Spicy Sausage & Honey Marscapone Pizza

HIS IS THE PIZZA to end all pizzas.  A couple of years back, I had one of the most lip-smackingly delicious pizzas that I can recall.  Though it is a well known fact that I am uncannily partial to these heavenly pies, the sausage and honey pizza at Vesta distinctly stuck out to me because of the savory sweet combination that I talked about in my last post. 

Not being able to make reservations on a Friday night, I decided it would be simple to recreate the meal at home.  Indeed it was... you can bet that this pizza is definitely going to get some major facetime with my friends.  In essence, my lack of planning last Friday has become your good luck.

INGREDIENTS

• Pizza dough
• Pizza / tomato sauce - I like to buy pizza sauce and add minced garlic
• 2 spicy Italian sausages - you can also use vegetarian sausage like I did
• Marscapone cheese
• 2 Serrano chili peppers
• Honey
• Roughly chopped fresh parsley

Scatter sausage and Serrano chili peppers over sauce-covered pizza.

DIRECTIONS

1. Lightly scatter all-purpose flour onto your work surface so dough does not stick.  Roll out pizza dough to about a 1/4" thickness, about 10 in. in diameter.
2. Cut Serrano chili peppers into thin slices, about 1/8".
3. Spread pizza sauce, then top with thinly sliced Italian spicy sausage (I used pre-cooked sausage but you should cook yours beforehand if raw).
4. Preheat oven to 425°.
5. Place pizza into the oven for approximately 12 minutes until crust is golden.
6. Wait 5 minutes before sprinkling fresh chopped parsley on top, spreading marscapone cheese, and drizzling with honey.
7. Divide and conquer!

Berkeley Eatathon

NDYING LOVE.   That is what I feel for the city of Berkeley.  It isn't a place as much as a way of life.  When I'm surrounded by the trees, the sea of people wearing too much tie-dye and hemp, I feel in my element.  I hit up the town last week with my buds, stopping primarily to shovel food and drink, take the occasional non-selfie and walk around campus (to burn off calories so we could resume our food fest.)

Beautiful Berkeley hills and a view of the Bay below us.  

Can you spot the Camponile tower?

Caught in the act.

The Cheese Board Collective is one of my friend's favorite pizza joints, so we knew we had to stop there on our eating spree.  The pizza of the day had fresh California corn, chile passilla, onions, mozzarella and French feta cheese, garlic olive oil, cilantro, limes.  We grabbed our pizza, some cold drinks, and sat outside on the median while live music wafted over us.  "I could eat this pizza every day," said Wally, who is not at all delusional nor exaggerating.

Much cuter than a picture of me stuffing my face.

Garlic naan & tikka masala love.

              

Slurping gigantic cups of boba from Purple Kow.

Photos by my friend Wally. ♥

Holy Breakfast Pizza

ATHER THAN try to explain my penchant for breakfast, I'll just let the ingredients do the talking: veggie bacon strips which I lovingly refer to as fakeon (pronounced fay-ken),  a healthy handful of sliced tomatoes, a grip of fresh flat-leaf parsley, a sprinkling of chives, shallots, and onions, topped with a dusting of Parmesan cheese and... eggs?

Yes, eggs on a pizza. The result? Only one of the best pizzas I have ever had in my life. This recipe kicks all other "breakfast pizzas" to the curb—typically when someone says "breakfast pizza," I envision cold, soggy slices of pizza from the night before, but not this one. Getting a bite of eggs with bacon is sheer genius!

DIRECTIONS

1. Roll dough out into a 12" diameter. You can make your own, or you can buy premade dough (which is what I did).

2. Assemble pizza with thinly sliced onions, shallots, fake bacon, tomatoes, and cheese. You can brush some oil on the top if you're worried about burning.

3. Crack three eggs onto the pizza (You can break the yolk if you prefer,so that the egg isn't concentrated in one area--I definitely like it spread out), and bake at 375° for about 20-25 minutes, or until golden brown.

4. Remove the pizza from the oven, sprinkling minced chives and parsley on top.

Adapted from The New York Times.

xo,

margaret