Grilled Spot Prawns with a Thai Mango Salad

In Italy they celebrate the first asparagus with festivals all over the country (though I’m told especially in Veneto), ringing in the first of the local produce after a long winter of root vegetables and grains. I remember being told that in cooking school and feeling a little left out, a little cast to the side that we didn’t have these traditions, that my deep and very self important 19 year old self had missed something important. That some deep rooted cultural practise that I believed in had just passed me by because I lived in Canada.

And while that was many things, self indulgent definitely among them, it’s also not true. We may not have the long standing history of it, but Vancouver has spot prawns. And with them the Spot Prawn Festival.

I didn’t really realize before I moved to Vancouver that seafood is just as seasonal as produce, but it makes sense once you think about it. If you want the best salmon in BC you wait until mid-late summer, you’ll catch the fattiest trout in the fall, but of all seafood nothing is as seasonal as the spot prawn.

They are the first things out of the water in the Spring, big prawns that are bright coral and marked with two namesake white dots on their tails. They are tender beyond any shrimp or prawn I’ve ever had and they have an unmistakably sweet flavour. You have probably seen them in Asian supermarkets swimming around, or on Japanese menus as “ama-ebi” or sweet shrimp, but the taste of them fresh from the water is a completely different experience.

They are also one of the only sustainable shrimp/prawn fisheries in the world, and we are incredibly lucky not only to have these glorious little guys swimming around our local waters but also to have a sustainable fish shop 2 blocks away from our apartment.

Now, spot prawns are not cheap, they cost a pretty penny, so these are not for everyday, at least not on my budget (they average around $15 a pound!) but they are worth buying a few every Spring to celebrate.

I made a light dinner of them the other day, with a simple Thai inspired mango salad and grilled the prawns until just they are just barely cooked. With a cold beer, you’d be hard pressed to find a better summer meal!

Grilled Spot Prawns with Thai Mango Salad

*If you can’t get spot prawns you can make this with any shrimp, but fresh and local will make a difference in the taste if you can get them. 

Thai Mango Salad

1 philipine Mango (you can use Chinese mangos too, but the Phillipine ones are less fibrous, and often cheaper!)

1/2 a Cucumber

1/4 Red Onion

1/2 inch piece of fresh ginger

1 clove garlic

Juice of 1 lime

1 tbsp Fish Sauce

1 tsp Sambal Olek or other Asian chili garlic oil

2 tbsp Peanut or Canola Oil

Handful of cilantro and mint.

Spot Prawns

10 Prawns, head off

Zest of 1 Lime

1 tbsp Sambal Olek or other Asian chili garlic oil

1 tbsp Peanut or Canola Oil

Throw all the ingredients into a bowl and marinade for at least half an hour.

Meanwhile make the salad.

Mix the lime juice, fish sauce, sambal and oil in a bowl. On a rasp grate the ginger and garlic and mix it in. Check for seasoning, it should be quite strong- the lime, sambal and fish sauce should jump out at you!

Thinly slice the onion and add to the dressing.

Peel the mango with a peeler. Throw out the peel, then continue to use the peeler to get nice thin strips of the fruit. Add to the bowl.

Cut the cucumber in half and use the peeler to make thin strips of it. You could use a mandoline here if you wanted to, but then you’d have to wash it after, so I just use the peeler.

Mix this all together- this can sit for about an hour like this, but don’t add the herbs until your just about to serve it.

For the prawns- Heat your BBQ, grill pan, or saute pan until it’s blazing hot. Your only going to cook the prawns for about a minute each side, and your going to be taking the shells off, so you want to impart as much flavour into the meat as possible. If the edges get a little black it’s a good thing.

Once your surface is scorching hot put the prawns out in a single layer and let them cook for 1 minute each side and then flip. Once they’re starting to curl up, the edges are getting colored and they have turned bright coral your in business, take them off right away.

