Category: Appetizers

Like James Beard’s Pizza Caccia Nanza

This is another recipe with a “Very good!” note in Jerri’s handwriting, which explains why we have been making and eating Pizza Caccia Nanza for many years. Beard credits the recipe to Edward Giobbi’s book, Italian Family Cooking. It is a garlic bread that is not overpowered by the garlic or the rosemary, the two primary spices. You might think of it as focaccia with fewer calories.

Jerri made the first adjustment to Beard’s recipe: She doubled the ingredients, obviously believing that if you are going to make something that tastes good, it makes sense to make enough for leftovers. Together we have made other adjustments: We use a little more yeast to speed up the rise, use dried rosemary instead of fresh and reduce the amount of olive oil.

The result is a flavorful bread that tastes good warm or cold. It can be dipped into a red sauce or eaten plain. It goes well with a glass of wine before dinner. Since the dough rises twice, it takes a little longer to make Pizza Caccia Nanza than some breads, but on the other hand you don’t need to let the bread rise once you put it in the pans.

INGREDIENTS:

2 cups water
1/4 tsp. sugar
2 tsp. yeast
5 cups all-purpose flour
1 tsp. salt
4 cloves garlic
2 tsp. dried rosemary
3 – 4 T olive oil
Salt and pepper to sprinkle on the loaves

PROCEDURE:

Heat two cups of water to lukewarm. You can test it by shaking a drop on the inside of your wrist. If the water feels slightly warm, it is about right. Pour it into a large mixing bowl. Stir the sugar and yeast into the water and allow it to proof. When bubbles begin appearing on the surface of the water, stir in a cup of flour and allow the batter to sit three or four minutes. Then stir in the salt and another cup of flour.

Add the rest of the flour one cup at a time, stirring thoroughly between additions. After you have stirred in the fourth cup, stir in another half cup and keep adding flour in small amounts until you have a dough that comes off the sides of the bowl. This will normally be between four and three-quarters and five cups of flour.

You will begin kneading the dough, so scrub your hands like a surgeon.

Let the dough rest in the bowl for three or four minutes while you prepare your work surface by dusting it with flour. Turn the dough out of the bowl, using a spatula to scrape the bowl clean and to turn the dough until the surface is well floured. Knead the dough for six to eight minutes until it is soft and elastic.

Form the dough into a ball and let it rest while you grease the mixing bowl. Canola or olive oil spray works great for this. Put the dough into the bowl, turning it so the surface is coated with grease. Cover the bowl with a damp tea towel and put the bowl in a warm place to let the dough rise until it has doubled in bulk. This will take from an hour to an hour and a half, depending on how warm it is in your kitchen.

While the dough is rising for the second time, remove the paper and stem ends from the garlic cloves and stage the rosemary on a saucer. Slice the garlic into thin slivers and set them aside on another saucer.

Flour your work surface again and turn the risen dough out for a second kneading. Knead it for three or four minutes and form it once again into a ball. Make sure the bowl is still well greased and return the dough to the bowl. Cover it again with a damp towel and let it rise again until it has doubled in bulk. This will take less time than the first rise.

Preheat the oven to 400º.

To form the loaves, turn the dough out on the floured work surface and knead it for a minute or so. Divide the dough in half and make two balls. Use the palms of your hands to make two circular loaves about a half inch thick and ten inches in diameter. Generously grease two baking sheets with olive oil and put the loaves on the sheets.

Use a small knife to make indentations about one inch apart on top of the loaves. As you make the indentations, push a sliver of garlic into each one and sprinkle the rosemary over each loaf. When you have finished, dribble about a tablespoon of olive oil on each loaf and rub it gently over the surface.

Sprinkle with salt and grind some black pepper on each loaf.

Bake for twenty to twenty-five minutes until the loaves are golden brown. Remove the garlic slivers after the loaves have cooled a bit. Cut in wedges like a pizza to serve.

NOTES: Our round pizza pans work well for baking this bread. If you have a really large baking sheet and oven, you could of course put both loaves on that sheet. If you prefer a stronger garlic flavor, increase the number of garlic slivers you put on each loaf.

Super Easy Garlic Buns

Unless you are fortunate enough to have a son like one of our great nephews when he was young, you are going to end up with extra hot dog buns from time to time. When Nate was about nine, he stopped eating most things. Meat was especially out of the question and he had never liked vegetables anyway.

What he did like was hot dog buns covered with ketchup, and that’s what he ate for breakfast, lunch and dinner. He drank milk, so his diet included four of the five food groups: grain (flour), legumes (soybean oil), fruit (tomatoes) and milk. His parents took this dietary phase with equanimity, and after a year or two Nate one day decided to add white chicken to his list of acceptable foods which had already grown to include hamburger buns and plain white bread.

When I heard of this preference for white foods, I wondered if he had been mistakenly swapped with a Scandinavian baby when he was discharged from the nursery. If he had insisted on mayonnaise with the buns, that might have been the explanation, but his preference for ketchup ruled that out.

Anyway, Nate’s mother did not have to worry about what to do with leftover hot dog buns. With Nate around, there never were any leftover buns. He was a growing boy with a healthy appetite.

However, like many people we know, we often end up with extra hot dog buns. We usually buy three dogs at a meat market or one pound packages of hot dogs at the supermarket. The packages we buy today have two separate pouches with four dogs in each, so we can toss one in the freezer.

Buns, alas, are always sold in packages of eight or ten. One can freeze buns of course, but they take up lots of space in the freezer and are often forgotten by the husband who is sent out to buy hot dogs for supper. Contrary to what one might suppose, frozen hot dog buns do not last forever. They really are not very good even after only six or seven months.

Here is a quick way to turn those extra hot dog buns into a delicious appetizer that you and your friends will enjoy.

INGREDIENTS:

Hot dog buns
Butter
Powdered garlic
Dried basil
Shredded mozzarella cheese
Grated Parmesan cheese
Dried oregano

PROCEDURE:

Preheat the oven to 350º and melt a tablespoon of butter.

Separate and brush the buns with the melted butter and put them on a plate or other work surface. Sprinkle them with garlic powder, basil, and shredded mozzarella cheese. Top with a little grated Parmesan cheese and finish with a light sprinkling of oregano.

Put the buns on a baking sheet and bake them for about twelve minutes or until the cheese begins to brown.

Serve the buns warm from the oven.

NOTES: You can substitute olive oil for the butter. There are of course other ways to use the extra buns. For instance, you can dry them and make bread crumbs to top your next casserole or add to the hamburger when you make a meatloaf, but you won’t have any leftovers if you make garlic buns.