it runs in the family

My family likes food. A lot. My mom, sister, and I like to make it, and my dad and brother-in-law like to eat it (okay, they occasionally help in the kitchen, too). Every Christmas and birthday we exchange various cooking gadgets, try out new recipes on each other, and eat more than we should. And when we manage to get together on a normal weekend, we devote a good chunk of our time to food then, too.

My sister Emily and brother-in-law Jon just moved to Atlanta, which works out quite nicely for the rest of our family, as Atlanta marks the halfway point between Nashville and the town where my parents live. So, we had some family time this weekend that included house hunting, furniture shopping, and lots of delicious food. We tried a couple of great restaurants, JCT Kitchen for dinner on Friday and Rosebud for Sunday brunch, but Saturday's dinner, prepared by Emily and Jon, topped them both. Something about cooking a meal yourself (or, at least, watching as it's cooked!) just makes every dish taste better.

The great thing about this menu is you can make it as easy or labor-intensive as you'd like. It's also endlessly modifiable and completely carbtastic--two features of most of my favorite meals. Feel free to tweak the recipes, but they're pretty delicious as-is.

As for timing everything, cocktails first, of course. Then I would recommend starting the pasta sauce, boiling the pasta, making the pizza, and tossing the salad last. For dessert, we had vanilla ice cream with granola (both homemade!), and that's a great ending if you're feeling ambitious (and easy to buy if you're not).

I'm calling this menu a "new Italian family feast" because, well, I have to call it something, right?

new italian family feast

serves 4-6

kir royales a la emily

tossed salad with fig-balsamic vinaigrette

pear, brie, & arugula flatbread

pasta and tomato sauce with onion and butter

kir royales a la emily (makes 5 cocktails)
 
1 bottle prosecco
3 oz brandy
3 oz creme de cassis
5 lemon twists, for garnish

Divide prosecco, brandy, and creme de cassis evenly among five champagne flutes. Rub rims of flutes with lemon twists and drop in the drinks to serve. (If you don't make anything else on the menu, make these!)

tossed salad with fig-balsamic vinaigrette

dressing:
   2 tbsp olive oil
   2 tbsp balsamic vinegar
   2 tbsp fig preserves
salad:
   5 c mixed greens
   1 small bell pepper, sliced
   1 small cucumber, sliced
   1/4 c kalamata olives
   1/4 c chopped toasted nuts

Whisk together first three ingredients; toss with salad ingredients and serve.

pear, brie, & arugula flatbread

 







1 ball store-bought pizza dough (try Whole Foods), or homemade version
1 pear, sliced thinly
4 oz. brie, chilled and sliced thinly
2 tbsp brown sugar
2 c arugula

Preheat oven to 500 degrees, or as high as your oven will go. Sprinkle flour on baking surface (a cookie sheet will do just fine), and stretch dough into a thin round--or whatever shape you can make it! Place round on cookie sheet and top with pear and brie, and sprinkle with brown sugar. Bake until edges are brown and brie is bubbling, about 10 minutes. Top with arugula and serve.

pasta and tomato sauce with onion and butter

simple & delicious.

28 oz can whole peeled tomatoes
5 tbsp butter 
1 medium yellow onion, peeled 
   and halved
16 oz dried or 24 oz fresh pasta 
   (Jon made our pasta from 
   scratch...no big deal)
salt, shaved parmesan and red 
   pepper flakes, to taste (optional)

Place tomatoes, butter, and onion in heavy saucepan over medium heat. Bring to simmer and reduce heat to low. Stir occasionally, breaking up the tomatoes, and cook for about 45 minutes or until you're ready to eat. In the meantime, prepare pasta and other dishes. Salt to taste, and top with parmesan and red pepper flakes.

grilled pizza, my new obsession

 

Although I've expanded my culinary horizons quite a bit since I was a child, I remain the same as my ten-year-old self in one respect:  pizza is still my favorite food. It's bread, cheese, vegetables, and (usually salty and fatty) protein all rolled into one--so how could I have found anything better in the last 15 years?

For most of my life, my pizza intake was limited to what I could find in restaurants and the freezer aisle of the grocery store. Eventually I graduated to baking homemade pizzas in the oven, adding better-quality ingredients along the way--a little whole-milk mozzarella here, some fresh basil there, perhaps a dash of Italian red pepper flakes to top it off. But I always baked my pizzas in the oven, partly because that's all I had and have, and partly because no other method occurred to me.

Then three weeks ago, my life changed. I grilled pizza for the first time.

Okay, so maybe "life-changing" is a bit of an overstatement, and maybe it wasn't the first time I had thought of grilling pizza, but for some reason I had never gotten around to trying it. Over the 4th of July weekend, the perfect opportunity presented itself:  I was at the beach with a giant gas grill, my dad to man it, and two impulse-bought balls of pizza dough from Whole Foods.

I was amazed at how easy it was; the whole thing went off without a hitch. I liked it so much that despite not having a grill of my own, I have found ways to grill pizza two more times in the two weeks since.

So if you have a grill, have a friend who has a grill, or can afford to buy a grill, you should try this. As long as you're prepared when you actually start grilling, it takes very little effort. The only special equipment you need is something to brush the crust with oil and tongs to flip the pies. Make sure to have your ingredients and equipment ready and waiting when you put the dough on the grill. The pizza cooks amazingly fast, so you won't have a lot of time to get everything on there.

Yep, that's my foot.

You can top your pizza with whatever you like, but here are a few of my favorite combinations:
-olive oil base with mozzarella, feta, tomatoes, bacon, & basil
-tomato sauce base with mozzarella, sausage, mushrooms, & spinach
-barbecue sauce base with mozzarella, blue cheese, chicken, caramelized onions, &
  cilantro
-olive oil base with brie, pear, brown sugar, and arugula

grilled pizza
inspired by The Kitchn and Serious Eats

ingredients
pizza dough (I've made my own using Peter Reinhart's recipe, but Whole Foods has
  very good white, wheat, and multigrain versions)
olive oil (nothing fancy, although I like to infuse mine with garlic)
toppings of your choice

instructions
Preheat the grill. Depending on whether you go with charcoal (better flavor) or gas (more precise), the specifics of this step vary.

If you're making more than one pizza (which you should), preheat your oven to 200 degrees to keep the first pizzas you make warm while you grill the others.

Prepare the dough by stretching or rolling it into thinnish circles. You don't want to dough to tear when you put it on the grill or flip it, so you might want to make it a little thicker than normal. Since I've been making a few pizzas at a time, I stack my rounds of dough on a cookie sheet with foil in between, making sure to brush each layer with oil so they don't stick to the foil or to the grill!

Prepare your toppings and put them all together, so you can put them on the pizza quickly. Also have a small bowl of oil to brush the pizza with if it looks dry when grilling or sticks at all.

When the grill is preheated, use the foil to pick up a round of dough, and flip it onto the grill. Cook until the bottom looks done and begins to char just a little, anywhere from 2-8 minutes, depending on how hot your grill is.

Using your tongs, flip the dough over, then arrange (or throw, depending on how much time you have) your toppings on the cooked side. If your grill has a cover, cover the pizza during this part so the cheese melts more thoroughly.

Once the bottom is done, slide the pizza off the grill and onto a cookie sheet. If you have more to go, keep your already-made pizzas in the oven until ready to serve.