When I still lived in the US and would go out to eat, I usually wanted something that I can’t make at home, either because I don’t know how or it’s too complex or time-consuming. The last thing I looked for is food that is exactly like what I myself cook every night.
But now I live in Argentina. Things are different here. The differences can be part of the interest and charm of life abroad but they can also be part of the “tear-my-hair-out” exasperation as well.
Here, you will find innumerable restaurants with names (in Spanish) like Mom's Eats, Aunt Mary's Place, and Grandma's Kitchen. If you took their menus and removed the names, it would be impossible to tell which belonged to which because every one of those restaurants serves almost exactly the same dishes, the foods that moms and grandmas (traditionally) cook every night at home.
The highest compliment that the typical Argentino can pay a chef is “That was exactly like my grandma’s way of cooking the dish.”
Umm, hello? How about trying something new and different? Can anyone hear me? Is this thing on?
A while back when I got together with friends for a meal we were discussing this phenomenon. They’re more adventurous than most of their compatriots so they, too, wish there were more varied dining opportunities here.
That’s how tonight’s WFD dishes came into being. My Argentine friends are pleasantly surprised when I make things that aren’t exact copies of what great-great-great-great grandmother cooked — unchanged to this very day — and yet they’re pretty tasty. They enjoy the chance to stretch their palates beyond their familiar foods.
Italy’s authoritative cookbook was written by a non-cook
Much of Argentine cuisine is based on Italian cooking, a result of massive migration in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. So, for our recent gathering, I decided to do a bit of digging into history and then present them with ultra-traditional Italian food … but modernized with some California flair. For inspiration, I turned to Italy’s greatest authority on its national cuisine: Pellegrino Artusi.
Artusi was a merchant in 19th century Florence, not a chef. Nevertheless, he developed an obsession about his country’s cooking and determined to catalog it, both for posterity and for the benefit of those Italians — mostly women back then, of course — who daily did their best to present their loved ones with delicious meals.
So, he traveled. A lot. He explored the nooks and crannies of Italy’s myriad distinct regions, sampling the cuisines and begging the recipes of the best of the offerings. Whenever he returned to his home, he — not a cook in the slightest — got his personal cook and housekeeper to follow the recipes and recreate those delectable regional dishes. Sometimes just he and the cook sampled the wares; at other times, family, friends and colleagues joined them to critique that day’s menu.
Ultimately, he compiled 475 recipes — each with ingredients, instructions, and Artusi’s commentary — into a book, La Scienza in Cucina e L’Arte di Mangiar Bene (‘Science in the Kitchen and the Art of Eating Well’). It took a while to catch on but when it did it went huge. It was revised numerous times during Artusi’s lifetime with his final edition almost doubling the number of recipes. It has been revised yet more times since his death and to this day has never been out of print.
Its influence on Italian cooking can hardly be overstated. There’s probably not a chef alive in Italy who would not give credit to the book for inspiration about cooking and as a source of recipe ideas. It’s the Italian equivalent of Fannie Farmer’s Boston Cooking-School Cook Book, Irma Rombauer’s The Joy of Cooking, and Julia Child’s Mastering the Art of French Cooking, all rolled into one.
Artusi’s book would make a worthy project for turning tradition into innovation? Lo and behold, I found something shocking!
Pizza alla Artusi
Artusi has exactly three recipes for pizza, including one called Pizza Alla Napoletana (‘Neapolitan-style Pizza’). What could be more authentic and traditional than a pizza that represents the very city where pizza was born? [Spoiler: it wasn’t born there, it was just popularized there]
The shocking part is that the recipe is for a sweet pizza, not a savory one. It includes sugar, almonds, custard, vanilla, and lemon zest rather than tomato sauce and savory herbs. Moreover, the other pizza recipes are sweet as well. Artusi has no savory pizzas whatsoever. What the heck?!?
Digging some more, I soon found out that pizza has a long history dating all the way back to the Roman empire. Street vendors would top flatbreads with honey, dates, raisins, and nuts and sell them as a tasty sweet snack.
It makes sense. Tomatoes, the base for the quintessential sauce we associate with pizza, were absolutely unknown until they were brought back from the New World. Even then, for the longest time they were avoided; they were thought to be poisonous because they’re of the same botanical family as deadly nightshade.
Eventually, people got daring and tried them and realized they were pretty darn tasty and you could make a sauce that added zing to savory foods and spices. The foundation was laid for pizza as we know it today. In the 1800s, savory pizzas became very popular and eventually the most famous pizza of them all — Pizza Margherita (tomato, basil, and mozzarella) — was created in Naples.
