That's What Bob's Cooking: Pizza Rustica

Wednesday, May 28, 2014

Pizza Rustica

Sometimes in life you come across a recipe that you enjoy so much, you make over and over again, this ones mine.

Updated with new pictures!

Years ago I worked at a well-known Italian Restaurant in Portland, well, it was actually a landmark. Sylvia’s Italian Restaurant has long since closed, after being in business since 1957, Sylvia Passed away in 1992, leaving the restaurant to her daughters, who later sold the property to neighboring restaurant The Rhinelander.

I joined the Sylvia’s team in 1987, and left in 1989. During that time, I worked in the Dinner Theatre kitchen and occasionally the main kitchen, and learned a lot about the restaurant industry. I also learned so much about Italian cooking, and how to pronounce Italian food words, or else Sylvia would have you repeating them, like you were writing lines on a chalkboard. While I was only employed there a relative short time, there was so much about that job that impacted my life to this day. Previously I posted a recipe for Rosemary Chicken. Check it out if you haven’t already.

For one of the Food Festivals Portland had, that Sylvia’s participated in, we made a quick rustic pizza, Sylvia referred to as Pizza Rustica.

Now, sometimes I make pizza crust, but usually I take a short cut and use a premade dough. When I have time, I do Sylvia proud, and make a homemade crust. You can also use a Focaccia bread as well.

Now let’s talk about cheese…..use what you like, but I HIGHLY recommend a great Asiago. Parmeggiano Reggiano is the standard of parmesan cheeses, but Asiago has such a brilliant forward flavor, that makes this pizza what it is. For my pizza I use a Rosemary and Olive Oil rubbed Asiago, from Sartori Creamery.

Pizza Rustica

1 Premade Pizza Crust
2-3 Tomatoes, diced
¾ lb of Asiago, shredded
6 (or so) Garlic, chopped (go heavy on this!!!)
Oregano
Salt and Pepper, to taste
Olive Oil

Preheat the oven to 400°F.

Roll pizza crust on to pizza pan. Press finger tips into dough to create divots. Sprinkle the chopped garlic evenly over the crust and drizzle olive oil over crust. With your hands (Yes, get your hands dirty, they are your best kitchen tool!) rub in the garlic and oil.

Bake for about 5 minutes, or until the crust in solid, but NOT golden (par-baked). Remove from the oven.

Sprinkle diced tomatoes on top of the par-baked crust.

Next sprinkle the salt, pepper and oregano.

Lastly completely cover with the Asiago cheese.

Bake for about 15-20 minutes, until the cheese has melted.

Cut pizza however you choose, we like it in squares, how Sylvia would have cut it herself!

Funny side note, Sylvia's came to one of my cooking classes in high school (which is where I was offered the job she had open!), and during her speech she talked about how she found out what customers wanted, and how she would change to adapt so that customer could get what they were asking for.

In the late 60's, I think it was, a customer came into her pizza shop and asked her for a Hawaiian Pizza. Her first though was "what the hell was that?" She asked the customer what was on a Hawaiian Pizza, and they explained the ingredients and told them that it would be ready shortly. She ran in back and headed to the local store to get the Canadian bacon and pineapple, all the while thinking how horrible this pizza would be. She made the pizza and a small one for her and her staff to try, and she admittedly hated it, yet continued to offer it to her customers, whenever they asked for it.

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Pizza Rustica

1 Premade Pizza Crust

2-3 Tomatoes, diced

¾ lb of Asiago, shredded

6 (or so) Garlic, chopped (go heavy on this!!!)

Oregano

Salt and Pepper, to taste

Olive Oil

Preheat the oven to 400°F.

Bake for about 5 minutes, or until the crust in solid, but NOT golden (par-baked). Remove from the oven.

Sprinkle diced tomatoes on top of the par-baked crust. Next sprinkle the salt, pepper and oregano. Lastly completely cover with the Asiago cheese.

Bake for about 15-20 minutes, until the cheese has melted.

Cut pizza however you choose, we like it in squares, how Sylvia herself cut it!

