Recipe Archives - Page 3 of 3

December 26, 2019December 24, 2025

Salmon Souffle

Salmon Souffle

There are few things as elegant, or as easy to make, as a souffle. My stepdaughter and her partner dropped by for Christmas, and he mentioned that, even though he is 45, he had never had a savory souffle, much less made one. I assured him it was really simple, so I whipped up one with salmon.

I first learned to make souffles from The New York Times Cookbook by Craig Claiborne, and that was the starting place for this one.

3 Tbl butter
3 Tbl flour
4 oz. sliced mushrooms
1 C milk or half and half
4 eggs, separated
Salt and dry mustard to taste
2 Tbl teriyaki sauce
14 oz. can salmon

Preheat oven to 375 deg. F.

1. Melt the butter in a saucepan and saute the mushrooms until lightly browned.
3. Stir in the flour and blend with a wire whisk. Meanwhile, drain the salmon into a 1 cup measure. Add enough milk to come to 1 cup. Bring the milk to a boil, and add all at once to the butter-flour mixture (aka a roux), stirring with the whisk until thickened and smooth. Let cool.
3. Beat in, one at at time, the four egg yolks. Season with salt, mustard, and teriyaki sauce.
4. Flake the salmon, and blend well into the white sauce and egg mixture.
5. Using a rotary beater or an electric mixer, beat the egg whites until they stand in peaks. Do not over beat. Fold the whites gently into the salmon mixture with a rubber spatula or wooden spoon, being careful not to overblend.
6. Pour into a 1-1/2 quart souffle dish, which may be greased or ungreased. Place in oven and bake thirty to forty minutes. Serve with Hollandaise sauce.

I paired this salmon souffle with Clos Pegase Pinot Noir Mitsuko’s Vineyard 2016. This wine pours a jewel-like ruby red into the glass. The nose greets you with aromas of vanilla and ripe red cherries. Those cherries come forward on the palate, along with hints of cinnamon and clove. There is harmonious balance between the oak, acid, and tannins. It’s all rounded out by a nice medium finish.

www.clospegase.com/

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November 17, 2019December 24, 2025

Deep Dish Sausage Pizza

Deep Dish Sausage Pizza

It’s pizza night, and that means homemade deep dish. Sorry deep dish haters, but that’s the way I roll.

Start about four hours before you plan to eat.

This California-style dough is from James McNair’s excellent New Pizza.

1 cup water at 110 degrees F
2-1/4 tsp instant rise yeast
3-1/4 cup all purpose or bread flour
1 tsp salt
1/4 cup olive oil
Optional: 2 tsp garlic powder and/or 1 Tbl Italian seasoning

Mix the olive oil into the flour, then add the remaining ingredients. Then knead by hand, stand mixer, food processor, or bread machine. Time and technique will vary, so I’ll leave that up to you. Lightly coat the dough with spray oil, cover with plastic wrap, and let rise until doubled.

1 Tbs olive oil
1 lb. hot and/or mild Italian sausage
2 cans of anchovies (trust me on this)
1 large onion, chopped
1 large red bell pepper, chopped
1 poblano pepper, chopped
2 cups marinara or pizza sauce, homemade or store bought
1/2 cup green and/or black olives
6 oz. tomato paste
Optional: 8 oz. mushrooms, chopped
3 to 4 tsp Worchestershire sauce
1 Tbs dried oregano
3/4 cup chopped fresh basil
10 – 12 oz. mozzarella or (even better) fontina, coarsely grated
salt and pepper to taste

In a large saucepan, add the tablespoon of olive oil and saute the sausage. When lightly browned, transfer to a bowl. Add the anchovies with their oil to the saucepan. Once the oil has reheated, add all of the vegetables and cook until tender, five to eight minutes. Add the cooked sausage, 2 cups of sauce, tomato paste, oregano, and Worchestershire sauce. Bring to a gentle boil, reduce heat as low as you can, and simmer uncovered for at least an hour, stirring occasionally.

