Homemade pizza is one of my favorite ways to feed a crowd—especially a crew of hungry movers. (We’re in the process of relocating The Mouse House this week! More on that to come soon!) This particular pizza combines two of my favorite things: bacon and cheese. Think of it as a mouthwatering take on a BLT in pizza form.

Ribbons of fresh basil and paper-thin slices of ripe tomato provide a ton of fresh flavor—without making the pizza too wet. A few handfuls of shredded mozzarella and grated Parmesan give the pie all the cheesy goodness you expect in a pizza.

And then, of course, there’s the bacon. I used Black Forest bacon from Whole Foods, but you can certainly use your favorite kind. (If you’ve been following The Hungry Mouse, you know I can’t get enough of this stuff. It’s deeply smokey and slightly sweet.)

Black Forest Bacon, crisp as can be

How to make the pizza dough

I used the basic dough recipe from The Bread Baker’s Apprentice: Mastering the Art of Extraordinary Bread, by Peter Reinhart.

I first made this dough for the Daring Baker’s October Challenge last year, and it remains one of my favorite pizza doughs. The dough needs to rest overnight, so start it the day before you want to make your pizzas.

If you don’t want to do the dough overnight, you can always use my Nice & Easy Pizza Dough recipe. For a thicker crust, try the dough from my Thick Crust Sausage & Cheese Pizza.

Or, use your favorite dough. As much as I love a good crust, this one is more about the toppings for me.

The dough recipe below makes three fairly large pizzas (maybe 16 inches or so in diameter). I used 2 of the balls for this Bacon, Basil & Tomato Pizza. I used the last to make a slightly smaller, thicker white cheese pizza.

Bacon, Basil & Tomato Pizza

Pizza Dough (Click here for step-by-step instructions for how to make the dough)
4 1/2 cups unbleached high-gluten (%14) bread flour or all purpose flour
1 3/4 tsp. salt
1 tsp. yeast
1/4 cup olive oil
1 3/4 cups water, ice cold
1 Tb sugar
Spray oil
Coarse cornmeal

Yields: Enough dough for 6 small pizzas or 3 large ones

Pizza Toppings
Shredded mozzarella
Grated Parmesan
1-2 large, ripe tomatoes
1/2 – 3/4 lb. Black Forest bacon (or any bacon you like), cooked and crumbled
Fresh basil, cut into ribbons
kosher salt
garlic powder

The night before, make the pizza dough according to these instructions. Divide the dough into 3 balls and refrigerate overnight.

When you’re ready to make your pizzas, take the dough out of the fridge and bring it up to room temperature. Preheat your oven to 500 degrees. Sprinkle your pizza pans with coarse cornmeal.

Roll out the pizza dough

Flatten each ball of dough out with a rolling pin or by stretching it across the backs of your hands. Put the dough on top of your prepared pans.

Add the toppings to the pizza dough

Sprinkle lightly with shredded mozzarella. This is to give your tomatoes a base to stick to.

Slice your tomato as thin as you can.

Spread the tomato slices out on top of the cheese. Cover the pizza without overlapping the tomatoes.

Sprinkle with crumbled bacon.

And another thin layer of mozzarella. (It may seem fussy, but I’ve found that layering the ingredients like this helps the all the toppings stick together better, and avoids pizza snafus…like when you take one bite and ALL the cheese comes off in one piece.)

Toss on the cut basil. Spread it out fairly evenly.

Sprinkle with a layer of Parmesan cheese. Then sprinkle on a light layer of garlic powder. Toss on a little salt if you like (there will already be a fair amount from the Parmesan).

Bake the pizza in a really hot oven

Slide your pizzas (pan and all) into your preheated 500-degree oven. Bake for 12-15 minutes, until your crust and toppings are nicely browned.

Cool your pizza for a few minutes on the pan, then slide it off onto a board and cut into wedges with a sharp butcher knife or pizza cutter.

Serve immediately.

Enjoy!

