Rabbit Confit Pizza and Fig Cambozola Pizza

[Dino_Pizza]

Last weekend we had a family pizza and pool party and made the following:

1) Rabbit Confit with Goat Cheese Pizza (I only have a pic of the rabbit I'm confit-ing in olive oil and garlic. Everyone ate it up so fast I couldn't photagraph the final product ) but, the mild yet rich rabbit paired well with the earthy goat cheese.

2) Home cured citrus salmon Gravlox and Creme Fraishe Pizza (Susan Goin "Luques Restaurant" Gravlox recipe) with red onion and Arugula or Rocket on top. Works great as an appetizer pizza.

3) Home grown mission and green fig pizza with Italien cambozola cheese, prosuitto and honey. A new summer tradition is born. It was soooo good!

Here are the pics in (I hope) proper order:

[texassourdough]

Re: Rabbit Confit Pizza and Fig Cambozola Pizza

Hi Dino!

Good combos! I have been doing a range of fig pizzas and they are pretty awesome. A real surprise to WFO newbies/guests!

Thanks!
Jay

[Dino_Pizza]

Re: Rabbit Confit Pizza and Fig Cambozola Pizza

Ya Jay, the figs are a real surprise to me. Last night we had a friend over who doesn't eat cheese (doesn't like cheese -mad that's wierd) so we did half cheese which worked out especially well with the fig and proscuitto pizza. I omitted the honey this time so it was more savory and salty from the prosuitto. It was great.

But...the real news (for me at least) was that I froze my pizzas dough balls from 2 weeks ago that I had left over, defrosted in the fridge overnight, and pulled out 3 hours before making the pies. Our house was about 82 deg. To my surprise, they came alive immediately, started bubbling and growing! It made no difference if I "worked" them a bit into a new ball, or left them in melty-disc shape. The pizza crust had puffed correctly in the oven, but had a "chewier" chew yet had an exceptional flavor. Kinda better in some ways than just 2 day, un-frozed dough. This opens up whole new way for me to prep for a party.

-Dino

[texassourdough]

Re: Rabbit Confit Pizza and Fig Cambozola Pizza

I agree Dino. I don't make a practice of freezing dough but so long as it is less than a month or so, I have seen little real impact. More different than better or worse. OTOH, we are both assuming great dough to begin with!

One of my favorite fig pies is figs, bacon, blue cheese and walnuts. It would be quite good without the blue cheese for those who are lactose intolerant or blue cheese averse. I prefer bacon for its smokiness over the unsmoked alternatives. I crisp it and break it before baking.

Thanks!
Jay