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The First Supper – Pizza and Sweet Potato Gelato w/ Candied Pecans

Hello everyone and welcome to my new blog! It’s good to be back after being in blogging exile for way too long!!

My new kitchen is now finished (I just need to do some touch-up painting) and I love it!! What an improvement over the old one! Here are a few photos…

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To celebrate, I had a few friends over for one of my favorite dinners… PIZZA!! For dessert we had sweet potato gelato w/ candied pecans. After sampling some of the gelato I decided this is one of the best flavors I’ve created. I will definitely make it again!! With the gelato I served some El Dorado 15 Year Special Reserve Rum from Guyana. Awesome stuff… if you like cognac, you will love this rum! It has a beautiful nose of caramel and a long, smooth finish.

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Pizza

Ingredients for dough:

4 cups all purpose flour

1/4 cup olive oil

1 rounded tablespoon yeast

1/4 cup plus 1 1/4 cups warm water

2 teaspoons salt

1 teaspoon honey

Procedure for dough:

1) Mix yeast, 1/4 cup warm water and honey in a large mixing bowl, let stand for 2 minutes or until foamy

2) Then add to bowl: 1/4 cup olive oil, 1 1/4 cups warm water, 2 teaspoons salt

3) Then mix in 3 1/2 cups flour (mix in up to 1/2 cup more flour if dough is too moist)

4) Kneed dough, form it into a ball and return it to the bowl, dust w/ flour, cover and let rise for 1 hour (in a warm spot in your kitchen)

** recipe yields three 14 inch pizza crusts if rolled out thin

Ingredients for pizza:

Crimini mushrooms (sauteed w/ garlic, red pepper flakes,, oregano and salt)

Tomatoes – thinly sliced

Mozzarella cheese – thinly sliced

Oregano

Minced garlic

Olive oil

Parmesan cheese – grated

Salt + pepper

Corn meal for dusting pizza peel

Procedure for pizza:

1) Place pizza stone on middle rack of oven, then preheat to 500 degrees

2) Cut dough into 3 equal pieces

3) Roll out dough to desired thickness

4) Transfer dough to pizza peel (the wooden thing I call a palette) that has been generously dusted w/ corn meal so pizza slides into oven easily

5) Top w/ mozzarella, tomatoes, oregano, salt and pepper, minced garlic, mushrooms, grated parmesan, and drizzle w/ olive oil

6) Bake at 500 degrees on a pizza stone for 8 minutes; check if bottom of crust is nicely browned… it may need to be rotated {back to front} using a metal spatula and baked for another minute or 2 for a perfect pizza

Sweet Potato Gelato w/ Candied Pecans

Ingredients:

1 cup brown sugar

2 cups sweet potato puree (I roasted the potatoes in the oven at 425 degrees for 50 minutes until soft, then let cool before scooping out and pureeing in food processor)

6  large egg yolks

1 quart half and half

1 cup candied pecans – roughly chopped (**see previous pumpkin gelato post for pecan procedure)

Procedure:

1) In medium saucepan heat half + half gently to a simmer, then turn off heat

2) In medium size mixing bowl combine egg yolks and sugar and beat together until pale yellow

3) Beat 2 tablespoons of the warm half + half into the egg mixture (do this slowly to avoid curdling the eggs), then beat in the remaining half + half little by little

4) Place bowl over a pot of simmering water and cook over a gentle heat, stirring constantly, until the mixture coats the back of a spoon (do not let temperature exceed 170 degrees F or mixture will start to curdle)

5) Cool in an ice bath

6) Blend in 1 1/2 cups gelato mixture to sweet potato to thin puree, then stir puree into the remaining gelato mixture, blending well, and chill for at least 4 hours in fridge

7) Churn in ice cream maker according to manufacturer’s instructions, adding the chopped pecans halfway through the churning process

8) Transfer gelato to a 2 quart plastic container, cover top w/ parchment paper cut to size (this will reduce air exposure and prevent ice crystals from forming on the surface of gelato), and freeze until firm

Yield: Approx. 1 ½ quarts

It’s my birthday today so I’m treating myself to a long weekend in San Francisco! I leave tomorrow and still have a ton of things to do today. I need to end this post and continue my chores.

 

Thanks for visiting the new site.

 

Bon Appetit!!

 

Bruno

 

 

 

12 Responses to “The First Supper – Pizza and Sweet Potato Gelato w/ Candied Pecans”


  1. 1 The Culinary Chase

    Hi Bruno! Welcome back! Nice site & kitchen reno’s look great!

    Cheers,
    Heather

  2. 2 Bruno

    Heather – Thanks for visiting the new blog… it’s nice to have a voice again!!

  3. 3 Freya

    The pizza sounds great (you cannot do better than homemade) but I am hooked with the Gelato – I bet it was wonderful!

  4. 4 Bruno

    Freya – Thank you! I highly recommend you try this gelato recipe.

  5. 5 Dianne

    The Sweet Potato Gelato sounds heavenly!

  6. 6 Freya

    Why didn’t Freya show me this pizza when she saw it? It really looks great! Oh, how I love pizza.
    -Paul

  7. 7 barbara

    Welcome back Bruno. I’ll add you to my list as soon as I update.

  8. 8 brunosdream

    Dianne – Thanks! I agree, sweet potato gelato is food from heaven!

    Paul – Thank you! Pizza is one of my favorites too. I think Freya was keeping it all for herself :-)

    Barbara – Thanks for visiting the new blog and linking me up!!

  9. 9 Shaun

    Bruno – What a lovely new kitchen you have. It looks quite spacious. What a treat to have an island like that – a great way to keep cookery books handy in the kitchen without being exposed to too much mess. I look forward to the time (soon – next year, even) Eric and I will have our own kitchen again. Happy belated birthday!

  10. 10 brunosdream

    Thanks for the belated birthday wishes Shaun! I love my new kitchen… the island w/ the cookbook shelf is a great feature the designer suggested. It really makes the room more functional. Good luck to you and Eric on your future kitchen!

  11. 11 Anne

    I’m lactose-intolerant, and I can’t find lactose-free half-and-half. Do you think the gelato recipe would work if I used lactose-free whole milk? I’m pretty sure soy-based half-and-half is available, but I don’t know how that would affect the freezing process.

  12. 12 brunosdream

    Anne,

    I’m not sure how soy half & half will effect the taste and freezing process, but I think it’s worth a try!

    Bruno

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