Sunday Pizza and Pie
Last Sunday my friend and fellow blogger, Carly, came to visit. It's so lovely when friends are eager to travel down to the Red Hill to see where I grew up, where I'm currently living. I suppose they know that they're in for eats, perhaps that explains their enthusiasm.... Either way, it's terribly lovely and I had such a nice day with Carly and my parents. We visited some food stores and the beach, before heading home to prepare the pizza. It was a beautiful way to spend a Sunday afternoon, sitting and eating outside together, enjoying the gently warm day we were gifted.
Earlier on, Dad made his pizza dough, ever so perfectly.
Afterwards he designed a refreshing drink for us. This ginger and plum afternoon cocktail was a delightful mix of tart plum syrup, ginger liqueur, bourbon, ginger sugar syrup and sparkling water.
Our four pizza creations then went into the oven. We had a subtly beautiful mushroom pizza, my favourite of the day. As well as a chorizo and pesto pizza with bocconcini, smoked mozzarella and a tomato base. I tend to favour a bianco base, but this was a nice change. Our third pizza consisted of potato, ham, anchovies and provolone. And lastly, we made a ham, fig and red current pizza with blue cheese and mozzarella. These figs were just gorgeous, a present from Carly on the day. I also made a kale salad which provided a break from all that dough. We served our pizza with chilli oil, which I believe to be mandatory. Let's eat.
Pie...
*sigh*
Pie is everything I adore about creating and cooking and eating.
Out of a desire for something sweet on this Sunday, as well as a fervent need to continue experimenting with the woodfired oven, I made an apple galette with rustic rye dough. I adapted Kim Boyce's recipe for a fruit tart from her book, Good to the Grain. I am completely in love with this book. Whimsically, I used fig jam as my base and filled the pie with cooked, spiced, sweetened apples. It's a tad early for apples, this is true. However I had seen a lovely pile of Delgrosso-grown apples at the Red Hill Market the day before and instantly thought of the woodfired oven and pie. I had to buy them. I had to buy them and make pie.
I was so very pleased with this beauty, which we served with vanilla ice-cream. The dough was terribly rustic and I adored the unapologetically earthy tones of the rye flour. It also contained less butter than many pie recipes out there, so it didn't feel too rich. The technique involved in making the dough, respecting the butter as royalty and giving it the chilled treatment it deserves, allowed for a beautifully flaky pastry. I will most definitely be making this dough again, and I promise to scribe my recipe next time.
Thank you for visiting, Carly. And for the figs, raspberries and yoghurt. I love that you brought these goodies and enjoyed your time in Red Hill at our little pizza party.
I had more pie for dinner that night. It was a good Sunday...