Mix your herbs into the salad, place half of it on each plate and put 5 prawns per plate. Poor yourself a beer and dig in!

Thai Chicken Noodle Salad

If theres one thing I find myself making over and over it’s noodle salads. They take wonderfully to nearly anything in your fridge, making them very simple and super cheap, a winning combination for this unemployed girl. I think it’s because I make them so often, and I throw in nearly anything that I worry that they’re not good enough for the blog space and I pass over them again and again when I’m making them. 

That changes with this chicken. It’s a simple enough start, mix a few ingredients and marinate some chicken for an hour or two before frying it up, but it makes this throw together lunch into a legitimate dinner, and a damn good one at that. 

The marinade comes from Martha Stewart, but the rest of the ingredients I think are up to you. I’m putting a guideline for what I use, but it varies greatly depending on the season and if I’m willing to get up and go to the store, or if I have enough in the vegetable drawer of my fridge to make do. Fresh herbs are crucial though, don’t skimp out on those. The cilantro and mint are vital and if you can find thai basil, it really elevates this, although depending on your local shops it can be hard to find. 

Marinade

2 Cloves of Garlic, minced

1/2 cup Soy Sauce

1/2 cup Rice Wine Vinegar

2 tbsp Brown Sugar

2 tbsp Lime Juice

1/2 tsp anchovie fillets, minced

1/2 tsp Sambal Olek, or another garlic chili sauce

1 1/2 lbs boneless skinless chicken thighs, cut into thin strips

3 1/2 oz Rice Noods

2tbsp Sesame oil

Half a Cucumber. Cut in half and then sliced thinly

2 carrots, Julienned

1/2 cup Bean Sprouts

1/2 bunch green onions, sliced thinly

1/2 cup toasted peanuts

a handful of cilantro

a handful of mint

To make marinade, mix all ingredients together in a bowl

Put half of the marinade into a plastic zip-loc bag and add the chicken. Mix together and let marinade at least an hour or up to overnight.

Meanwhile, bring a large pot of water up to a boil. Cook your noodles to the package instructions. Strain and run under cold water, stirring occasionally until the noodles are totally cold to the touch. Toss with 1 tbsp of sesame oil. 

In a frying pan over medium heat, heat up the remaining sesame oil. Add in the chicken and cook, stirring regularly until it’s all cooked and the pan is almost dry.

Put the noodles in a large bowl, Mix the remaining marinade with the veggies and put that on top, top that with the chicken and then sprinkle the peanuts on top. And your in business. 

Cauliflower and Cumin Fritters with Lime Yoghurt

I find myself over and over again seasoning everything with fennel seeds, dried chilis and lemon zest. A little rosemary if I’m feeling crazy. It’s a fantastic combination, for pasta sauces, a big plate of sauted veggies, roasted meats, it works on nearly everything. But I’ve been finding lately that I’ve been a little bit on auto-pilot with them. It’s easy, it’s comforting but I’m finding it a little tired lately.

And whenever I’m in a food rut, I turn to Ottolenghi.
His food is simple, easy, and elegant, but it’s also heavily influenced from his Isreali background, and his use of spices is immaculate.

It’s never heavy or laden with them but there is always a waft or coriander, or a hint of rosewater in his food that makes you curious about your food. I like to be curious about my food.

These fritters are no exception. The cauliflower and cumin are a brilliant marriage and the lime yoghurt cuts through any heaviness, making it a perfect appy on it’s own or a great light supper with a salad. Although, with a poached egg on top, this could also be an epic breakfast.

