New Year’s Eve, 2012

A generous and delicious slice of Pizza with Onion Confit, the Tuesday with Dorie Baking with Julia recipe choice for today.

A generous and delicious slice of Pizza with Onion Confit, the Tuesday with Dorie Baking with Julia recipe choice for today.

 

Tonight I’m celebrating and bringing in the New Year………with Dorie Greenspan, Steve Sullivan and Yotam Ottolenghi.

Let me quickly explain. I’ll be brief because I have to get back to my guests.

 

The Onion Confit, which can be made two days ahead, is simply 4 onions, red wine, red wine vinegar and seasonings. I added some Crème de Cassis to taste. It was New Year's Eve, afterall.

The Onion Confit, which can be made two days ahead, consists of 4 onions, red wine, red wine vinegar and seasonings. I added some Crème de Cassis to taste. It was New Year’s Eve, afterall.

 

Dorie, of course, is the well-recognized cookbook author and fearless leader of my Tuesdays with Dorie, Baking with Julia group. Greenspan wrote the cookbook, Baking with Julia, which was based on the popular PBS Series hosted by Julia Childs.

Steve Sullivan is a talented baker who successfully established his own bakery, Acme Bread Company, in San Francisco. His sourdough and levain breads are legendary.

 

Sullivan's dough for this pizza "has enough texture and flavor to hold its own under any topping." Although you first make a sponge before making the dough, necessitating two risings, this isn't difficult.

Sullivan’s dough for this pizza “has enough texture and flavor to hold its own under any topping.” Although you first make a sponge before making the dough, necessitating two risings, this isn’t difficult. When ready, roll and work the dough until it is about 1/4 inch thick before transferring it to a baker’s peel rubbed lightly with cornmeal.

 

London Chef Yotam Ottolenghi who is becoming one of the most respected chefs in the world, owns five remarkable restaurants in that city and has written two well-received cookbooks, Plenty and Jerusalem.

This coming week’s recipe choice is the very tasty Pizza with Onion Confit. Julia Childs collaborated with Steve Sullivan to create this rather involved, somewhat complicated dish. After tasting the Provencal-inspired Onion Confit, as the base, I’m not sure I will ever return to classic tomato sauce again.   Admittedly, it was a two-day process, a sponge and two risings,  but perfect, I thought,  for my New Year’s Eve supper. Champagne? Maybe not. Beer? For sure.

 

After preheating the oven to a toasty 475 degrees, I transferred my pizza tiooed with precooked pancetta lardons, roasted artichoke hearts and Parmigiano Reggiano Cheese.

After preheating the oven to a toasty 475 degrees, I transferred my pizza topped with precooked pancetta lardons, roasted artichoke hearts and Parmigiano Reggiano Cheese, from the peel to my baking stone which had been also preheated in the oven.

 

Intriqued by Ottolenghi’s culinary talent and impressed by reviews of his recently-published cookbooks, I ordered both of them last month. Unfortunately, they’d been shoved aside on my kitchen counter, victims of the holiday hustle and bustle.

 

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New Year’s Eve has never been a hoop-and-hollar event at our house. And, this year, especially, I needed quiet. To me, it felt right to just cook something delicious and settle in with a good (cook) book.

 

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The finished product. Everything about this pizza —- perfect.

 

I must return to my friends, Dorie, Steve, Yotam (we’re channeling Julia). I’ll let my pictures speak for the pizza. Thanks to our host-with-the-most, Paul of The Boy Can Bake, for providing the recipe for this delicious pizza-confit combo to all of you. Check out his link. To see how my colleagues did this week, go to our Tuesdays with Dorie link.

HAPPY NEW YEAR 2013, FAITHFUL READERS AND DORIE COLLEAGUES. MAY THE YEAR AHEAD BE HAPPY, HEALTHY and OVERFLOWING WITH THE FELLOWSHIP OF FAMILY, FRIENDS, AND GOOD FOOD.