Recipe(tried): Pizza with Pesto, Fresh Tomatoes and Mozzarella, and Green Salad with Blue Cheese Dressing

DINNER MENU:
Pizza with Pesto, Fresh Tomatoes and Mozzarella
Ina Garten's Green Salad with Blue Cheese Dressing

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There is a pizza restaurant here that makes 50 different kinds of pizza. It is very popular with students as well as the residents. One of our favorite pizzas is the Pizza with Pesto, Fresh Tomatoes and Mozzarella. Wasn't I surprised when I found the following recipe which appeared in Gourmet! The recipe came from a person who lives in MA so it makes me wonder if she might have been a student at one of the colleges here, and came up with the recipe because she was missing having it??!? DH and I made it but we divided 1 lb. of dough into 3 individual pizzas, and grilled it rather than making it in the oven. It tasted wonderful - as good as it is from the pizza restaurant, plus it's so much better than having a delivery pizza. Personally, I think pizza loses a lot when it is delivered rather than having it fresh out of the oven either at home or at a restaurant.

For a salad, we had Ina Garten's Green Salad with Blue Cheese Dressing. I had made the dressing so we needed to use it. The dressing is very, very good, especially if you kind of like blue cheese dressing but don't like a dressing with a really strong blue cheese flavor. The full recipe makes a huge amount of dressing so I halved it. You still end up with over a cup of dressing so that's plenty for us for several salads. Plus, Roquefort is expensive so for half of a recipe all you need is 2 oz. which makes it a bit easier on your pocketbook.

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PIZZA WITH PESTO, FRESH TOMATOES AND MOZZARELLA
Gourmet | August 1999
From Jackie Bonenfant, Milton, MA

"Saturday night is typically pizza-making night for my family, and one of the standard features of these evenings is pizza with pesto and fresh tomatoes. I use a good store-bought pesto, and, although I once made the dough in my bread machine, I now purchase excellent dough at our local Bertucci's restaurant and keep plenty on hand in the freezer. The dinner is simple and delicious.

A pizza stone is a worthwhile investment if you're partial to pizza with a crisp crust that doesn't droop. For this recipe we used a large pizza stone (about 14 inches across). But don't despair if you don't have one; we also achieved good results when we baked the pizza on a baking sheet."
Yield: Makes one 14-inch pizza

6 ounces grated fresh mozzarella (about 1 cups)
3 plum tomatoes
1 pound pizza dough (thawed if frozen)
all-purpose flour for dusting
3 tablespoons basil pesto (I had homemade so we used it.)

Special equipment:
a large pizza stone (at least 14 inches across)
a baker's peel

At least 1 hour before baking pizza, set stone on lowest rack of oven (if you have a gas stove, stone can go directly on oven floor) and preheat oven to 500 F.

Coarsely grate mozzarella and cut tomatoes crosswise into 1/8-inch-thick slices. On a floured surface with your hands pat out and stretch dough evenly into a 12-inch round, keeping hands flat. (Do not handle dough more than necessary. If dough is sticky, dust it lightly with flour.)

Dust baker's peel with flour and carefully transfer inch round. Jerk peel once or twice and, if dough is sticking, lift dough and sprinkle flour underneath it, reshaping dough if necessary. Spread pesto over dough leaving a 1-inch border and sprinkle with cheese. Arrange tomato slices over cheese and season with salt and pepper.

Line up far edge of peel with far edge of stone and tilt peel, jerking it gently to start pizza moving. Once edge of pizza touches stone, quickly pull back peel to completely transfer pizza to stone. Bake pizza until dough is crisp and brown, about 10 to 12 minutes, and transfer with peel to a cutting board.

Cut pizza into slices and serve immediately.

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GREEN SALAD WITH BLUE CHEESE DRESSING
From Ina Garten
Makes 4 servings

4 ounces good Roquefort cheese, chopped
1 cup mayonnaise
1 cup heavy (whipping) cream
2 tablespoons tarragon vinegar
1 teaspoon kosher salt
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1 head iceberg lettuce, cut in quarters, or 2 heads Bibb lettuce, cut in half
Heirloom tomatoes, or other good tomatoes

Place the cheese, mayonnaise, heavy cream, vinegar, salt and pepper in the bowl of a food processor fitted with a steel blade. Process until smooth. (I used an immersion blender which worked very well.)

Place a wedge of lettuce on each serving plate with 2 slices of tomato. Pour enough dressing over the lettuce to moisten. Serve immediately.