Cauliflower and Cumin Fritters with Lime Yoghurt

(almost exactly how it appears in “Ottolenghi”

Fritters

1 small Cauliflower, cut into florets

1 cup AP Flour

3 tbsp Chopped Flat leaf Parsley

1 clove, Garlic- minced

2 Shallots- minced

4 Eggs

2 tsp Cumin, ground

1 tsp Cinnamon

1/2 tsp Tumeric

1 1/2 tsp Salt

1 tsp Black Pepper

Oil to fry

Lime Yoghurt

300g Greek Yoghurt

2 tbsp Finely chopped Cilantro

Zest of 1 Lime

2 tbsp Lime juice

2 tbsp Olive Oil

Salt and Pepper

Mix all the yoghurt ingredients together in a bowl, set aside.

Bring a large pot of water to a boil. Add in a healthy pinch of salt and cook the cauliflower until it’s soft, about 15 minutes. Drain.

While the cauliflower is cooking mix together all the other ingredients (except oil) and beat until smooth. Add in the cauliflower and mix that in too.

In a frying pan on medium heat add in a good glug of oil and heat until it’s hot- put a tiny dollop of the batter in, when it starts bubbling your ready to go.

Carefully spoon in the batter and let fry until a bubble or two appears on the top and the edges and the bottoms get a nice brown color. With a spatula flip them over and repeat on the other side. Continue cooking until they are all done, then serve them with a generous helping of the lime yoghurt.

Poached Eggs with Moroccan Spiced Root Veggies.

I know, it’s been a long time. I could say I’ve been busy, and that would be true, but I am suddenly, unexpectedly un-busy now. And while that is terrifying, and it is, it also means that I can spend a little (or a lot) more time focussing on this. This little space in the internet where I write and post and give recipes and get a huge amount of satisfaction. So even though I’m pretty scared about my current employment situation, (I was working for a very small company that was very slow, and I lost my job because of that last week) I’m also excited about writing every day again, and baking every day.

When I came home unemployed on the weekend, it was still morning and I didn’t really want to talk about it yet, so I made breakfast. Not a fussy breakfast, but one that takes a bit of time and a bit of love and a bit of focus. Which is what I have an abundance of right now.

Poached Eggs with Moroccan Spiced Root Veggies and Garlicky Yoghurt.

*I have a great Moroccan spice mix that I bought at a farmers market, but you can make your own easily. This is a good one here.

1 1/2 cups nugget potatoes cut in half

1 small bunch of Carrots

1 tbsp Olive Oil

1 tbsp Moroccan Spice Mix

2 Eggs

Handful of Cilantro, roughly chopped

Salt and Pepper

1/2 cup Yoghurt

1/2 tsp Salt

1 small clove garlic

Put the potatoes in a small pot covered in cold water. Bring to a boil. Strain.

Cut the carrots into 1inch pieces.

In a large saucepan over medium heat warm the olive oil. Add in the potatoes and carrots and fry until they turn a nice auburn colour.

Meanwhile bring a medium sized pot of water to a boil.

While all this is happening peel and mince the garlic. Use a garlic press or the flat side of your knife to squish it into the smallest pieces possible.

Add the garlic and salt to the yoghurt.

Once the potatoes and carrots are a nice brown turn off the heat and add in the spice mix and cilantro.

Now you can poach the eggs. Drop them in one by one to the water. You want a solid simmer, but not a boil. Let them simmer until the whites feel firm but the yolk is still soft when you push on it.

But a shmear of yoghurt on the plate, pile on some veggies and put the egg on top. And there you have a simple, beautiful breakfast.

Barley Risotto

After much too long without a kitchen I can cook again. I can make tea in the morning, make soup for lunch and cook a proper dinner (I don’t, for the record, do this every day but now my kitchen is there, if I feel compelled to)

Which is especially nice right now because we’re getting that first bout of bone chilling weather here in Van, and I do not want to be leaving my house for food. I want to hibernate. I want to drink hot chocolate, and apple cider, and read books and swaddle myself in knitted blankets. That’s what I want. What I also want it barley risotto.