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Cheese makes (almost) everything better. It’s one of the 10 commandments of The Hungry Mouse Test Kitchen. When I made these the other night, The Angry Chef told me that, hands down, it’s my best biscuit recipe. “Even better than my buttermilk biscuits?” I asked. “Yep, even better,” he told me. Well then. I blame it on the cheese. Ladies and gentlemen, we have a winner!

These biscuits are ridiculously easy to make. Simply enrich a handful of dry ingredients with a heavenly amount of heavy cream and shredded cheddar, and…voila! Biscuits that are light, fluffy, and dotted with bits of fragrant, molten cheese.

These biscuits are perfect for a leisurely weekend breakfast or brunch. You can use them as the base for over-the-top fried egg sandwiches. Or serve them instead of cornbread at your next barbecue.

Like I said, they’re really easy to make.

Just toss the dry ingredients in a large mixing bowl, give ‘em a swirl, and drizzle in the cream and cheese. Mix until the dough just comes together. The less you handle the dough, the more tender your biscuits will be.

I cut my biscuits into squares—not rounds. That way, there’s no cutting, reshaping the dough, then cutting again. Just pat the dough out once, whack it into squares, and they’re ready to bake.

If you wanted to go crazy, toss in a handful or two of crisp, crumbled bacon when you add the cheese.

Cheddar Cheese Biscuits

3 cups flour
1 1/2 Tbls. baking powder
1 Tbls. sugar
2 tsp. kosher salt
2 1/2 cups heavy cream
1 3/4 cups sharp cheddar cheese, grated
4 Tbls. butter

Yields about 16 large biscuits

Preheat your oven to 375 degrees. Line two sheet pans with parchment paper or silicone baking mats. Set them aside.

Make the biscuit dough

Combine the flour, baking powder, sugar, and salt in a large bowl. Mix to thoroughly combine.

Pour in the heavy cream.

Toss in the shredded cheddar cheese.

Mix with a wooden spoon until the ingredients just come together as a dough. (Again, you don’t want to overwork it.) It will look raggy and very floury. That’s just fine.

Round the dough up with your hands and smoosh it together into a ball. Set the ball on a lightly floured board.

Cut the biscuits

With your hands, smoosh the dough down so that it’s relatively flat. You want it to be about an inch thick.

Square off the sides so your dough is roughly shaped like a rectangle.

With a bencher or large knife, cut the dough into 16 squares about the same size. (The corners will likely be a little smaller. That’s just fine.)

Transfer the biscuits to your prepared baking sheets. Space them out.

Let the biscuits rest while you melt the butter.

Brush the biscuits with butter and bake

Put the butter in a small saucepan on the stove over low heat to melt it.

When the butter is melted, brush the top of each biscuit with melted butter.

Pop the biscuits into your preheated 375 degree oven. Bake at 375 for 22-24 minutes.

They’re done when they’re lightly browned on the top, like this.

Cool them for 10 minutes on the pan. Then transfer to a rack to finish cooling.

Enjoy!

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Ah, risotto. So creamy! So delicious! All that cheese! And you wanna know what? You don’t need to go out to eat to enjoy it. It’s not remotely as hard to make at home as some folks might think.

This risotto gets a smooth, rich balance of cheese-y flavors from Gruyere, Taleggio, and Parmesan. A generous amount of butter beaten in at the end adds just a little extra creaminess.

Seriously? I think I may have died and gone to cheese heaven. (Not a bad ending for a mouse, I know.)

A big thank you to my friends at Cookstr

The good folks over at Cookstr have asked me to do step-by-step walk-throughs of a handful of their recipes. We’re really excited about working with them! This first recipe for Three Cheese Risotto comes from Jamie Oliver.

Cookstr is rapidly building one of the best food sites I’ve seen. All their content comes from chefs and cookbook authors. If you haven’t already, definitely check them out for tons of recipes and info on your favorite chefs.

