All I want to do is eat pizza and watch the DNC. I first wrote the preceding sentence as watch pizza and eat the DNC, evidence of my near voracious level of excitement for the past three days of political fanfare. After months and weeks of tragedy, a small respite in the news cycle, at least. A celebration of hope. I haven’t ever before felt so energized to start conversations, to ask uncomfortable questions, and, yes, to listen to politicians politic in my general direction. There’s an urgency to it all that has filled me with both dread and excitement.
To go with your DNC-related dread and excitement (or your general weekend festivities), I bring you the cilantro pesto pizza with garlicky roasted tomatoes, corn, and burrata. It’s a cut (due to length, not flavor) from the cilantro chapter of the Kale & Caramel cookbook, which will be organized by herb and flower (and in print exactly nine months and two days from now!). I think we can live with the cut, especially if it means we get to make the pizza imminently.
But back to the DNC. I’ve loved every moment of the live stream, loved being in the safety and joy of Twitter having a #DemsInPhilly hastag-gasm, loved dropping in via Periscope. And especially, especially loved getting Snaps and texts from my dear friends Liba, her husband Micah, and their sweet five month-old Z (whose birth I wrote about earlier this year) who were there watching—tiny baby headphones and all—when Hillary officially became the first female presidential nominee of the United States of America.
Can you imagine? One day Z will be in college (Yale, duh, like me and her mama)—or actually, scratch that, she’ll probably be living in a post-institutional society where people live in circular dwellings, grow their own food, beam around in zero-emissions vehicles, and speak 400 languages. Anyway. She’ll be older. And telling people the story of her very first DNC. Of the wild sound of god Meryl Streep made as she took the stage on Tuesday night, a sound known only to women who have given birth and/or witnessed the first female US presidential nominee. Z’s already cooler than me, and she’s only five months old. But I digress.
This is a short and sweet post to deliver unto you my absolute favorite pizza of the summer alongside my top six moments of the DNC thus far. Make pizza. Watch the DNC tonight, as the first female democratic party presidential nominee takes the stage. Laugh. Cry. Let your heart be full. And if you’re in the mood for a pizza party, make one of these and then head over to Fix Feast Flair and whip up Alana’s Nectarine & Goat Cheese Pizza Salad. The two couldn’t be more well matched.
Nota bene: You can make your own pizza dough or buy pre-made dough from the store—both work well. Also, the truffle oil on this pizza is optional. I *highly* recommend taking the option.
As promised, my favorite moments from the past three days of the DNC thus far, in no particular order:
The look on Chelsea’s face as her father waxes rhapsodic about Hillary.
The speech POTUS Barack Obama gave that restored my faith in humanity.
What the World Needs Now, Broadway extravaganza of tears and love.
CILANTRO PESTO PIZZA WITH ROASTED TOMATOES, CORN & BURRATA.
Ingredients
pizza dough (or buy 16 oz. pre-made pizza dough)
- 3 cups all-purpose flour plus more as needed
- 2 teaspoons instant yeast
- 2 teaspoons coarse kosher or sea salt plus extra for sprinkling
- 1 cup water
- 3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
cilantro pesto
- 4 cups lightly packed cilantro about 2 big bunches
- 4 cloves garlic
- 2/3 cup olive oil
- ½ cup pine nuts
- ½ teaspoon sea salt
roasted tomatoes
- 4 cups cherry tomatoes
- 4 cloves garlic thinly sliced
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- ¼ teaspoon flaky sea salt
- couple handfuls cilantro leaves
pizza
- 16 ounces pizza dough (store-bought or using the recipe above, enough for 1 large or 2 smaller pizzas)
- 1 cup grated parmesan
- 1 ear fresh corn
- 8 ounces burrata
- flaky sea salt to taste
- chili flakes to taste
- truffle oil optional, to taste
Instructions
- At least two hours ahead, start the pizza dough (if making at home).
- In a large bowl, whisk together flour, yeast, and salt. Add water and olive oil and work the dough until the mixture comes together as a ball, a bit tacky to the touch. Add more water as needed, or more flour if it’s too wet. Transfer the dough to a floured surface and knead to create a smooth ball of dough.
- Place in an oiled bowl and cover with a clean, damp dish towel. Place in a warm location, or, if your kitchen is very cold, inside your oven. Let rest until it doubles in size, 1-2 hours. Once doubled in size, divide dough into as many pizzas as you anticipate making, and roll each into a ball. Place on floured surface, sprinkle with flour, and cover with a dish towel for about 30 minutes before using.
Make the cilantro pesto.
- Place all ingredients for pesto in a small food processor or blender and process until the ingredients are almost homogenized but some light texture remains. Set aside.
Make the roasted tomatoes.
- Preheat oven to 500º and remove pizza dough from fridge, if pre-made. Rinse cherry tomatoes, and place in a 12" cast iron skillet with garlic, 2 tablespoons olive oil, a couple handfuls of cilantro, and ¼ teaspoon flaky sea salt. Use a wooden spoon or silicone spatula to lightly toss the cherry tomatoes in oil and herbs. Bake for 7 minutes, until the tomato skins start to blister. Then turn the broiler on low and place the skillet on a rack just below the flame. Allow to broil for 3 minutes, until the skins just start to brown in places. Remove from oven, but return oven to 500º.
Assemble the pizza.
- Line one or two baking sheets (depending on whether you’re making one large or two smaller pizzawith parchment paper.
- Shuck the ear of corn and trim corn kernels from cob. Set aside.
- Stretch out the pizza dough into one large or two smaller pizzas. I have no exact science for this, and prefer not to be too pretentious about the process—I use both hands to stretch the dough, letting it hang from my fists in between stretches. Stretch as evenly as possible to ensure a crisper pizza base.
- If you’re making two smaller pizzas, divide all ingredients in half and repeat the following process for both pizzas. If you’re making one, everything goes on this big guy!
- Sprinkle half the parmesan on the base of the pizza and distribute roasted tomatoes and corn over the top. Drizzle oil from roasted tomatoes across the pizza. Spoon cilantro pesto over the pizza, hitting empty pockets where there aren’t tomatoes or corn. Overlap is, of course, fine. Sprinkle with remaining parmesan cheese.
- Bake for 8 minutes, then remove from oven and distribute burrata cheese around pizza, a tablespoon or so at a time. Finish with a sprinkle of red chili flakes and flaky sea salt. Return to the oven (if you’re making two pizzas, at this point you should swap oven placement of the trayand bake another 4-6 minutes, checking for crust color as you go. When crust is as dark as you like it, remove from oven, drizzle with truffle oil if desired, and eat immediately.