About an hour and a half before you want to eat, heat oven to 450 degrees F. Thirty minutes after starting the oven, punch down the dough and add to the pan. I used a 12″ deep dish pan, but this would also work with two 9″ cake pans or a 16″ pizza screen. (For the deep dish, I like to fold the crust in and over for the last step after the filling has been added.) Brush the dough with olive oil and set aside. It will rise some more, intentionally.

After an hour of preheating the oven, cover the dough with the sauce (it should be off the heat for at least 15 minutes prior), the basil, and the cheese, in that order. Bake a flat pie for about 15 minutes, but check the crust for browning after 10. Bake the deep dish for 30 minutes, assess, and go another 10 minutes if necessary. Remove pizza from oven, rest for five minutes on a wire rack, and serve. Will serve six to eight.

I paired up this hearty pie with a 2018 La Fea Selección Especial Tinto Rojo. This is a fresh and bright blend of 40% Tempranillo, 40% Garnacha, and 20% Syrah from northeast Spain’s Cariñena region. It is named after the unfortunate nickname whispered behind the back of Queen Isabela; La Fea translates as “the ugly one.” But it pours a lovely dark cherry hue in the glass. There is a lively nose of dark fruit, with aromas of raspberry, black cherry, and violet on the palate.

If you make this pizza, let me know how it went in the comments section.

Back to blog posts: winervana.com/blog/

November 11, 2019December 13, 2025

Pepperoni, Sausage, and Mushroom Pizza

Pepperoni, Sausage, and Mushroom Pizza

The DOUGH

Start dough at 4pm for dinner between 8pm and 9pm
1 cup warm water
2 tsp instant-rise yeast
3-1/4 C bread flour
1 tsp salt
1/4 cup olive oil (EV not necessary)
2 to 3 tbs dried oregano or Italian herb
mix (optional)
Combine ingredients and knead by hand for 10 minutes or machine
for 5 minutes. Coat dough ball in a thin film of olive oil, cover in plastic wrap and let rise in warm place.

The SAUCE

28 oz. can tomato puree
1 tbs dried parsley or 3/4 cup of fresh
1 tbs dried basil or 3/4 cup of fresh
1 tsp dried oregano
1 tsp dried thyme
1 tsp dried marjoram (optional)
1/4 – 1/2 tsp ground black pepper
1/4 cup olive oil
10 cloves minced fresh garlic, lightly sauteed in the olive oil above
1/4 cup red wine vinegar
1-/1/2 tsp salt
Simmer all ingredients on low in a large pot for 30 minutes.

THE PIZZA

About an hour before service, turn the oven up as high as it will go.
Twenty to thirty minutes before service, roll dough out to 16” circle. [Or divide dough if you want to make two smaller pizzas.] Place on pizza screen if available, being careful not to press the dough into the mesh.

Half of large white onion, minced
As many garlic cloves as you like, minced
8 oz. fresh mushrooms, sliced
12 oz. Italian sausage, hot or mild
4 – 6 oz. pepperoni, casing removed, sliced thin
1 bell pepper, green (more authentic) or red (more flavorful), diced
1 can sliced pitted black olives, or 3/4 cup brined black olives, like kalamata, if you want to kick it up a notch.
1/2 to 1 lb grated mozzarella or, even better, fontina

Add 2 tbs olive oil to large skillet. Over medium heat, saute onion, garlic, and pepper until softened, about 5 minutes. Transfer to a bowl, leaving as much oil in pan as possible. Add sausage and saute until browned, breaking up into coarse chunks.

Brush dough with olive oil. Cover evenly about 1″ from the edge with all ingredients except mushrooms and cheese. Ladle on enough sauce to generously cover. Distribute mushrooms on top of sauce, and finish with cheese.

Bake in oven until crust nicely browns, about 10 minutes.

Serves 4 to 6.

The dough for this recipe was derived from James McNair’s excellent New Pizza. Don’t be discouraged by the one-star reviews on Amazon, they are bogus, imho. One dweeb complained that McNair didn’t cover such arcane techniques as cold fermentation. Geez. If you want a cold ferment, use room temperature water and let the dough rise in the refrigerator for 24 hours. But, you’re not going to have pizza tonight, and you won’t taste the subtleties a cold ferment brings to dough under all those toppings anyway.

Back to blog posts: winervana.com/blog/