1 comment:

UnknownMay 28, 2014 at 10:20 PM
Beautiful! I remember you making that there.. Just simple lusciousness! Any line on that amaretto cheese cake she had. Always always disappointed with cheesecake since then!!
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My Complete Profile

I was born and raised on the East side of Portland Oregon, by two native and second generation, Oregonians, my Mom and Dad (Jack and Joan). Oregon, and the Northwest are deep in my blood. That being said, I have always had an interest in cooking. I would love to add a warm loving story here about how my Mom nurtured my love of cooking by setting me up on or near the counter top to help with whatever she was cooking. Well, that's not exactly the case.

Being a child of the 70's and 80's, I had a great exposure to classic foods like Spam, Tang, Rice-a-Roni and Hamburger Helper. While many of these premade, sodium roller coaster, treats where regulars on our table, my Mom would have to hold the title as "casserole queen". Casseroles are her favorite and her specialty. Whereas, my Dad was more of a spur of the moment kind of cook. His creations included many of the items from our makeshift pantry. Sometimes, i think he was thinking, "the more ingredients, the better it'll be!". I think my first attempt at cooking would have to have been making cookies, either peanut butter (with the criss-cross fork tine print on top), or chocolate chip cookies. Over the years I have made so many of both of these recipes, I have surely lost count.

During middle school, my Mom encouraged me to take Home Economics, thinking that all kids, boy or girl, should know how to cook out in this world. This sparked a growing interest in cooking. So when I entered my junior year of High School, at David Douglas, I enrolled in the culinary arts program, we called it Food Services I. This was a class that had been offered many years before, where the students ran a restaurant, The Kilt, during the lunch periods. Unfortunately, since the class had not been offered in several years, so we didn’t have enough students to open the restaurant, that year. Within the first few weeks of this class, my instructor asked if I'd like to be involved in an outside "club" (kind of like a version of Eagle Scouts) that was mentored by local business owners. It sounded interesting so I joined (not to mention it got me out of the first 2 periods of the day).

At our first meeting I was approached by Sylvia Poesdel, the owner of the Portland landmark restaurant, Sylvia's Italian Restaurant & Dinner Theatre. She asked me if I would be interested in an afterschool job, coming to work for her to learn the cooking/chef trade on the job. I jumped at the chance and started in October of 1985. During my senior year I rejoined the culinary arts program (Food Services II) and this year we were able to reopened the restaurant, which the rest of the students voted me to manage. I just absolutely loved it! I worked at Sylvia's until after I graduated, in 1989. I learned a lot about the restaurant industry, and I would have to say it would be one of just a few life altering jobs I have had throughout my career.

After high school, while I was working at Sylvia's, I applied to culinary arts school. The Two things kept me from continuing my career in culinary arts, were financial and having worked out in the field, I saw so many negative attributes to being a chef, I decided that since I love to cook, I wanted it to be a hobby, and not a drag to go work each day.

When I left Sylvia's, I worked at a hotel, then Safeway. From there I joined Fred Meyer in the Service Deli, and was quickly promoted to a manager. During the next 8 years, I worked throughout the Portland and Southern Oregon areas. In 1998, I earned a promotion to the regional specialist position (District Manager) in Seattle. During this career move, I learned so much about the Food Service industry. I was charged to develop a new service salad case program, as well as work on a new catering program. I had the opportunity to work with manufacturers to develop these new programs.

In 2000, I met the love of my life, Craig. I also, moved from the food service program to the grocery department as an assistant manager. In the capacity I learned to develop my management skills as well as managing inventory. By being the best in my category, I earned the position of manager, where I moved from store to store cleaning up and reorganizing as I went. I also was entrusted with training future Food managers for the region. At which point I was pursued by another company to run a store for them, and enter back into the restaurant industry. During these 3 years, I learned the Restaurant Supplier side of the business. While I enjoyed the time I spent in this opportunity, I yearned to go back to the Grocery industry, and spend more time with my first love, cooking, and writing about my adventures….in the kitchen!