Risotto that warms you up form the inside out on a cold night but is healthy enough that I don’t feel to guilty about eating a cookie for breakfast the next day. Risotto that’s rich and soothing and is delicious with both grilled sausages and with sauteed salmon. Risotto that is good heated up the next day because it’s not made of rice that gets soggy. Risotto that has that nuttiness and bit of chew that characterized whole grains. Risotto that is just plain really good.

2 cups pearled barley

1/2 head of fennel, diced

1 small onion, diced

2 cloves of garlic, minced

a sprig of rosemary, finely chopped

3 sprigs of thyme, finely chopped

2 cups of chicken or vegetable stock

1/3 cup grated parm

Bring the stock up to a boil with 2 cups of water.

Add a pinch of salt and then add in the barley and cook them to their package instructions, about 25 minutes.

Meanwhile in a medium pan on medium-low heat warm up a good glug of olive oil. Add in your onions and fennel and saute until they become translucent and very fragrant.

Add in your garlic and the herbs and cook just until you can start to smell the garlic but not so that it gets any colour.

Add in the barley, the cheese and the knob of butter and stir to combine it all and check your seasoning.

And then eat this wonderful mix by itself, or serve it as a side!

Coconut Corn Soup.

 

I live in a pretty funny little part of East Van. It was the Italian area and then at some point it became the hippie hang out and now it’s the part of town that has the best cheese shop, a shockingly good vegan Mexican joint, and home to the coffee shop that wakes me up at 7am from crowds of Europeans shouting over soccer goals. It’s a wonderful place, most of the time.

It’s also very food oriented. It has more greengrocers then probably anywhere else in the city and my new favourite fish shop.

And on my way to my new favourite fish shop a couple days ago I noticed a very sweet little man outside with a small truck and a sign that said “Chilliwack Corn”. Now, who am I to refuse fate?

So instead of getting tuna I got sidestriped shrimp (the best shrimp ever doncha know?) and made a big batch of coconut corn soup.

This is good soup.

It’s rich and satisfying, it freezes well because of all of the starch in the corn, and it’s very flavourful. It’s loaded with lemongrass and ginger and lime and it is wonderful. Best takes less then 20 minutes on the stove and it is also terrific chilled, so you can make it the day before company comes by and be totally prepped up!

Coconut Corn Soup

A healthy glug of Olive Oil

1 large Onion, diced

2 cloves Garlic, sliced,

1 stalk Lemon Grass, sliced or chopped,

1 inch piece of Fresh Ginger, sliced,

2 cans of Coconut Milk

4 Pieces of good fresh sweet Corn

1 Lime

Fish Sauce to taste.

8 Shrimp

A small handful of cilantro, mint and/or thai basil.

* because your going to be pureeing the soup don’t worry about how nicely anything is cut!

In a medium sized pot on medium heat warm your olive oil and add in your lemongrass, ginger and onions.

Once the onions are soft and everything is very fragrant add in the garlic and cook until you just start to smell it. Then add in the coconut milk and 1 cup of water.

Cook this mixture for about 10 minutes, and then add in the corn. Cook the corn out for 5 minutes and then take it off the heat and puree it. You can use an emersion blender or a standing blender but either way I recommend pushing it throw a sieve. With the ginger and the lemongrass being so fibrous you just won’t get as nice a texture without that extra step! It doesn’t take long but it does make a big difference.

Now you can either bring it back up to a simmer and serve or chill it to serve. Either way check your seasoning. Add in lots of lime and lots of fish sauce and make sure theres enough salt.

For the prawns, just bring 1 cup of the soup of to a boil in a small pot, and add in the shrimp for 1 minute and then serve them right away!

Garnish with the herbs, and you have a perfect summer meal.

Spring Pea Frittata with Roasted New Potatoes

I don`t know how my parents pulled this off, but from the age of about 4 (so my sister was around 8) we fended for ourselves for breakfast. On weekends they slept in, and and we cooked for ourselves. When we were really young this meant cereal, but as we got older it included pancakes, and sometimes bagels and cream cheese and lox. Either way it was a minute in time when I got to hang out with my sister and feel a little bit grown up. At least until I spilt the milk on the floor and started crying. I always cried over spilt milk.