Three Cheese Risotto: A note on ingredients

Risotto is made with Italian arborio rice, a short-grain rice that’s super starchy. Slow cooking and constant stirring help coax that starch out, creating risotto’s trademark creamy texture.

For the cheeses, I used Gruyere and Taleggio.

Gruyere is a Swiss cow’s milk cheese with a fabulous nutty flavor. It’s generally aged for 10-12 months, and is good for eating out of hand or for cooking.

Gruyere

Made in the Lombardy region of Italy, Taleggio is a rich, semi-soft cow’s milk cheese. When it’s younger, it’s a pale-ish yellow and fairly firm. As it ages, it gets darker in color and runnier.

Taleggio

For chicken broth, I like Pacific brand if I don’t have any homemade on hand in the freezer.

Three Cheese Risotto: The basic technique

Here’s the basic technique. There’s a lot of stirring. But trust me, your efforts will be well worth it.

+Heat the stock in a separate pan
+Sweat the veggies in another pan
+Add the rice to the veggies and cook it a bit
+Pour in the wine and cook until absorbed, stirring constantly
+Add the stock one ladle at a time. Stir constantly until the stock is absorbed before adding more.
+When the rice has absorbed all the stock, stir in the cheese
+Add the Parmesan and butter
+Cover for a few minutes
+Serve and enjoy!

Read on for a step-by-step walkthrough.

Three Cheese Risotto

Recipe by Jamie Oliver

~1 quart chicken stock, preferably organic
1 Tbls. olive oil
2 medium onions, peeled and finely chopped
2 cloves of garlic, peeled and finely chopped
3 sticks of celery, trimmed and finely chopped
1 ¾ cups uncooked risotto rice
2 wine glasses of dry white wine
Sea salt
Freshly ground black pepper
4 oz. Appenzeller or Gruyere cheese, roughly chopped
4 oz. Taleggio cheese, roughly chopped
6 Tbls. butter
2 oz. Parmesan cheese, freshly grated

Three Cheese Risotto: Do a little prep

Gather your ingredients together. You want to prep everything ahead of time. Once you start the risotto, you won’t really be able to walk away from it.

Set two medium-sized pots on the stove. Pour the chicken broth into one. Set it over medium-high heat. You want to barely bring it up to a simmer, then drop the heat to low (so it’s still hot when you add it to the rice).

Meanwhile, prep the cheese and veggies. Cut the rind off the Gruyere and Taleggio and discard.

Chop them up roughly. Set the cheese aside in a bowl.

Chopped Gruyere (left) and Taleggio (right)

Peel the onion and chop it finely.

Trim the ends off the celery and cut it up the same way.

Peel the garlic and mince it up. Set the chopped veggies aside for a sec while you heat the oil.

Three Cheese Risotto: Sweat the veggies

Add the olive oil to your other pan. Set the pan over medium heat. Toss in the onion, celery, and garlic.

Stir to combine and coat with oil. Keep your heat on medium. You want them to start to turn translucent, not brown. Cook them like this, stirring occasionally, for about 5 minutes.

Three Cheese Risotto: Add the rice

When your onions are getting translucent, pour the rice into the pot.

Give the pot a stir to combine the rice and veggies. Raise the heat to medium-high.

Cook the rice like this, stirring constantly, until it starts to look translucent.

Three Cheese Risotto: Pour in the wine

Next, add the wine to the pot.

Stir to combine. If the pot feels like it’s too hot (i.e. the rice is sticking or sizzling a lot), turn the heat down a bit. You don’t want the rice to cook too quickly on the outside.

Cook, stirring constantly, until all the wine is absorbed.

Three Cheese Risotto: Add the stock one ladle at a time

Next, add the first ladle of stock.

Toss in a little salt.

Grind on a little black pepper.

Cook like this, stirring constantly, until all the stock has been absorbed.

Then add another ladle of stock.

Keep stirring, just like you did with the first ladle.

Repeat this process until you’ve used all the stock. As it cooks, the rice will plump up and turn more and more opaque.

