I Love it When a Plan Comes Together

Another pizza triumph this week! I usually try not to be hyperdialated to the toppings on a pizza. They should be tasty and high quality, of course, but anyone can come up with ideas for toppings. The difficult part is the crust technique. I finally found a dough recipe that I'm happy with in terms of both ease of preparation and quality of finished product. Today S and I put that basic crust to work and tried a classic topping that was new to us.

We live near a waterfront with a fish and seafood market. We decided to pick up a dozen fresh clams and use them for tonight's topping, along with minced shallots, garlic, oregano, and olive oil. We put the raw clams on the raw dough and slid it in the oven. It took about ten minutes for the clams to open up and the dough to get nice and crispy. I was fearful that the liquor from the clams would make the dough soggy, but the bottom got nice and crispy (the top was a bit damp, but not enough to damage the final product). If that weren't enough to make a perfect evening, the weather cooled to about 70 degrees and we ate our pizza on the balcony. We felt just like we were having dinner in Positano!

This has made us resolve to visit the fish market more often this summer. They always have great fish, it is a beautiful 15 or 20 minute walk past a marina, and it feels very good to pick up fresh food for dinner every night. I think S and I will have a lot more salmon, snapper, calamari, and shrimp in our diet this summer.