I think because of this I love to make breakfast. I love the quiet of being up first and stretching out across the kitchen. I love the just drinking my tea and making what I want to make.

On the odd occasion that Jordan and I have a morning off together, (or more likely when I work in the morning and speed home and he`s still curled up in bed sleeping when I return at 9am) I make breakfast. I like to make it especially if he`s still sleeping and I feel like I have full control over the kitchen. I like the silence of it.

So this weekend as I was coming home from work I picked up a few things, made myself some tea , and a frittata and enjoyed the peace and quiet. And then of course I woke up Jordan and we had a perfect lazy Sunday morning.

Spring Pea Frittata with Roasted New Potatoes.

Serves 2

1 cup Shelled Peas

2 Shallots

1 tbsp Butter

1 small Clove of Garlic

4 Eggs, the better quality the better

3 tbsp Goats Cheese

A few leaves of mint, or basil or parsley if you have them!

1lb New Potatoes

a good glug of olive oil

Cut the potatoes into wedges and put in a medium sized pot. Cover with cold water and bring them to a boil.

Cook for 2 more minutes and then strain them.

Then in a medium sized frying pan warm the pan on medium heat and pour in your olive oil. When it’s warm add in your par cooked potatoes and let them get nice and brown in there.

Meanwhile

On medium heat melt the butter in a small frying pan. Slice the shallots into thin strips and add them in with a little salt.

Once they are nice and translucent add in your garlic and simmer until it just starts to become fragrant. Then add in the peas with a 1/4 cup of water. Let the water reduce and the peas get perfectly cooked.

While that’s reducing crack your eggs into a bowl and give them a bit of a whisk. Add in a pinch of salt and a crack of pepper too. Now pour them into the pan. The key to a light and fluffy frittata is that you stir it, scrape up the pieces from the bottom. When you have some big pieces and it almost looks like it might be scrambled eggs take it off the heat,  smooth out the top with your spatula and crumble your goats cheese on top. Now get it into the oven!

In about 5 minutes the top will be set and it will feel firm if you touch the middle. There shouldn’t be any browning on it though. Take it out of the oven,

Now using a rubber spatula scrape the outsides of the pan and carefully life the frittata out of the pan.

Sprinkle the frittata with any herbs you have around and slide it onto a plate or wooden cutting board along with the potatos.

Vietnamese Noodle Salad with Halibut

Jordan has a lot of Italian friends. I`m not sure why or how he, being half Portuguese and half British, got in with this group of guys but any way he did. And while they may all be upstanding citizens with no mob connections they, without fail, always know a guy who knows a guy.

We know a guy who knows a guy who can fix our plugged drain, another who can build us a bookshelf, someone who give us fresh tomatoes in the summertime, and someone who makes their own prosciutto in their backyard shed, and yet another who sometimes give us fish.

Which is how several beautiful black cod and an alarmingly large piece of halibut appeared in my appeared in my fridge last week. They had never been frozen. They were unbelievably fresh. I was unbelievably happy.

So, while I wrecked my eyebrow tweezers plucking out pin bones, I thought about summer. About the sun pouring through the window, about fresh veggies, and all things green. I thought about hiking, which made me think about canoeing, which made me think about bikinis which made me think that perhaps we should eat a salad with this piece of fish.

But here,s the problem with salads: I always think their great until an hour later when I’m super hungry again.

So instead of just veggies, I made a Vietnamese noodle salad, with edamame, and peanuts, and cucumbers, and sprouts. And of course, on top in it`s place of honor, the most incredible buttery, soft piece of halibut imaginable.

Vietnamese Noodle Salad with Halibut

Don’t worry if halibut is out of your price range, it’s out of mine nine times out of ten. Just use any kind of white fish, cod, talapia, snapper, whatever looks good and fresh at your market will be delicious here.

