Jun 13, 2010: Calzone with Pesto

A calzone is pretty much a folded, into a half moon shape, pizza. I was looking to make the calzone heartier so I added fried potatoes with leek.

The dough was the other half of TJ's pizza dough.

Calzone
3 Potatoes, diced
1 C Leek, chopped
Pesto
Pizza Dough

Directions:
1. First cook the potatoes until brown.
Add the leeds when the potatoes are fork tender.


2. Fill the calzone... sauce all around, add fillings to one side of pizza dough

Fold over and crimp with a fork


Bake 500F for about 10 minues.


Cut calzone in half and serve!

Jun 12, 2010: Pizza with Chicken and Pesto

Another item I like at TJ's is their fresh pizza dough.
There is enough dough for two 14 inch pizzas.

I was craving pesto pizza so I went with the cliche and made chicken pesto pizza.

Pizza with pesto and chicken
6 oz Pizza Dough (half a bag)
Chicken Breast
Lemon
Salt
Pepper
Thyme
Garlic Powder
Pesto Sauce
Mozzarella Cheese

1. Season the chicken breast and squeeze in the lemon.
After 15 - 20 minutes, pan-fry until cooked.


Simple ingredients.


The TJ's pizza dough was sticky, probably around 65% baker's ratio.
I tried to make a round pizza, but it stuck to my hand hence the abstract looking shape.


Bake 500F (Preheated oven) for 7 minutes.


Done and ready to eat!

Jun 11, 2010: Pasta with Pesto Cream Sauce

Now that I've made pesto I wanted to add some to pasta. Also, I had about 1/2 C of heavy cream in the fridge that I wanted to use.

Pesto Pasta
2 Cloves Garlic, smashed
1 T Olive Oil
1/2 C Heavy Cream
1 C Pesto
Pasta
Pea
Corn

Directions
1. Saute the garlic in olive oil until fragrant. Just trying to flavor the oil.


2. Add the heavy cream and pesto... stir and allow to slightly thicken.


3. Cooks some pasta... at the last minute I decided to add peas and corn.
The peas and corn were added to the boiling pasta during the last 2 minutes.

4. Slowly add sauce... amount is to your liking. :-)


Pesto, Pasta, Parmesan... Simple and delicious.

Jun 10, 2010: Pesto

Pesto is one of those sauce/condiments that I enjoy, but have not made.
It's a simple recipe with only five ingredients and I usually buy a large container of pesto (4 ounces) at TJ's, that half of it goes in the bin.

I researched online and found many proportions plus some recipes add other leafy greens to supplement the basil.

However, my goal was to keep the recipe simple.

Being a geeky engineering type, I wanted to keep the ratio simple too.
Since there were so many variations, I decided to use 2 as the number to remember.
For example, 2, 1/2 and 1/4 which is (1/2) of (1/2)

Basic Pesto
2 C Basil leaves (works out to the entire 4 ounce (including stems) container of basil)
2 Clove Garlic
1/2 C Extra Virgin Olive Oil
1/4 C Pine Nuts, toasted
1/4 C Parmesan Cheese, Grated
Salt as needed.


Direction:
Place half the oil and everything else into the food processor.


2. Blend and slowly add the rest of the olive oil.


That's it!