When all your stock is used up, your risotto should be nice and creamy. Give it a taste. The rice should be totally cooked, but still have the slightest amount of bite to it.

You want to be able to draw a spoon across the bottom of the pot like this:

Take the pot off the heat and get ready to finish the risotto up.

Three Cheese Risotto: Finish the risotto

This is the fun part. Add the chopped Gruyere and Taleggio to the pot.

Stir well to combine and start melting the cheese.

Toss in the butter and Parmesan.

Stir well to combine. Cover the pot for a few minutes to let the cheese finish melting. When you uncover it, give it a stir. It should look about like this:

Three Cheese Risotto: Serve and enjoy!

When your risotto is done, heap it up in bowls.

In terms of consistency, it should be thick and creamy, but not so much that it’s rubbery or gluey.

Top with a little minced parsley if you like.

Serve and enjoy!

Three Cheese Risotto: How to reheat your risotto

Here’s the best way I’ve found to reheat risotto (assuming, that is, that you have leftovers).

To help maintain the nice, creamy texture that you worked so hard to create, reheat your risotto in an uncovered double boiler, stirring frequently. If it’s feeling a little dry, beat in a small nob of butter to loosen it up.

Cheers!

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It’s Friday the 13th and the day before Valentine’s Day. There’s a dizzying array of mouthwatering, chocolate-y recipes out there this week. So…let’s make something fun and crunchy.

Mouse discovers Cheez-It breading. Film at 11.

It didn’t happen exactly like this, but this is close enough.

“Hey, Mouse!”

“Yes?”

“I love Cheez-Its® and I love chicken fingers. How about combining them?”

I do believe I was speechless.

Now, I totally know breading fried food with Cheez-It crumbs won’t be a new idea for some folks.

But for me, I imagine that this is sort of what the Big Bang was like. You know, if the Big Bang happened in our kitchen, me with a family-sized box of baked snack crackers in hand. (Now that’s science, Mouse-House style.)

Shortly after that conversation, the questions started to arise. What if we used fishy crackers? Or those rosemary crackers I so dearly love? Oh, oh, or rice crackers! What about that?

(Tell me, tell me: What’s your favorite breading?)

But…one thing at a time. Cheez-Its first.

Deep-Fried Chicken Fingers with Crispy Cheez-It Crust: The basic technique

To get a good crust on your chicken fingers, follow this classic deep-frying method:

+Marinate chicken in buttermilk
+Dip chicken in flour, then in egg
+Coat with breading (in this case, Cheez-It crumbs)
+Drop into 350 degree F oil for a few minutes
+If your chicken fingers are really thick, finish in a 400 degree oven for 5-7 minutes

Deep-Fried Chicken Fingers with Crispy Cheez-It Crust: A quick note on ingredients

The measurements below are approximate. You may need a little more or less, depending the size of your chicken fingers and how much coating actually sticks to your chicken.

Deep-Fried Chicken Fingers with Crispy Cheez-It Crust

2 1/4 lbs. chicken tenders
1 cup buttermilk
2 cups flour
1 tsp. garlic powder
1 tsp. kosher salt
6-7 cups Cheez-It crackers, or other cheddar cheese cracker
4 eggs
canola oil

Serves 2-4 for dinner, or more as an appetizer

Deep-Fried Chicken Fingers with Crispy Cheez-It Crust: Marinate the chicken

Rinse your chicken and pat it dry.

Put it in a gallon-size zip-top bag. Pour in the buttermilk.

Seal the bag well and smoosh it around with your hands to coat the chicken. Refrigerate like this for at least a few hours or overnight.

Deep-Fried Chicken Fingers with Crispy Cheez-It Crust: Set up your breading station

Before you heat up your oil, get your ingredients all set up. You’ll wind up with three shallow bowls (one with flour, one with beaten egg, and one with cracker crumbs) that you’ll use to bread your chicken fingers.

