Blogger confession time here: I really hate taking photos of food before dinner. It is not just that the food is getting cold, but the lighting is such a challenge! No matter what lights you rig together, nothing looks as good as it does with natural sunshine streaming in.
Still, that is the only challenging thing about this installment of simple suppers. Pizza is such a delicious and indulgent dish to be able to easily make for dinner, and this one features a lot of my favorite ingredients: mushrooms (use thinly sliced portobello, if you can’t find shiitake), ricotta cheese, broccoli rabe, and – a favorite Provencal staple – pink peppercorns.
ps. Also, this is not local to NY, but in you are in the CA-area, these guys are the best: Shiitake Happens!
{for more in the Simple Suppers series, check out these recipes: Simple suppers: multicultural turkey meatballs, Simple suppers: pasta with braised garlic and tomatoes, Simple suppers: omelette au brocciu frais and more under the “simple suppers” tag.}
- half lb pizza dough (store-bought or homemade)
- half lb broccoli rabe, roughly chopped
- 1 cup shiitake mushrooms (or other mushrooms), sliced
- 2 cloves of garlic, minced
- 4 tablespoons ricotta cheese
- ⅓ cup tomato sauce (store-bought or homemade)
- salt, pepper
- pink peppercorns
- olive oil
- butter
- In a large saute pan, cook the mushroom in a mixture of oil, butter, and minced garlic. Set aside. Use the same pan to lightly wilt the broccoli rabe, season with salt and pepper.
- Preheat oven to the highest that it will go - 450 to 500F.
- Roll out pizza dough into a round disk and place onto baking sheet or pizza stone. Spread tomato sauce, mushrooms and rabe1/4 evenly on top, leaving a quarter of an inch border all around.
- Top with dollops of ricotta cheese and season lightly with salt and pink peppercorns.
- Bake for 10-15 minutes until cheese is melted and crust is nicely charred.
I know what you mean about the light. I always incorporate any food blogging into my eating schedule – no boeuf bourguignon at 10 a.m. on a Saturday morning. It makes things challenging. Your photos still look great and the pizza looks delicious.
It’s funny that we all think about it 🙂 but you have to do it! I appreciate it, Teresa, thank you!