The Pizza Trilogy Goes Quad.

How in the world did I miss writing this?  There I was, at home, making pizza dough to create a Sicilian pie for dinner.  Ah yes, that is correct, pizza is called “pie” whether it is baked round or rectangular.  Anyway, too lazy to dig out the huge binder that acts as my personal cookbook, I looked up the recipe on the food blog.  The pizza trilogy posts came up, and also one that made me do a double-take…same title as above, and it was about focaccia bread.

I had done the post way back in 2012, expressing my frustration over not being able to get a pizza that was done correctly.   Every pizzeria we tried, not just in Utah, but in the other 4 Corners states was thick and bready; very little sauce, heavy on the cheese, light on the toppings. Being a New Yorker, this was a mystery to me and I constantly asked, "Why?".  The answers varied from "it's the water", "it's the altitude" to "we can't get the same flour here as they use out East". That last one really made my eyes cross. I make my own pizza at home, use the local water, granted the altitude is 7100 feet above sea level, but white flour is white flour.

It’s 2026 now, and we have found two local restaurants that serve up pizza and calzones with very good quality; Bangers Bar and Pizza in Dove Creek, Colorado, and Smoke Pizza Company in Blanding, Utah.  Obviously, they have discovered how to get around the mysteries of water, altitude and flour; if you haven’t tried them yet, what in the world are you waiting for?  Oh, and Bangers does some great sandwiches too, my favorite being the Chicken Parm sub.  Smoke Pizza has an in-house made bakery section too, and we love their ranch bread, croissants and cream pies.  If, however, you have your own favorite places you are loyal to, that’s great; I’m only suggesting you try these two restaurants if you haven’t already.

Alright, back to my venting on incorrectly made, in my personal opinion, pizza.  One day it dawned on me so brightly; the pizzerias in Utah are making their crust out of focaccia bread dough. This dough is kneaded only once, punched down, topped and left to rise again; hence the thicker and bread-like texture. How do I know this for a fact?  I asked of course, and the owners gladly gave me a lecture on how Utah pizza is done; a couple of owners stated their learning came from Florida or California shops, so…   All I know is how I learned to make the pizzas written about in the trilogy.  Basically, pizza dough is kneaded twice, once before and once after a single rising. For a New York style, it is stretched out to a 1/4inch thickness after the second kneading, then topped and baked.  That is how its unique crispy crust is browned to perfection, yet each slice (a 16-inch is cut into only 8 slices) is foldable and doesn’t fall apart.

The Pizza Trilogy as it appeared in the San Juan Record:

September 25, 2019

The Pizza Trilogy – New York Style

October 9, 2019

The Pizza Trilogy - Sicilian Pizza 

October 23, 2019

The Pizza Trilogy – Chicago Style.

Now I am introducing you to the quad, the fourth style - Utah's Focaccia Style Pizza. I guess if this is what you've grown up on, have never experienced pizza from different regions, then this is the best that you'll ever find. Personally, bread is bread, pizza is pizza, and Utah style pizza leans more towards being a fancy bread than an actual pizza.

What is focaccia bread exactly?  Focaccia is a soft, fluffy, oven-baked Italian flatbread. It features a crisp crust infused with olive oil and a signature dimpled surface created by pressing fingertips into the dough before baking.  Its origin dates back to ancient Rome, and was mainly eaten sprinkled with sea salt, and dipped in olive oil.  Focaccia is usually shaped into one of three forms – round, rectangular or oval.

Cheese Focaccia

Vegetable Focaccia

 

  

Focaccia Bread

Ingredients:

3 cups flour

2 tsp. salt

1 Tbsp. sugar

1 (.25 oz) packet active dry yeast

1 and 1/3 cups warm water (110 F)

3 Tbsp. olive oil, divided by 2 Tbsp. and 1 Tbsp.

Optional Ingredients: chopped fresh herbs, shredded or grated cheeses, thinly sliced or diced vegetables, thinly sliced Italian cold cuts such as prosciutto, capicola or genoa salami.

Preparation:

Into a large bowl, sift together the flour and salt; make a well in the center of the dry ingredients. Sprinkle in the sugar and dry yeast; carefully pour in the water; let stand for 5 minutes while yeast begins to react. Add 2 Tbsp. of oil and carefully begin stirring the flour into the wet center gradually incorporating all the flour.

Place dough on floured board and knead until smooth. Brush ½ tsp. of remaining olive oil into a clean bowl; place dough in bowl and turn once to coat both sides with oil. Cover with a clean linen towel and let dough rise for one hour.

Brush a teaspoon of oil onto a jelly roll or round pizza pan. Punch the dough down and place onto the pan; press the dough out to a ½ inch thickness. Brush with remaining olive oil; with tip of index finger, or handle tip of a wooden spoon, dimple the dough in 2-inch spaces. Sprinkle or place optional ingredients on top of dough; let rise for 30 minutes.

