GARBAGE SALAD
Serves 6
This is another take on one of my favorite meals: pizza and salad (see here). It’s also a deconstructed twist on two Chicago classics: pizza and trash. I imagined the remnants of a discarded meal scattered across a playground or park. My garbage salad is strewn with bits of edible packing peanuts, edible plastic, and pizza crusts. The salad comes in the form of an iceberg lettuce puree. A syrupy balsamic reduction is delivered in the paw prints that sneak across the plate. Splatters of herbed tomato sauce and scoops of fresh ricotta complement the sharpness of the balsamic vinegar and can all be scooped up with bits of discarded pizza crust. It’s a story on a plate, a little bit of drama during your meal.
Note: Conventional biodegradable packing peanuts are made with cornstarch and are digestible. However, they are not manufactured in food-safe conditions and have no nutritional value.
PIZZA CRUST:
225 grams lukewarm water
5 grams honey
2.5 grams active dry yeast
400 grams all-purpose flour
10 grams extra virgin olive oil, plus more for the bowl
3.5 grams salt
TOMATO SAUCE:
10 grams extra virgin olive oil
25 grams onion, diced
8 grams garlic, minced
200 grams tomatoes, quartered
0.5 gram dried oregano
0.5 gram dried thyme
0.5 gram dried parsley
1.5 grams salt
LETTUCE PUREE:
350 grams iceberg lettuce leaves
100 grams ice water
2 grams salt
1 gram xanthan gum (see Sources, here)
RICOTTA CHEESE:
1000 grams whole milk
140 grams heavy cream
5 grams salt
35 grams white vinegar
BALSAMIC REDUCTION:
200 grams balsamic vinegar
PACKING PEANUTS:
3 grams onion powder
2 grams garlic powder
2 grams freeze-dried shallots (see Sources, here)
2 grams buttermilk powder
1 gram ground black pepper
12 biodegradable packing peanuts
20 grams olive oil
TO FINISH:
Edible film (see Sources, here)
SPECIAL EQUIPMENT:
Paw print stamp or eyedropper
PIZZA CRUST:
Put the water, honey, and yeast in a large measuring cup and stir to blend. Let the yeast mixture sit at room temperature for 3 minutes to bloom. Mix the flour, oil, and salt on low speed in a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment. Add the liquid ingredients to the mixer, increase the speed slightly, and let it mix for 10 minutes, until the mixture comes together as a firm dough. Grease a medium bowl with olive oil. Remove the dough from the mixer, knead it briefly on a floured countertop until it is smooth, and then put the dough in the prepared mixing bowl. Cover the top of the bowl with plastic wrap and refrigerate overnight. The dough should double in size.
The next day, lightly flour your countertop and divide the dough into 6 small balls. Rub each ball between your palms in a back-and-forth motion to form a long “snake” about 10 inches long and 1 inch wide. Put the dough logs on a sheet pan, cover lightly with plastic wrap, and let them proof for 30 minutes at room temperature, until the dough has risen slightly and looks puffy.
Preheat the oven to 400°F.
Bake the pizza dough logs for 10 minutes, until golden brown and cooked through. Remove from the oven and cool to room temperature. Use a scalloped ring cutter to cut away “bite marks” on one side of the baked dough, so that each piece resembles a leftover pizza crust. Keep warm until ready to plate.
TOMATO SAUCE:
Put the olive oil in a medium saucepot set over medium heat. Add the onion and garlic and cook, stirring frequently, for 3 minutes, until the vegetables are softened and aromatic. Add the tomatoes, stir, and bring the mixture to a boil. Reduce the heat to maintain a simmer and cook for 30 minutes, stirring occasionally. Stir in the dried oregano, thyme, and parsley and cook for 10 minutes more. Transfer the cooked tomato mixture to a blender and puree for 1 minute, until smooth. Season with the salt. Keep the sauce warm in a pot until ready to plate.
LETTUCE PUREE:
Set a large saucepot filled with salted water over high heat and bring to a boil. Prepare an ice bath. Blanch the iceberg lettuce leaves in the boiling water for 30 seconds and immediately transfer them to the ice bath. Once the lettuce leaves are cool, drain them and transfer to a blender. Add the ice water, salt, and xanthan gum and puree on high for 1 minute, until smooth. Strain through a fine-mesh sieve and store in a covered container in the refrigerator until ready to serve, up to 4 hours.
RICOTTA CHEESE:
Put the milk, cream, and salt in a large saucepot set over medium heat and bring to 180°F. Remove from the heat and whisk in the vinegar. Pour the mixture into a large bowl, cover with plastic wrap, and let it sit at room temperature for 2 hours. Line a strainer with damp cheesecloth and strain the curds from the whey. Transfer the ricotta cheese curds to a covered container and refrigerate until ready to serve, up to 5 days.
BALSAMIC REDUCTION:
Put the vinegar in a small saucepot set over medium heat. Bring it to a simmer and reduce the heat to low. Let it reduce down to a syrupy consistency, about 30 minutes. Transfer to a small bowl and keep at room temperature until ready to serve.
PACKING PEANUTS:
Put the onion powder, garlic powder, freeze-dried shallots, buttermilk powder, and black pepper in a spice grinder and grind to a fine powder. Put the edible packing peanuts in a bowl with the olive oil and toss to coat them thoroughly with the oil. Add the spice blend and toss to coat the peanuts with the seasoning.
TO FINISH:
Spoon two 20-gram pools of Tomato Sauce on each plate and then slap the back of the spoon into each pool to splatter the sauce. Repeat the same process with the Lettuce Puree. Put three 15-gram spoonfuls of Ricotta Cheese in small piles around each plate. Cut each Pizza Crust into 3-inch segments and put 2 or 3 pieces of crust on each plate. Dip the paw print stamp in the Balsamic Reduction and stamp 5 to 7 paw prints around the plate, or use an eyedropper to drip prints onto the plate. Add 2 seasoned Packing Peanuts and 3 small pieces of crumpled edible film to the plate to resemble garbage. Serve immediately.
