Sunday, July 22, 2001


yesterday evening found me sitting on the living room floor surrounded by news- and sandpaper and i strove to take the rust off the 12 in. black steel deep dish pizza pan i acquired for a song at bridge kitchenware. while exchanging the 10 in. one my husband had bought, i had a lovely conversation about chocolate with the owner.

after sanding, scrubbing, and seasoning the pan, i had a cup of iced coffee and plotted my moves for today: the actual spinach filling, assembling, and baking of the chicago pie. while you normally see this made with spinach -- and that's what i'm using today -- actually i find most spinach really nasty bitter stuff. (not everyone has the luxury of rushing up to agata & valentina to get real tuscan spinach flown in from italy, which is a delicate, sweet tasting vegetable; hard to believe it's related to the horrid common stuff we live with.)

in the future, i'd probably make it with swiss chard, which has such a better flavor and is so much easier to deal with. frozen spinach just won't have the right texture for this dish, so we have to wrestle with fresh. or you can use finely chopped broccoli, or a mixture of artichoke hearts and eggplant. but in the end, after you've mixed the veggies with the cheese, you'll need about 4 cups filling. ok, here we go:

2 lbs. fresh spinach, double-washed, finely shredded
5 cloves minced garlic
1 tablespoon olive oil

heat the oil in a large pot with a tight lid & saute the garlic in it for a minute so the flavor permeates the oil. then toss in the huge mound of spinach. cook for about 1 min. the spinach will have wilted into a couple of handfuls. drain the spinach well in a colander. you want as little moisture as possible here. let dry.

shred:

8-10 oz. fresh mozzarella
2 oz. fresh provolone

mix these into the spinach and flavor with fresh ground black pepper, or crushed spicy red pepper, and salt to taste.

now for the light tomato sauce that goes on the top crust:

1 28 oz can of crushed italian tomatoes
1/4 c. chopped fresh basil
1 tablespoon chopped fresh oregano
3 tablespoons red wine

cook the wine and tomatoes together for 15-20 mins. over medium heat to concentrate the flavors and reduce the tomatoes somewhat. add the herbs and cook for another 5 mins. let cool.

now to assemble the pie. preheat the oven to 475 degrees. take one of the pie crust "balls" from yesterday and roll it out as thinly as possible to 14". carefully fit into the seasoned deep-dish pizza pan. the crust should come all the way up the sides. brush this bottom crust lightly with olive oil. roll out the remaining crust ball to 12".

fill the shell with the spinach and mozzarella mixture. it should fill the pan. carefully place the top crust over the pizza and seal the edges tightly. cut a 1 in. slash in the top crust to allow the steam to escape.

back on the bottom rack for 10 mins. then move to the top rack and back another 10. remove from the oven, brush lightly with olive oil, and spread the tomato sauce on top. garnish with 1/3 cup. fresh grated parmesan cheese. return to the top rack of the oven and bake another 15 mins. or until the crust is golden brown.

this should serve 4-6, more like 4, i think in all honesty.


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