peaches – The Answer is Always Pork

pizza with prosciutto and peaches

A weekend at home after several busy weekends away really is the loveliest. Sleeping in, wandering around the city, stopping in for a donut, a beer, a coffee, a pupusa, maybe one of each? Then making your way home to cook a pizza and finish out the night with two episodes of Chef’s Table. At least that’s how we spent our gloriously food-filled Saturday. When we weren’t eating, we were walking (or watching Massimo Bottura make the most perfect tortellini you’ve ever laid eyes on).

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The pizza was inspired by the newest cookbook in our collection. The lovely ladies at Short Stack Editions came across our blog while looking for cooks who love pork to check out their newest cookbook, Prosciutto di Parma. Short Stack Editions makes beautiful, single subject cookbooks written by chefs who know the title ingredient intimately. The books are adorable, useful and range in subject matter from apples to honey, broccoli to brown sugar. We’ve enjoyed paging through Prosciutto di Parma and finding new ways to cook with an ingredient we adore but never take much further than a cheese plate.

This prosciutto pizza is a fun one. It’s salty, sweet, creamy, crunchy. It sounds a bit wild when you read the ingredient list, but everything goes together beautifully. And, for one reader out there who also happens to enjoy cured pork products, it’s your lucky day! I’ve got a second copy of Prosciutto di Parma waiting to find it’s new home. Comment on this post, and I’ll pick a winner to receive a copy of this sweet little book.

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Pizza with Prosciutto, Peaches and Burrata, adapted just slightly from Prosciutto di Parma by Sara Jenkins
Makes two pizzas
1 ball of pizza dough, cut into two pieces
1 ball of burrata cheese, torn into pieces
1/3 cup parmesan cheese, grated
1/3 cup spicy peach jam (recipe below)
a few tablespoons olive oil
flour for rolling out the dough
10 paper-thin slices of prosciutto
chives

Preheat your oven to 475° F. If you have a pizza stone and your oven’s heating element is located at the bottom, move the stone to the top rack of the oven. We’ve had the best success cooking pizza on the pizza stone at the very top of the oven; the stone cooks the pizza’s bottom, and hottest heat at the top of the oven cooks the toppings and browns the crust.

Dust a ball of dough with flour and roll out your pizza dough; use a rolling pin or your hands, it’s your choice. Divide the burrata in half, and then tear that half into pieces and scatter on the dough. Between the dollops of cheese, add a bit of the spicy peach jam. Don’t be to heavy with the jam, you don’t want a pizza that verges on dessert. Sprinkle the whole pizza with parmesan and a drizzle of olive oil.

Bake the pizza until the crust is browned and cheese is melty, 15 – 20 minutes. When the hot pizza comes out of the oven, drape it with a few slices of prosciutto and add a sprinkle of chives. Enjoy hot, just as the prosciutto fat melts into the molten cheese and jam. Heavenly.

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Spicy Peach Jam
4 ripe peaches, cut into chunks
1 habanero pepper, whole
2 tablespoons sugar
1 lemon, juiced

In a heavy-bottom saucepan, combine the peaches, habanero pepper, sugar and lemon juice. Over low heat, let the fruit cook gently until it is soft and jammy. About 20 minutes. You want to make sure you’ve got a pretty thick sauce so you don’t end up with a soggy pizza.

You will have extra jam, this recipe makes enough for 4 pizzas. It will keep in your fridge for a month or 6 months in your freezer. I’ve got a sneaking suspicion it would be transcendent on vanilla ice cream.

-Emily

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pancakes with white peaches

I used to think Bisquick pancakes were the end-all-be-all of pancakes. They were what my Nonnie made for us for breakfast when we stayed at her place, and what my dad made for us when we had breakfast for dinner. My dad was especially talented at making shaped pancakes. Anyone can make a Mickey Mouse pancake, but my dad was (and probably still is) a true pancake artist. He could make just about anything you’d ask for—even adding the batter at different times to make faces, fins or fur. T-Rex, killer whale, guinea pig, we’d name it and he’d make it.

Another childhood favorite was my dad’s ‘special pancakes’, his version of crepes. They were just your standard Bisquick pancake recipe with enough extra milk to make the batter runny enough to coat a pan, and we loved them. While he’d cook up a stack of special pancakes, he’d tell us about how he used to make them for his college football team. He’d wax poetically about how much the guys loved them, and how he’d never give up his secret recipe. All those years of practice making pancakes for a bunch of football players paid off—my dad is good at flipping crepes. We’d snatch them hot off the pan and roll them up like little burritos with a filling of syrup, whipped cream, strawberries, peaches, powdered sugar, chocolate sauce, whatever we had around and could get away with.

Needless to say, my attachment to Bisquick pancakes is a serious thing. Being both a diligent food blogger and generally opposed to processed food products, I’ve tried to find a ‘from scratch’ recipe that measures up to my Bisquick memories. Sadly, every recipe I tried was a disappointment.

And then I found these pancakes. Insanely fluffy, just the right amount of saltiness, not too sweet, a hint of spice. They are perfection in a pancake. They have more depth than the old Bisquick standby, but I’ve never finished them disappointed craving a ‘real’ pancake. While I may never find a pancake that replaces Bisquick pancakes in my heart, these are a very close second.

Sour Cream Pancakes with White Peaches, adapted from the Smitten Kitchen Cookbook
1 egg
1 cup sour cream (8 oz)
1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 tablespoons sugar
1/4 teaspoon salt (heaping 1/4 teaspoon of Kosher salt, a level 1/4 teaspoon if you’re using table salt)
1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
A pinch of ground nutmeg
3/4 cup all purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
butter for the pan
1 – 2 white peaches, depending on their size and how much you like peaches
maple syrup for serving

Preheat your oven to 250 degrees and place a cookie sheet or heatproof plate on the middle rack (to keep the pancakes warm while you cook the other batches). In a large bowl, whisk together egg, sour cream, vanilla and sugar. In another bowl, combine, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg, all-purpose flour, baking powder and baking soda. Fold the dry ingredients into the wet, stirring just to combine. The batter will be a little lumpy.

Heat a skillet over medium-low heat (I usually just use the nonstick to keep things easy) and add a pat of butter. When the butter is bubbling, spoon in the batter. I can usually fit about 3 pancakes in my 10″ skillet – they expand as the cook. When they start to bubble and the edges are dry, about 3 – 4 minutes, flip them. Cook them another few minutes on the other side and then transfer to the oven while you cook the rest.

While the pancakes are cooking (or before if you’re nervous about burning things), cut the peaches into small chunks. To serve, make a short stack, pile on the peaches and top with maple syrup!

Ps. Don’t be scared by the cup of sour cream. It is GOOD. Just go with it. Also, who doesn’t have a tub of sour cream languishing in their fridge left over from a taco night. This is the perfect way to use it up.

-Emily