There’s no historical line of demarcation that I can find that says “Yesterday pizza was sweet but today it is savory.” Indeed, there are historical references that at least some ancient pizzas came in savory flavors as well as sweet (but not tomato-y).
It was my turn to cook a main dish, not a dessert. So I thought “Why not a floor wax and a dessert topping?” Erm, I mean “Why not a savory pizza that has some sweetness to it?”
The sweetness would harken back to pizza’s historic sweet roots while the savoriness would make it a suitable main dish and cater to modern tastes. Who knows, perhaps in olden days of yore pizza makers might have made sweet-n-savory pizzas as popular tastes moved from sweet to tomato-y savory flavors?
My pizzas tonight — Minty Fresh Spicy BBQ Chicken Pizza and Bacon, Pear, and Walnut Pizza — definitely have savory traits — bacon, onion, cheese, chili peppers, and more — but they also salute pizza’s distant past with pears, mint, molasses, and sweet barbecue sauce.
Ye olde modern pizzas
You can make your own pizza dough, buy a ready-to-bake pizza crust, or even put the toppings on any of the hundred or so varieties of flatbread around the world. Personally, I think of pizza as homemade fast food, something I want to throw together quickly; so I’m not likely to go to the time and trouble of mixing up dough, waiting for it to rise, and all that jazz.
If you’re concerned about dietary intake of fats or calories, or if you have issues with dairy products, skip the cheese in the recipes. The pizzas are just as yummy and the cheese is just a bonus.
Minty Fresh Spicy BBQ Chicken Pizza
Slices: 8
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Prep time: 10 minutes Cook Time: 20 minutes
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3 chili peppers
2/3 cup barbecue sauce
1/4 cup water
1 cup chicken breast, cooked and shredded
1 prepared pizza base
6 oz mozzarella cheese
1 red onion
1 bunch mint (about a dozen leaves) |
De-stem and de-seed chili peppers and mince finely. Wear gloves or put your hand in a plastic bag, like a mitt, to prevent chili juice entering your skin (it will sting for hours or days).
Place barbecue sauce and water in a small saucepan over medium-low heat. Stir in minced chilies and then add shredded chicken. Allow to simmer 5 minutes, stirring occasionally.
Place the prepared pizza round on a baking sheet or pizza pan. Pour the barbecue-chicken-chili mixture onto the prepared pizza dough round and spread evenly.
Cut the mozzarella into small chunks, about 1/2" cubes, and dot the pizza with them.
Cut the red onion in half then slice each half into very thin semi-rounds Dot the pizza with the onion slices.
Bake at 450º F for about 15 minutes, until cheese has melted. Remove from oven.
Tear mint leaves into small pieces and scatter atop the pizza.
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Calories: 265 per slice (as calculated by Happy Forks’ recipe nutrition calculator)
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Next up is the one that was my favorite. It’s quite rich so it’s not surprising its calorie count per slice is a bit higher. My friends voted their preference for the BBQ chicken pizza by one vote, though, so it was still pretty close.
Bacon, Pear, and Walnut Pizza
Slices: 8
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Prep Time: 10 minutes Cook Time: 30 minutes
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¼ cup walnuts
6 slices bacon
2 yellow onions
1 Tbsp molasses
¼ tsp black pepper
1 Tbsp balsamic vinegar
1 prepared pizza dough base
6 oz goat cheese
2 pears
1 Tbsp balsamic vinegar
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Toast the walnuts over medium low heat, stirring constantly, for 3-5 minutes, until they become aromatic. Set aside in a dish to use later
Fry the bacon in the skillet until done to your taste. Remove the bacon and drain on paper towels. Reserve about 1 tablespoon of the bacon grease in the skillet.
Thinly slice the onions and cook in the skillet over medium heat, about 10 minutes until golden and caramelized. Add the molasses and cook another minute.
Add the pepper to the onions and stir well. Add 1 tsp balsamic vinegar and stir. Pour the onion mixture over the prepared pizza base and spread evenly.
Crumble or break the bacon into small pieces and scatter atop the onions.
Cut or crumble the cheese into small chunks and dot the pizza with them.
De-core the pears and thinly slice them. Toss gently with the other tablespoon of balsamic vinegar. Place the slices evenly on the pizza and sprinkle the remaining vinegar over the pizza.
Bake at 450º F for about 15 minutes. Remove from oven,
Roughly chop the toasted walnuts and scatter over the pizza. Use a spatula to gently press the walnuts into the pears so they do not fall off easily.
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Calories: 341 per slice |
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So what’s for dinner at your place tonight?