Measure out the flour in a shallow bowl or pan. Add the garlic powder and kosher salt to it. (If you want to add any other spices to the crust, this is the place to do it.)

Mix together with a fork or whisk to combine well.

Set the flour aside.

Next, crack your eggs into a shallow bowl.

With a fork or whisk, beat them until light and fluffy.

Set the beaten egg aside.

Put the crackers in a zip-top bag and smash them to bits with a rolling pin.

Break them into fairly small crumbs, like this:

Pour them out into a shallow dish. I used an 8×8 glass baking pan.

Set the cracker crumbs aside. By now, you should have 3 bowls on your counter:

Deep-Fried Chicken Fingers with Crispy Cheez-It Crust: Bread the chicken

Line a sheet pan with parchment paper or foil and set it aside.

Line your bowls up. Here’s the plan: You’re going to dip first in flour, then in egg, then in cracker crumbs, then put the breaded chicken on your prepared pan.

When you’re ready to start, grab your chicken out of the fridge.

Take a piece of buttermilk-coated chicken out of the bag. Don’t wipe the buttermilk off. Drop it right into the seasoned flour.

Turn it over in the flour until it’s completely coated.

Pick the chicken up, and shake it gently over the flour bowl to knock off any excess.

Now drop the floured chicken into the beaten egg.

Turn it over a few times to coat completely in the beaten egg.

Next, drop the chicken into the cracker crumbs. Turn it over a few times to coat completely.

When your chicken is coated in cracker crumbs, set it on your prepared pan.

Repeat with the rest of the chicken until each piece is breaded and on your pan.

When all the chicken is breaded, leave it on the pan so the coating has a chance to set up a little. In the meantime, heat up the oil.

Deep-Fried Chicken Fingers with Crispy Cheez-It Crust: Deep-fry the chicken

Preheat your oven to 400 degrees. Your chicken might cook completely in the oil. But if your chicken fingers are really large, chances are you’ll need to finish them in the oven for a few minutes.

Line another sheet pan with parchment paper or foil.

Pour about 3 inches of oil into a deep, heavy-bottomed pot. How much oil you need will depend on the size of your pot.

Set your pot on the stove.

If you want to, clip a candy or deep-frying thermometer onto the inside of the pot. (Be sure it doesn’t touch the bottom.) Turn the heat on high. Wait for the oil to reach 350 degrees F. When you fry food at the proper temperature, it actually doesn’t absorb a lot of oil.

I’ve done this a bunch, so I usually don’t use a thermometer. I go more by eye. When I think it’s hot enough, I dip a piece of chicken into the oil. If vigorous bubbles immediately start to form around the chicken, it’s hot enough to fry:

When the oil is hot enough, carefully drop a few pieces of chicken into the oil. Fry in batches like this, so you don’t crowd the pan (and cause the temperature of the oil to drop dramatically, resulting in massive grease absorbtion).

Fry the chicken for a few minutes, give or take, until it develops a handsome brown crust, like this:

When the crust is nice and brown, remove the chicken from the oil and transfer to your prepared pan.

Repeat this process until you’ve fried all your chicken. Turn the stove off and leave your oil there until its cool enough to dispose of (or strain and save).

Cut into one of your chicken fingers and see if it’s cooked through. If your chicken was really thin, it will likely be done. If your pieces were plumper, like mine, they’ll likely still be a little raw in the middle.

If that’s the case, pop the pan into your preheated oven for 5-7 minutes to finish cooking.

When they’re hot out of the oven, sprinkle with kosher salt to taste.

Deep-Fried Chicken Fingers with Crispy Cheez-It Crust: Serve and enjoy!

Cheers!

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Fried ravioli! These are so yummy, it’s almost ridiculous. They’re oh-so-crispy on the outside, and oozing with creamy, molten cheese on the inside.

Start with fresh ravioli. (Frozen will work, too. Just thaw them completely in the fridge first.) For this recipe, I used a four-cheese ravioli made locally.

