Friday, April 11, 2008

Dinner Abroad

E: Should we put eggs on our pizzas?
D:
Sure. Then it'd be like we're in England.

E: Really? I always associate egg-topped dishes with France.
D: We'll just say we're somewhere in Europe.

I'd been craving homemade pizza of late. And then I realized that D's visit coincided with dinnertime. Though I wanted to make my own pizza dough, a lack of time and proximity to Trader Joe's had me settle for their garlic herb dough. While D sautéed the spinach (because I always make my guests cook!), I took charge of the blob. It was a greenish hue and had it not smelled so wonderful, it might have been a bit frightening. Too lazy to fuss with flour, I ended up with dough-covered hands and two unnamed island shaped pizzas. We each took charge of an island.

D's Island
D loves tomato sauce, so there was a heavy layer to start. She also wanted the prosciutto and sauce to mix. And so they did.

E's Island
I wanted to try a sauceless pizza, but I got a little overzealous with the olive oil. To compensate, I added some shallots and thyme. This did not the soak up the oil, but it made me feel better about my "flatbread."

Eventually, we topped the pizzas with ricotta and spinach and egg. In fact, the toppings were so heavy that we had to leave our pizzas in the oven for much, much longer than the package directed, but our instincts were right. The pizzas were only a little soggy in the middle. And the olive oil slick disappeared. And we ate our pizzas with knife and fork, so I suppose we really were channeling a little Europe. And for the record, egg pizza is really good.