For Halibut

2 fillets of halibut

Juice of 1 lime

1 tbsp Soy Sauce

1 tsp Fish Sauce

Oil for frying

Salad

Half a package of rice noodles, or rice stick noodles

1 cup Edamame, shelled

5 green onions, slices thinly on a bias

1 cup Bean Sprouts

1 cup Pea Shoots

Half a Cucumber, cut into quarters lengthwise and then cut on a bias.

Half a Cup Peanuts

A big handful of Cilantro

A handful of Thai Basil

For Dressing

1tbsp Lime Juice

2 tsp Soy Sauce

1 tsp Fish Sauce

2 tbsp Peanut Oil, Canola Oil, or Olive Oil

Preheat your oven to 400F

Get a big kettle on the stove and bring to a boil.

Prepare your Fish

Put the lime, soy, fish sauce and halibut into a ziploc bag and shake it up a little to disperse everything. Set aside. This can be done up to 2 hours in advance.

Make Salad

Cut up your veggies, pull apart your herbs, peel your beans.

Roast your peanuts at a 400F oven for about 10 minutes or until they start to get yummy and brown inside. The skins might smoke a bit, but that doesn’t mean that their done yet, cut one open or bit one in half and see. Peanuts need to be nicely roasted to be tasty.

Roughly chop them up.

Mix all the ingredients for your dressing and taste it. Is it seasoned properly? Is it lime-y enough for you?

That kettle should be boiling by now. Put all your rice noodles into a big bowl and then pour the water over top. Give it a little shake and let it sit there until they cook through but there is still a bit of bite to them.

Strain it into a colander and rinse with cold water, stirring sometimes to make sure it all cools down evenly.

Mix all your salad ingredients together except the peanuts.

Put the halibut onto a baking sheet lined with parchment and bake until it’s nice and browned inside but still very moist in the middle, about 10 minutes. (sorry, no picture here!)

Put the halibut on top of the salad, sprinkle with the peanuts and your in business!

Roman Crostini-nini

My “Aunt” Silvia is an endlessly chic Roman woman who fell in love with a brilliant Canadian man, my “Uncle” Frank. The best job for him was at McMaster University in Hamilton Ontario and thats where they lived throughout my childhood.  Aunt Silvia was not like anyone else I knew.

She has an immaculate salt and pepper bob, wears nothing but black, and is looks endlessly chic smoking like a chimney, the way only French and Italian woman can.She had a beautiful husky voice, and a fiery temper.

When my Dad was doing his PhD Uncle Frank was his Professor and my Mom ended up becoming very good friends with his wife. I picture them in the late 70’s, both beautifully dressed, making wonderful meals and talking about literature.

We didn’t visit all that often, they lived about an hour or so away from us, and while I remember eating well when we went to visit, mostly I remember so many of the staple things my Mom used to make that were recipes from Aunt Silvia. Those really simple Italian meals that just take four or five ingredients but turn into something magical.

The one I remember most is Roman Crostini. It’s one of my all times favourite things, in fact, if you look in my grade 2 yearbook you’ll see that “crostini-nini” is listed as my favorite food. The best par of crostini (nini) is that it literally takes 5 minutes. It’s a perfect h’or deurve and it’s always a crowd pleaser. It’s super cheap and, once again, it literally takes 5 minutes.

It doesn’t take much, just good bread, good mozzarella, and fresh parsley. The secret ingredient is anchovies, which are so prevelent in Roman food and so absent in ours. I have served this to people who swear they hate anchovies, (after making sure there are no allergies) and they’ve loved it. The anchovies just disintegrate into the olive oil leaving this rich deep flavour without any fishiness. And then the cheese oozes in and the bread crusts up and the parsley just makes it all snap together. It’s amazing, and it takes 5 minutes to make.

Roman Crostini

1 good quality Baguette, it can be stale!

