Peperone Follow-Up
As I promised Tim, yesterday (Friday - January 8) we made home-made pizza using the great peperone we produced.
We made a pizza dough using 1/3 of the Cusinart recipe (perfect for one large pizza - no waste at all) with their dough blade, and it worked great. Also, for the first time we used a "00" flour (Alce Nero - farina di grano tenero - tipo "00") which was obtained at The Pasta Shop (Fourth Street area in Berkeley). Man...what a great crust this makes...light and crisp...almost like eating a thick cracker.
The pizza was topped with an olive oil/minced garlic wash, caramelized onions, and a small can of sliced black olives first:
Then, it went into a 500 degree oven for 10 minutes. Pulled it and added sliced mushrooms, grated Dobbiacco cheese, and about 50 slices of the peperone:
Then back into the oven for another 8 minutes with this result:
The pizza overall was just fabulous. However, I have to say that the peperone is such a rich, yet subtle product that it was overwhelmed by the other flavors on the pie. I much prefer to eat it all by itself.
Or maybe in some really fine scrambled eggs....I think I see sous vide in my future.
One interesting development is that the sausages have develop some white mold - a few of them significantly:
This was as they were stored in parchment paper in a Ziploc bag in my dry curing refrigerator (where the one remaining Genoa salami is hanging). Remember that the peperone originally dry cured in my "wine cellar". So, they picked up what is obviously "good" mold naturally. Easily removed with a vinegar or salt wash.
They are now in the freezer until needed.
