, I started shredding the mozz (also from TJ's), of which we used about 2/3 of a pound. Not a fancy cheese, but a bit more flavorful than the usual from our local grocery. I also removed about half of the Canadian bacon slices and cut them into quarters (a total of three ounces).

I then sliced all of the mushrooms and cooked them in a little butter on medium-high heat. When soft, I added a generous splash of wine and cooked until reduced. I usually would use sherry, but we had none. We consolidated partial bottles of our home-made wine and commercial cooking wine, and I added this, cooking on high heat until greatly reduced.

Meanwhile, Pam build the pizza (on the baking stone) with organic commercial sauce, the shredded mozz, and a sprinkling of feta cheese (we keep a big container on hand for just such opportunities), We added the Canadian bacon and the well-cooked mushrooms. We baked at 425 (convection) for 18 minutes, and it turned out perfect!

Here is the real comfort-food portion of the meal. As much as we love fresh fruit, with pizza we enjoy jarred peaches from Costco, in little cups with a dusting of cinnamon. We served this alongside the pizza, which we sprinkled liberally with pepper flakes. This all paired beautifully -- if modestly -- with a Little Penguin Shiraz, which has lasted just long enough for me to complete this post.