3 Anchovy Fillets, get the good ones, packed in olive oil.

1/4 cup Olive Oil

3-5 Balls of Boconccini, depending on the size

A Small Handful of Flat Leaf Italian Parsley

Preheat the oven to 400F

Line a baking tray with parchment paper.

Cut the baguette into slices, leaving the bread just barely attached at the base so that the loaf still looks like a loaf afterwards. If you cut through the bottom a couple times, don’t worry about it, just keep going.

Slice the boconccini into slices and then stick them in between the bread slices like so:

Cut up the anchovies in the smallest little strips and then cook them in butter or olive oil on medium low heat, squishing them with the back of a spoon periodically to help them fall apart.

Then take it off the heat, chop up that parsley and add that in too.

Then pour it on top of the bread. You can let it sit like this for a while too, if your making dinner, and then pop it in the oven just as friends are arriving. Or you can make it right away and eat it right away.

Then pop it in the oven until the cheese is oozing, the bread has browned, and your house smells amazing.

Throw it on a plate and eat promptly.

Pizza

Restaurants are funny places. You work 12 hour days, you work every night and every weekend and are made to feel terribly guilty if you ever take a holiday. You make absolutly no money and but you become intoxicated by this world. You work for complete sociopaths and thats a good thing. It gives you bragging rights.

So when I was 19 and had big lofty ideas of being a famous pastry chef I worked at a very fine dining Italian restaurant in Vancouver, that shall not be named. It was the sort of place where you were encouraged to do nothing but show up on time and follow orders. The sort of place where he had 10 different ways to do everything, so he could come up to you at any point and tell you you were doing it wrong. The sort of place where recipes were not given to cooks, and cooks were not encouraged to ask questions. It was without question the worst job I have ever had.

I have nearly no recipes from that time but strangely I have one from something he made only once; pizza. It’s not a complicated recipe, but the dough is wonderful, its soft and pliable and it rolls easily and it crisps up beautifully in the oven. He also put a lot of ingriedents on the pizza after it had cooked, like arugala, or proscuitto, or salami. I had never seen that before.

It makes a wonderful very fresh tasting pizza. It’s not greasy, and it’s not heavy, but its very satisfying all the same.

Pizza:

Pizza Dough, recipe folows

Tomato Sauce, recipe follows,

200g Asiago or Parmesano

4 Large bocconcini balls

a big handful of baby arugula and basil

100g super thinly sliced prosciutto

Tomato Sauce

1 large onion, diced

2 cloves of garlic, minced

1 can of Tomatoes, try to find a brand without added citric acid.

Salt

A good glug of olive oil

In a medium sized pot on medium heat, add the olive oil and the onion, cook for a few minutes then add the garlic. Stir until the onions are translucent and the garlic is fragrant.

Add in the tomatoes and cook until it gets thick and saucey, about 15 minutes. Season to taste.

Pizza Dough- Makes 2 Pizzas

51/2 cup Bread Flour

2 tbsp Extra Virgin Olive Oil

2 1/2 tsp Salt

2 tbsp Sugar

1 1/2 tsp Dry Yeast

1 1/3 cup Warm Water

Mix the water, sugar and yeast together until the yeast gets foamy on top, about 10 minutes.

 In the bowl of a standing mixer fitted with the dough hook mix all the ingredients. You can also do this by hand if you have more patience and arm strength then me.

Mix it until it becomes a smooth elastic dough.

Place dough in a bowl, covered, in a warm place until it’s doubled in size, about an hour and a half.

Preheat oven to 500F or the hottest it will go.

Cut the dough in half and roll out to the size of your pans, the bigger the better.

Top with the sauce, and the cheese, breaking apart the boconccini and grating the asiago. 

bake for about 10 minutes until the cheese is brown and the crust is cooked.

Tear the basil and prosciutto on top and sprinkle the arugula. Eat and be happy!