How To Make Pizza: Thin Crust Spinach Walnut Pizza With Mushrooms, Onions, Gorgonzola And Anchovies

How To Make  Pizza

 

I often get asked how to make pizza at home.  I know it sounds kind of nutty how to make  pizza but I still get emails asking me all the time about how to make  pizza at home that is really delicious.  Recently I was watching one of the people that I subscribe to on Youtube, here name is Lyndsay Wells and she is known as the Kitchen Witch.  She made a lovely Neapolitan pizza with spinach, pine nuts, mushrooms and a nice tomato sauce. I have been watching Lyndsay for a long time now and I LOVE her recipes.

I told her that "You know what? I HATE baking and playing with dough!" Here I am a cook, a professional foodie and I HATE to bake! I told Lyndsay that in light of those facts I am going to make my own version of a Neapolitan pizza and I am going to use basically use her recipe with a few changes of my own. I am not going to use Pine nuts because I am allergic to them.  If I feel to do it I will be using toasted walnuts as their flavor goes oh so well with gorgonzola cheese.  So this week for all of my subbers that have asked me how to make  pizza at home I am going to make one for you. It's really easier than you think and I am a firm believer that after you learn how to make  pizza at home you will never call for take out again because the truth of the matter is that it's to much fun learning how to make  pizza and it's fun to do for friends and family and you always get it the way you want it.  Now alot of people want to know what Neapolitan is and so I am going to spend some time telling you because each part of Italy makes pizza a bit differently.

How To Make Pizza

So what is Neapolitan? Neapolitan refers to a part of Italy known as the city of Naples. It used to be called the kingdom of Naples or the kingdom of the Two Sicilies or the Neopolitan Republics of Italy. In New York City where I am originally from the people of Naples, Italy or the decendants of the people of Naples, Italy are called Nablidons! It's a New York thing. Deal with it! Neapolitan cuisine goes way back in European history to the period of the Greco-Romans. The food of the Neapolitans was influenced by the various powers that had controlled Naples and it's outlying kingdoms over time such as the areas of Aragon and France respectively.

Naples at the time was the capital of the kingdom known as Naples and like so many cultures in the world took culinary ideas from it's neighboors. Many of the culinary attributes you find in Neapolitan cuisine was influenced from the regions of Campania where there was a balance in food between dishes like pasta and seafood. Neapolitan cuisine takes ideas from all around Italy and other countries and incorporates it into their own.  Isn't that what we all do? Of course it is! Generally an authentic Neapolitan pizza or Pizza Napoletana is made just using tomatoes and mozzarella cheese.  The tomatoes are San Marzano or any tomato that you wish to use.  Fresh basil and extra virgin olive oil is also used to make this type of pizza.  So let's learn how to make pizza a Neapolitan pizza my way. Enjoy the video!


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A Clam Recipe: Fritter Recipes: Bonaker Style Clam Fritters

Clam Recipe

 

 

I am making a clam recipe this week. Actually I am making one of my favorite fritter recipes called Bonaker style clam fritters. This is one of Long Island, New Yorks favorite fritter recipes in seafood restaurants all over town. You see I am originally from the east coast. New York to be exact and part of New York is a place called Long Island although most of us urbanites will never admit to Long Island being part of New York. It's just one of those local things I guess.

So back to the clam recipe. There are all kinds of clam recipe out there and all kinds of fritter recipes made with clams but these Bonaker style fritter recipes have been around for hundreds of years and it is the Bonaker people that gave the east coast many of the delicious seafood recipes that have evolved into world class dishes over the years.

This week I am going to make a slight variation to the Bonaker style clam recipe. I am going add a couple of small differences to my fritters and I am going to make a non-traditional sauce to go with this clam recipe and that is a chimichurri sauce that I think would go great with many fritter recipes. Usually, fritter recipes such as these are traditionally served with things like malt vinegar or even some kind of hot sauce but I thought the chimichurri sauce would be a nice change of pace.

Who are the Bonakers you ask? Bonakers? What's a Bonaker? No! The question is who are the Bonakers? The Bonakers were working class families that lived north of the town of Easy Hampton, in New York state. The part of town the Bonakers lived in were kindly referred to as "The Springs." The issue is that anyone who lived in East Hampton were referred to as Bonakers. This was not the case in reality though. Bonaker history goes back toe the earliest of settlers of this community whose heritage comes from England from around the 17th and 18th centuries.

The Bonakers were skilled fisherman and hundreds of years they made their way in live as fishermen, farmers and baymen which refers to "clamming." The hunt for clams of anykind both hard and softshell clams. The clams harvested from the waters soon became the backbone of many Bonaker dishes such as clam fritters, oyster fritter and other fritter recipes, clam pie and of course clam chowder. Here's one for you. Clam chowder was not made with milk or cream originally. Clam chowder was traditionally made by the Bonakers using tomatoes more along the line of what is commonly called today "Manhattan clam chowder." The clam chowder using milk and/or cream came much later as an invention in Boston I imagine.

In 1929 we had the Great Depression here in the United States and the whole country suffered immensely. It took almost twenty years for America to climb out of the great depression. The depression made it's way to New York and East Hampton. Now even though the depression hit East Hampton hard and people suffered the Bonakers survived by fishing and farming as they have always done. Living off the sea makes things easier than an urbanite who has to rely on the supermarket.

As with many small communities and groups of people the Bonakers were forced out of their traditional roles in the late 20th century and the now 21st. century and were forced to find work in the service industries as the area of East Hampton became a prime piece of real estate for the development of the tourist trade. The Bonakers were further displaced by the rising cost of housing in what is now called "The Hamptons" were the rich and famous of this country have their summer homes in "The Hamptons." The culture of the Bonakers is now spread far and wide and they go where they can find work and afford to live. Enjoy the video and the recipe.



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