Still trying to use up the asparagus that Molly & David brought us, last night I made asparagus pizza. I used my variant of the Big Sur Bakery crust – their proportions, 1 1/2 cups water, tsp. yeast, big pinch of salt, to 3+ cups of flour – but I add a little bit of sugar, and 2 TBLS olive oil. I follow their method – mix it in the stand mixer and let the mixer knead it for you for about 3 minutes – then turn it out onto a floured surface, knead till smooth, and divide it into fourths. Make each fourth into a tight little ball, and put them on a well floured baking sheet, and enclose the that whole baking sheet in a plastic bag. Stick it in the fridge for at least overnight, or up to two days. I’d like to try covering the dough with a damp towel, instead of a plastic bag, but so far I’ve contented myself with re-using the plastic bag in the kitchen garbage can.
I find that this dough is crispier of you bake it on parchment instead of oiled sheets. The asparagus pie was pretty much like this one on Smitten Kitchen – I shaved up the asparagus, tossed it with oil, salt & pepper. Then I crumbled a layer of goat cheese on to the crusts, and piled the asparagus on top – and then sprinkled on Parmesan. I also made a pepperoni pie and one with tomatoes – I didn’t have any mozzarella, so i chopped up some string cheese for the base layer.
After we ate up almost all the pizza, I went over to Steve’s recording studio to watch Jeff DeMark – who I know from cab driving days – perform. Kind of long funny stories of his wayward youth, which was not too different from my own, with Andy Ewen backing him on guitar and Tony Castaneda on percussion. It was one of those Madison 2 degrees of separation events, where everyone either knew each other, or knew somebody who knew somebody.
