Friday, April 24, 2009

Tiella

Dinner 4/24

Tiella



A riff on Lidia Bastianich's Tiella -- a thin crusted deep-dish pizza from Naples, stuffed with different combinations of vegetables -- in this case, escarole, olives, capers and beautiful lion's mane and maitake mushrooms.

Putting the top crust on...




..and just out of the oven.




A little slice of heaven.



The dough is 2 tsp. yeast dissolved in 1/4 cup warm water and left to sit for a few minutes. In a mixer, add 1 1/2 cups of all-purpose flour and 1 1/2 cups of semolina flour along with 1 tsp. of salt and 1 1/2 tsp. of sugar. Run the machine to blend.

Stir in 3 tbs. of olive oil to the yeast, run the mixer and drizzle the mixture in, processing for 30 seconds. You can add additional flour if the dough seems a little loose, or water if it seems stiff.

Remove the dough and knead by hand into a smooth round, place it in an oiled bowl, cover it with plastic wrap and let sit for an hour until doubled. Punch down, shape it again, let rise a second time and stick it in the fridge (sealed airtight) if you want wait until later to use it.

Punch it down again when ready to use. Let it relax if you've taken it out of the fridge. Brush the bottom and sides of the baking dish with olive oil. Cut off 2/3 of the dough for the base, roll it into a 14" round and transfer to the baking dish and trim to fit.

Add your filling and slightly compress.

Roll the smaller piece of dough into a 12" round and place on top, pinch to seal, trim the excess. Pierce about 12 holes on the top and bake at 375F for 45 minutes. Remove from the oven, and let the tiella cool on a rack for about an hour. You can invert the tiella and remove it to serve, or leave it in for serving. Serve slightly warm or at room temp.

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