Use any quality ravioli that you like. Nowadays, you can find all sorts of creatively filled ravioli at most markets, so you’ve got a lot of possibilities. (And, of course, you can also make your own. More on this to come soon.)

For an uber-decadent version of this appetizer, take it completely over-the-top and use lobster ravioli.

Dipping sauces for Deep-Fried Ravioli

Now, your sauce will depend, of course, on the type of ravioli you’re using. Here are 4 ideas:

+Four-cheese ravioli with fresh marinara sauce
+Spinach and cheese ravioli with ranch dressing
+Lobster ravioli with homemade aioli
+If you can find a sweet, ricotta filled ravioli, serve them with melted chocolate laced with a spoonful of raspberry jam

Deep-Fried Ravioli: A note on technique and ingredients

Like my Garlic and Spinach Parmesan Rice, this is more technique than exact recipe.

I like to use olive oil here, but that can get expensive. Canola or peanut oil would work as well.

If it needs to be said, hot oil is nasty, nasty stuff. Be careful, and keep pets and children (etc.) away from the pot.

Deep-Fried Ravioli

Fresh ravioli
Olive oil
Kosher salt
Fresh parsley, minced (for garnish)

Heat the deep-frying oil

Line a plate or sheet pan with a few paper towels. Set aside.

Set a large, heavy-bottomed pot on the stove. Fill it with 2 1/2 – 3 inches of oil. Turn the heat on high.

Deep-Fried Ravioli: Prep your ingredients

While the oil is heating, unwrap your ravioli. Sort through them quickly, and pull any apart that might be stuck together.

Pick out any ravioli that look suspect. (Ravioli that aren’t completely sealed will basically explode open when they hit the hot oil.) Set those aside or toss them.

Chop the parsley and set it aside.

How do I know when the oil is hot enough to deep fry?

Good question.

You can use a candy thermometer to check the temperature of the oil. Shoot for about 350 degrees. That’s hot enough to ensure that the ravioli cook through without absorbing a lot of oil, but not so hot that they’ll burn.

Or, you can do what I do: Just do a quick visual check. Give a ravioli a quick dip in the oil and see if it starts bubbling rapidly.

With your hand or a slotted spoon, dip a ravioli partially into the hot oil. If bubbles quickly form around it (i.e. the ravioli starts to fry), your oil is hot enough. If you don’t see any bubbles, remove the ravioli and test again in a few minutes.

When the oil is ready, it will look about like this:

Warning: If you do this the way I did, be very, very careful. Oil burns are nasty. If you’re not comfortable or familiar with frying, definitely dunk your ravioli using a slotted spoon.

How to fry the ravioli

The whole cooking process is very, very fast. Don’t fry your ravioli til you can give it your undivided attention.

When the oil’s hot enough, add your ravioli to the pot. Do this in batches. When you put them in, the oil should immediately bubble up around them, like this:

After a minute or so, they should start to float up to the surface.

Stir the ravioli around, turning them over, with a slotted spoon or skimmer.

How do I know when the fried ravioli are cooked?

Ravioli are bitty things, so they’re not going to take long to fry.

When they’re puffy and golden brown, yank them out of the oil with a slotted spoon or skimmer. Let them drain for a minute over the pot, then transfer them to your paper towel-lined plate or sheet pan to drain.

If your oil was hot enough and you didn’t crowd the pot, they really shouldn’t be greasy at all.

Sprinkle with kosher salt to taste.

Repeat this process until you’ve used up all the ravioli. When each batch comes out of the oil, sprinkle it with kosher salt (to taste) while it’s still hot. This helps the salt stick. (If you’re frying a large batch, keep them warm in a 200-degree oven ’til they’re all fried.)

Sprinkle the heap with chopped parsley.

Serve and enjoy!

Here are some of the best discounts and sales I’ve found this week.

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Copyright 2008-2009 The Hungry Mouse™/Jessica B. Konopa. All rights reserved.

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