Spring meal: White pizza with ramps & strawberry salad.

From our CSA this week, we received more flavorful salad greens, mustard greens, 2 pints of strawberries, & a bunch of radishes. We hadn't even finished our first set of salad greens yet! Plus, we've had 3 weeks of strawberries. PLUS! We've still have copious amounts of ramps & scallions. What to do!!

So, tonight I made a white pizza with ramps & a strawberry salad. It was a very nice balanced meal. PLUS!! We had a nice white wine with the meal.

Nice.

Just a warning - don't be afraid of the number of ramps. Ramps are much mellower than garlic or scallions/leeks. Don't fear the ramps!


Here's the basic recipe:

White pizza with ramps
10 ramps
1/4 cup parmesan cheese
1 or 3/4 cup shredded Italian cheese (we used Sargento's reduced fat Italian blend)
3/4 cup ricotta cheese
2-3 tablespoons dried basil (or a handful of fresh basil)
1-2 tablespoons dried oregano
1 tomato, diced
1 pizza crust

So, I did a dirty, clever trick with the tomato. I purchased an heirloom tomato from the crappy Giant near me (not the super nice Giant). Mostly, heirloom tomatoes have tons of tomato flavor, which is indicated by their scent & their minimal travel time. However, I screwed up & chose a random heirloom without a good scent that traveled from Canada. After I chopped the tomato, I sprinkled it with a very small amount of sugar & a ton of basil. Then, it tasted more tomatoey. It wasn't perfect, but it was better than tasting like water.

Basically, the pizza crust is topped with ricotta cheese, then 1/2 of the ramps, the seasonings, then the tomatoes, then the shredded cheese. (Jeff says that you can cook all of the ramps in the pizza. I liked a few of them raw on top. But taste a raw ramp & choose your own adventure!) Sprinkle the top with the parmesan. Also, I brushed the exposed crust with some olive oil & sprinkled with some parmesan.

Bake for 30 minutes at 350 degrees. Top the pizza with the rest of the ramps & (if you're feeling feisty, some fresh arugula leaves).

Enjoy with a nice white wine, such as a 2007 Cascina del Pozzo Arneis Roero (Italian white table wine - cheap!). Also, make a nice green salad & top with sliced strawberries & balsamic vinaigrette.

AWESOME!! & very Spring-y!


Aside: Ramps are SUPER ULTRA good pan-fried with potatoes. Just add the ramps near the end of the cooking. Nice onion/garlic flavor with potatoes - very good!!

Post-race Pizza.

There's nothing quite like home-made pizza. Delicious ingredients combined just the way that we like them... Yum!

For this pizza, I used Jules Gluten-free Flour. It is by far the best gluten-free flour that I've had. No extra ingredients. No adjusting of the recipes. Just use as you would regular all-purpose flour.

I made the dough using AllRecipes Pizza Dough III with a few minor modifications: I gave the yeast about 1/4 teaspoon of sugar for food, I decreased the amount of sugar in the dough, & I added a teaspoon of an Italian seasoning blend into the dough.

Next time, MORE Italian seasoning into the dough!!

For the pizza:
1/4 jar of pasta sauce (leftovers work great for this!)
1 tin of tomato paste
8-12 leaves of fresh basil
Boar's Head pepperoni (gluten-free!)
1 package of Sargento shredded Italian 4-cheese blend
1 diced tomato

I lightly greased the pan prior to putting the dough on it. (Normally, I spread the dough on a flexible, plastic chopping board, & then I flip it onto the baking sheet.) Mix the pasta sauce with the paste. Taste & add any seasonings if needed. (We didn't need any!!) Put down the sauce, then the basil, then the cheese, then the pepperoni, then the tomatoes.

Bake at 350 for about 20-30 minutes. Yummy!!!