Preheat oven to 375F; bake bread for 25-30 minutes; until browned on top. Remove to wire rack to cool slightly; best served warm.

Makes one bread.

For high altitude, adjust the amount of flour, as you would, when making basic bread.

 

There you go, bread that’s pizza, or pizza that’s bread; so long as you enjoy it, that is the only point that matters.

Mary Cokenour

Give Mom a Big Quiche for Mothers' Day.

We all start out life as a simple, basic human being.  As we grow and learn, little facets of the world around us, including people, add to our own lives.  We accept or reject what we want to; allow ourselves to be molded into an independent individual, or we just become one of the crowd.  Each day we learn something new; that is, if we have open minds and want to see beyond our own little worlds.  Of the people who influence us the most, it is our parents, soon it will be Mothers’ Day; the woman in our lives who nurtures, cares for, molds, advises and sees us as small children the rest of our adult lives.  Don’t worry dads, your day will come in June.

Personally, I enjoy traveling down the road less taken.  That poem, by Robert Frost, has much meaning, if one cares to really read and understand the concept of being an individual, not just a clone.  This is something that I strove to teach my own son; surprise, I do have a child, well he’s a strong adult now, 27 years in age and living in Moab.  Wonders will never cease when it comes to me, I promise you that!

"The Road Not Taken"

By Robert Frost

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,

 And sorry I could not travel both

 And be one traveler, long I stood

 And looked down one as far as I could

 To where it bent in the undergrowth;

 Then took the other, as just as fair,

 And having perhaps the better claim,

 Because it was grassy and wanted wear;

 Though as for that the passing there

 Had worn them really about the same,

 And both that morning equally lay

 In leaves no step had trodden black.

 Oh, I kept the first for another day!

 Yet knowing how way leads on to way,

 I doubted if I should ever come back.

 I shall be telling this with a sigh

 Somewhere ages and ages hence:

 Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—

 I took the one less traveled by,

 And that has made all the difference.

When it comes to independence, cooking was definitely taught to my son who continues to work in restaurants wherever he resides.  A complete, and easy, meal to create is Quiche, and yes, real men do bake and eat quiche.  A quiche is egg custard with savory additions, baked in an open pastry shell; usually served at room temperature or chilled.   It is quite simple to make with a variety of tongue teasing ingredients: cheese (Swiss, Gruyere, Cheddar, goat), meat (bacon, ham, sausage) and vegetables (raw or cooked).  

Asparagus and Cheddar Quich

Basic Quiche

Ingredients:

1 ½ cups half n’ half

4 eggs, beaten

1/8 tsp. salt (can be adjusted up or down dependent on ingredients added in)

1/8 tsp. ground black pepper

1 – 9” unbaked deep dish pastry shell

Preparation:

Preheat oven to 350F.  Combine half n’ half, eggs, salt and pepper.  Pour into pastry shell; bake for 45-50 minutes, or until egg mixture is golden brown and set.

Once baked, let the quiche cool for at least two hours before serving; it may look done, but the center is still loose; cutting it would be a complete mess.  Refrigerating the quiche would help; it can then be served cold, or slightly warm it for 10 minutes in a 300F oven.  Eaten cold or warm, quiche is a complete meal in a slice of egg custard goodness.

Mushroom, Bacon and Swiss Cheese Quiche

Notes

The above is the simple egg custard; the adventure is what is added.  Add 2 cups shredded cheese (your choice) to the bottom of the pastry shell, before pouring in the egg mixture, for a simple cheese quiche.  Reduce the cheese to 1 cup if adding meat and/or vegetables to not overwhelm the custard.

Spinach, Mushroom, Goat Cheese Quiche

For meats, distribute a ½ cup of cooked meat (crumbled bacon, diced ham, crumbled ground sausage) with the cheese.  Depending on the salt content of the cheese and meat, salt can be adjusted prior to adding to the egg mixture.  Herbs, fresh or dried, can be incorporated into the egg mixture as well. 

For vegetables, ½ cup of sautéed onion, peppers, leeks, zucchini or yellow squash distributed with cheese, or cheese and meat.  If using a root vegetable (potato, sweet potato, Jerusalem artichoke), peel, dice, boil in water till tender and drain thoroughly before adding inside the pastry shell. A raw vegetable, such as spinach (wash leaves and dry thoroughly), should be chopped before adding.

To avoid spillage, a jelly roll pan placed into the oven while it is heating up helps temper it; it should not warp and tilt the quiche(s) during the baking process.  I have found that that doesn't always work out the way I planned it.  Instead take a sheet of heavy duty aluminum foil, make edges all around and place on the center rack of the oven.  Then carefully place the filled pie crusts inside, close up the oven and bake as usual.  The foil won't warp from the heat, but still grab any spillage.

Now you go ahead and give mom that huge bouquet of flowers and box of her favorite chocolates, but giving her a big quiche will truly make her smile.

Mary Cokenour