Sunday Gravy with yeah right: Still Rolling around in Pesto!

Good morning!

Damn glad to see you.

Finally! Motherfucking finally it’s began to warm up out here. Six month of this shit has been enough. We’re supposed to have mid 70’s and sun today and you can bet your righteous ass I’m getting out there in it.

This shit’s been un-fucking-civilized.

We are kinda sorta in a half-ass way in a part 3 of sorts for Sunday Gravy.

Our adventure started back a couple of weeks ago with a harmless attempt to roast some nuts, peanuts and mixed nuts.

Then that shit spun-off on its own accord with me coming up with an idea to use up the Brazil nuts that nobody really likes in their mixed nuts, by making pesto out of them and serving that pesto on some lovely cod filets.

If you remember last week when we made the Brazil nut pesto, we had some leftover.

What do I do with it?*

That logic was easy to follow right? Kind of made sense with how we got to our menu today?

Fucked with my head too and I wrote this shit.

*[ the answer of course is to do it clean]

So, ideas for pesto. Let’s think.

Reaching way back in the memory banks, this made me think of an old familiar favorite and just like that! The lightbulb went off.

Flatbreads!

Or more like Motherfucking pesto flatbread!

We’ve made more flatbread…

then I can link to…

up in here.

In addition I will keep making them as long as I can find new, unique variations of them.

Why?

They are super easy to make and consistently delicious. 

I’m ALL about that!

And I absolutely will not stop making flatbreads for the rest of my existence and I’ll be even happier when I’ve convinced every single one of you to make your own at home too.

Hell yes.

Let’s begin shall we?

One more time with the dough recipe, after this you’ll just have to search using that search function down at the bottom of the page.

The only flatbread dough recipe you will need.

1 package of active dried yeast.

2/3 cup of lukewarm water – no need to be precise on temperature since we don’t want a big rise.

2 cups of all purpose flour.

1 teaspoon of baking powder.

3/4 teaspoon of salt.

2 tablespoons of olive oil.

1 tablespoon of honey.

Or in picture form!

Making our dough we begin with old faithful.

Get 2/3 cup of warm-ish water and bloom the yeast.

What makes this dough a little different is that in addition to bloomed yeast we also have this.

Baking powder gives it a little lift but not too much. Once more for the record, we don’t want a big rise from this dough because it’s…

Flatbread!

We’ll also add a little sweetness to the crust with the addition of…

After combining the dry ingredients and adding in the yeast, oil and honey we get it all up in a big bowl to mix.

And gently knead to form a dough.

See? You can bring this wad together just using your freshly washed hands.

You DID wash your hands first, right?

Remember the part of the instructions with the “Roll into two dough balls and let rest for 30 minutes” thing? That’s what we’re doing right now.

Sky’s the motherfucking limit and dealers fucking choice for our toppings today.

While browsing topping ideas for a pesto sauced pie on the internet one of the common themes I noticed was “bold flavors” from your toppings. Since the pesto is pretty aggressive all by itself we want flavor combinations to stand up to its ass.

I’ve got the first one figured out!

Oh hell yes bacon would work with pesto, along with pretty much every fucking thing ever.

Since our flatbread will go in to a 450 degree oven to cook, we want to make sure the bacon isn’t too done during the initial cook.

Set aside on a paper towel to drain.

I’ve got other ideas for our toppings, don’t stress, but I wanted to get the pre-cooking of the bacon done first.

At this time we break out our leftover pesto.

I froze the pesto after last week’s meal because 7 days between uses was pushing the freshness envelope a little too fucking far if you know what I mean. 

You’ll want to give the pesto a solid stir to re-incorporate the separated olive oil.

Now that our dough has rested for its required time, we place it on a lightly floured surface. You’ll be happier if you use parchment paper for this.

And we roll it out.

Good looking pie shell right there.

Let’s begin to build the beast.

On goes the pesto!

Go ahead and use half of the leftover pesto on each flatbread.

Next how about we grate on some fresh parmigiano reggiano?

That’s already looking delicious and shit and we just got started.

Get yourself some nice fresh mozzarella for this application.

Knock yourself out with the cheese, man.

For the remainder of the toppings I thought, hmm, one of my all time favorite pizzas is chicken and bacon. I shit you negative. Give it a try. That was my mindset today.

So. Here’s some chicken and our bacon.

This was deli bought chicken breast that had a buffalo seasoning or some such thing. Bold remember?

Since we are indeed working with “bold flavors” I’ve got another one for you.

How about some sundried tomatoes?

Didn’t see that coming, didja?

Sun dried tomatoes are incredible with a bite of acidity from the tomato and a little sweetness from the sun drying process.

Think tomato crossed with a prune but in a non-repulsive way!

Scatter a liberal handful over the top.

Now that the flatbread is all dressed up and ready to party, into the preheated 450 degree oven for about 10 minutes it goes.

When done you have this motherfucker right here.

This was the first of our two flatbreads. Awesome, awesome shit. Tons of big bold character actors here and not a Nicolas Cage or Jim Carrey among them. Solid ensemble.

While this was a goddamn tasty and delightful pie I sat and wondered…

Could we get even a little more bold?

I think so my friends. I fucking think so.

How about we break out the great big weapons grade flavor guns for pie number two?

Oh HELL yes. See that? Go ahead and enlarge the photo.

That’s real Italian pecorino Sardo, Which means it’s either from Sardinia or it’s in the Sardinian style. 

People? This is once again one of the best cheeses I’ve ever eaten like ever fucking EVER ever. Bold, sharp, creamy, smooth, sharp, funky, grassy. This motherfucker has it ALL! I’ve always liked a good tangy pecorino but this altered me for life. I dream about this cheese and that’s truth.

It’s close to cheese perfection. So close in fact that I don’t even care about its “aromatic” qualities in the refrigerator. Hell, I’ll stick my head in the refrigerator just to take another whiff.

I’m grating some of this slab of awesomeness right on that 2nd flatbread just before we add the mozzarella. Same 10 minutes in the oven.

Mother of GOD was this insanely good. Fucking hell! There’s your boldness at work. BOOM! That shit is ALL bolded up.

That pesto fucking WORKS on that flatbread! It just does.

For this episode I tried to get a couple of “behind the scenes” shots of the flatbread making process for you.

First up, here’s a look at how I remove the flatbreads from the oven.

There’s a lot going on in that picture. You can see the pie cooking on the pizza stone while it rests on the parchment paper. You will also notice that I’m keeping careful track of my oven temperature with the in-oven thermometer. 

Notice that I place the cutting board directly on the open oven door, then I slide the flatbread out using the edge of the parchment paper. Won’t burn your hands or nothing AND you can slice the flatbread right on top of the cutting board!

I made that step up all by myself.

Finally I wanted to show how well the pizza stone cooked the flatbread. The true test is checking the bottom of the crust.

Mother. Fucking. TOUCHDOWN!

That’s as close to a photo of the second flatbread that I took before it was devastated in an outright assault of gustatory deliciousness.

It was just that simple and just that incredible. And I pretty much just made that shit up entirely by myself.

See? You can do that! That was fun, wasn’t it?

Simple, inexpensive, resourceful and goddamn delicious!

Perfect use of leftovers as well.

And there we are.

Always a pleasure bringing the Sunday Gravy goodness to you fine folks. 

Thanks for stopping by.

Plenty of playoff action going today and the weather’s nice too. Enjoy the rest of your weekend.

Until next week…

PEACE!