Fallen Souffle

One of our fondest memories of Italy is a pizza shop in Milan called Da Willy’s. We frequented this shop about twice a week suring our three week visit but nothing will compare to the first night we were in Milan when we introduced to this quaint shop and an amazing liquor, limoncella. I sweet, syrupy lemony tear, usually sipped after dinner. Well there was no sipping for us, come on we were from ECU, we were taking shots like it was Tequila Night at PB’s. We paid the price the next day when we had to be up and dressed in business attire in 100 degree heat and 100% humidity with no A/C.

Ahh those were the days, we drank much more limoncello while in Italy but had not had since then until our honeymoon. One night on our cruise was Italian night and they sold shot glasses and unlimited limoncello for $3. That was a bargain, we could drink a gallon of it between the two of us, the the older people watched in amazement as we quickly sipped our favorite libation.

So I somehow was feeling nostagic and was staring at a bag of lemons about to turn on me when I felt motivated to make limoncello. As Evan put it, “you don’t have enough to work on, now your making your own booze!?”, well it’s no Moonshine. I had read the review of this recipe and alot of people companied that it was hard to do. Rubbish! As long s you have a good sharp vegetable peeler you are good to go. I would also recommend having a gallon size glass jar with a lid to keep it in. I keep the jar in the freezer and a smaller pretty bottle in the fridge.

Adapted from Everyday Italian’s Giada de Laurentis.
Limoncello
10 lemons
1 (750-ml) bottle vodka
3 1/2 cups water
2 1/2 cups sugar

Using a vegetable peeler, remove the peel from the lemons in long strips (reserve the lemons for another use). Place the lemon peels in a 2-quart pitcher. Pour the vodka over the peels and cover with plastic wrap. Steep the lemon peels in the vodka for 1 week at room temperature.

Stir the water and sugar in a large saucepan over medium heat until the sugar dissolves, about 5 minutes. Cool completely. Pour the sugar syrup over the vodka mixture. Cover and let stand at room temperature overnight. Strain the limoncello through a mesh strainer. Discard the peels. Transfer the limoncello to bottles. Seal the bottles and refrigerate until cold, at least 4 hours, can be frozen.

This liquor should be sipped, not shot and is used after dinner.

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Evan and I love pizza. You could almost say it’s what brought us together in Italy when we met…well not quite, but we did eat alot of pizza while we were there and I think it’s safe to say we have had it every week since then. We have a couple of our favorite pizza places, Big Apple in Greenville where you can get a huge, thin NY style slice for 99cents on Tuesdays , Brooklyn Sal’s in Raleigh which also has great NY style pizza, and our new favorite “gourmet” pizza place Lilly’s also in Raleigh which combines unusual toppings such as feta, zucchini, kalamata olives, and roasted tomatoes. Yum!

Every once and a while we do like to make our own at home. I don’t know if it’s due to laziness, our need for creative expression or just being cheap but we usually make pizza about once a month. I love making the dough, it is so easy and you really can’t mess it up, though a store bough pizza shell or dough works well too.

Evan and I make very different pizzas. His consists of the typical “manly” toppings of mozzarella, parmesan, pepperoni, sauce and some red pepper flakes. I must admit he makes a fine pie.

I on the other hand like to mix it up and add anything from the fridge. This week I started with a layer of olive oil, added chopped garlic, fresh basil leaves, prosciutto, sun dried tomatoes, parmesan, mozzarella and red pepper flakes. The prosciutto added a wonderful saltiness while the sundried tomatoes added some sweetness and just a hint of red pepper flakes added just a bit of heat. It was perfect, who says you need sauce to make a good pie!?

Here is a simple pizza dough you can whip up. This dough recipe makes 4-10 inch pizzas, I usually freeze half in a plastic bag sprayed with Pam, just pop it in the fridge for about 2 days to defrost before you use it. I also like to let it get to room temperature before I use it, just makes it easier to work with.

Pizza Dough
about 5 cups of flour (I like to use a combination of wheat flour and all purpose or bread flour)
1 tablespoon of honey or sugar
3 1/2 teaspoons kosher salt
2 teaspoon of yeast (if you are using the little packets, just throw the whole package in there)
2 tablespoons of olive oil
2 cups of warm water

1. I like to add the yeast to about 1 cup of warm water. I never measure the water temperature, just run the tap and when you can’t hold your finger under anymore, that’s a good temp. Stir the yeast and water than add the sugar or honey to “feed” it. Let sit for about 5 minutes. I usually do this to ensure I have active yeast

2. Start with about 2 cups of flour. I usually start with 1 cup of wheat and 1 cup of bread flour. Add salt, olive oil and one more cup of warm water. When yeast has started to get foamy dump that in and stir. Add the flour a cup at a time until is starts to come away from the bowl.

3. Dump dough onto a floured surface and knead in flour until the dough is smooth. I usually don’t use all 5 cups, this is why I add about a cup at a time. Depending on the type of flour you use will determine the amount of flour you will use in total. For example, I find I use less flour when I start with wheat flour.

4. Spray a large bowl with Pam and plop the round of dough in the bottom and roll around the bowl to coat the dough in oil. Cover in a dish towel rinses with warm water and allow to rise for about 2 hours, or until doubles in size. You can also stick the dough in an oiled plastic bag and stick it in the fridge overnight to rise.

5. I like to use the back of a cookie sheet as my “pizza pan”, divide dough into 4 pieces and spread out onto a greased pan. Add toppings and bake in 426 degree over for about 20 minutes, depending on thickness of dough. Just keep an eye out and look for your cheese to start bubbling and for the crust to start to turn a golden brown.

6. Let cool for a bit to let the cheese set, or just be like Evan and dig in, drippy cheese and all.

Mangia! Mangia!

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I can’t help it, it’s probably my favorite picture of us. We just past the 7 month mark, and it’s been the best 7 months of my life.

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