Pizza with Asparagus, Spring Onions, Pancetta, and Ricotta
Soft Tacos with Chipotle-Braised Rabbit, Black Beans, and Pickled Cabbage
Grilled Summer Vegetable Sandwich with Romesco Sauce and Serrano Ham
Grilled Pizza with Summer Squash, Cherry Tomatoes, and Fresh Mozzarella
In late spring, when California asparagus are still available and the Cakebread garden is yielding the year’s first onions, Brian makes this delicate pizza bianca (a “white pizza,” or pizza without tomato sauce). The fresh-dug onions haven’t been cured yet, so they don’t have papery skins, and their flavor is mild. Many supermarkets sell “spring onions” that look like thick scallions with a bulbous root end. They would work in this recipe, as would leeks or even cured yellow onions, but uncured onions have the most delicate taste. Choose a fresh ricotta without pectin or other stabilizers. The Bellwether Farms ricotta from neighboring Sonoma County is our favorite.
MAKES FOUR 8-INCH PIZZAS
1½ tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
6 cups thinly sliced spring onions or yellow onions
Kosher salt
1 pound asparagus
1 pound whole-milk ricotta cheese
Freshly ground white pepper
Cornmeal or durum flour for dusting
4 tablespoons freshly grated Parmesan cheese
20 paper-thin slices (4 to 5 ounces) pancetta, in coiled rounds
Heat a large, wide-bottomed pot over medium heat. Add the olive oil, onions, and a large pinch of salt. Cook until the onions are soft, about 30 minutes, stirring occasionally and lowering the heat if needed to keep them from browning. Let cool.
Snap off the woody ends of the asparagus. Slice the trimmed spears on the diagonal about ¼ inch thick.
Bring a pot of salted water to a boil over high heat. Add the asparagus and cook until tender, 1 to 2 minutes. Drain and rinse with cold water to chill quickly. Pat dry.
Season the ricotta with salt and white pepper.
At least 45 minutes before baking, put a pizza stone on the bottom rack of the oven and preheat the oven to its highest setting (500°F to 550°F).
With lightly floured fingers, flatten a ball of pizza dough into a round on a lightly floured work surface. Pick up the round with both hands and, grasping the round by an edge, rotate the dough clockwise between your fingertips, always holding it by the edge. As you rotate the dough, stretch it into an 8-inch circle; the dough will also stretch and lengthen from its own weight. Alternatively, drape the flattened round over your lightly floured knuckles and rotate the dough, moving your knuckles slightly farther apart, until the round stretches into an 8-inch circle.
Place on a pizza peel lightly dusted with cornmeal or durum flour. Work quickly now to prevent sticking.
Using one-quarter of the onion mixture, spread it evenly over the surface of the dough. Scatter asparagus over the onions, using one-quarter of the total. Dollop one-quarter (4 ounces) of the ricotta on the pizza in 7 to 8 mounds. Sprinkle with 1 tablespoon Parmesan. Arrange 5 pancetta slices, still coiled in rounds, on top, spacing them evenly.
Slide the pizza onto the pizza stone and bake until the crust is brown and crisp, 8 to 10 minutes. Remove from the oven. Cut into slices and serve hot. Repeat with the remaining three balls of dough and the remaining topping.
Enjoy with Cakebread Cellars Sauvignon Blanc or another lean and refreshing white wine.
Just a Few Sheep
CINDY CALLAHAN, a former nurse, wanted just a few sheep to control the grasses around her rural Sonoma County home. But that purchase, in the mid-1980s, evolved into Bellwether Farms, an artisan producer of fresh and aged cheeses from cow’s and sheep’s milk.
Cindy’s son, Liam, now handles most of the cheesemaking, and at Cakebread Cellars, we use almost everything he makes. His aged cheeses—the cow’s milk Carmody and sheep’s milk San Andreas and peppercorn-studded Pepato—find their way onto our cheese boards. The Crescenza, a soft and supple cow’s milk square, melts into luscious puddles on pizza. Brian uses Bellwether Farms crème fraîche in creamy salad dressings with chopped garden herbs and stuffs mushroom caps with the dairy’s fromage blanc. Sometimes, for the late breakfast on the last day of the Workshop, Brian will spread toasts with Bellwether Farms fromage blanc, top them with sliced fresh figs, pop the toasts under the broiler, and then drizzle them with Marshall Farms honey.
Bellwether’s exquisite Old World–style basket ricotta—made with cow’s milk and, on a smaller scale, with sheep’s milk—always seduces chefs at the farmers’ market that opens the Workshop. Cindy stands behind the table, offering samples of made-that-morning ricotta drizzled with extra-virgin olive oil, and people can’t get enough. Cakebread resident chef Tom Sixsmith sometimes spoons the sheep’s milk ricotta on bruschetta and tops it with sautéed mushrooms for an hors d’oeuvre to complement our Chardonnay. And the company’s rich sheep’s milk yogurt is a winery staff favorite. We always have some in the kitchen refrigerator, just for us.
On the first morning of the Workshop, participants rise early to pick grapes before the temperature soars. These chefs may labor in hot kitchens every day, but on grape-harvest day, they learn what real work is like. By midday, they are famished. We keep lunch casual, knowing that a big dinner will follow. Typically, we serve Mexican food, like these soft tacos, with from-scratch tortillas prepared outdoors on a comal (Mexican griddle) by winery staffers Brenda Godinez and Virginia Barrera. Rubaiyat, a blend of red varieties, is perfect for the occasion. Note that the beans need to soak overnight.
SERVES 8
½ pound dried black beans
Kosher salt
4-pound fresh rabbit or chicken, cut into 8 pieces
Freshly ground black pepper
3 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
1 yellow onion, minced
2 cloves garlic, minced
1½ cups peeled, seeded, and diced tomatoes (fresh or canned)
½ cup Cakebread Cellars Sauvignon Blanc
2 canned chipotle chiles in adobo, seeded and minced
2 bay leaves
¼ head cabbage, cored and sliced very thinly
1 large carrot, coarsely grated
½ cup minced red onion
1 teaspoon sugar
2 tablespoons cider vinegar
3 tablespoons vegetable oil
1 serrano chile, halved lengthwise
16 corn tortillas, warmed
¼ cup chopped cilantro
Lime wedges for serving
In a large pot, soak the black beans overnight in water to cover by 2 inches. The next day, add more water as needed to cover the beans by 2 inches. Bring to a boil over high heat, then adjust the heat to maintain a gentle simmer and cook until the beans are tender, about 1 hour. Add 2 teaspoons salt and let cool in the liquid.
Preheat the oven to 350°F. Season the rabbit all over with salt and pepper. Heat a wide, deep ovenproof pot over high heat. Add the olive oil and sear the meat on all sides until lightly browned, about 5 minutes. Transfer the meat to a platter and set aside. Add the onion and sauté until soft, about 5 minutes. Add the garlic and sauté briefly to release its fragrance.
Add the tomatoes, wine, chipotle chiles, and bay leaves. Bring to a simmer and return the meat to the pot. Cover tightly and place in the middle of the oven. Cook until the rabbit is fork-tender, about 1½ hours, turning the pieces over halfway through. Remove the pot from the oven and let the meat cool to room temperature. Pull the meat from the bones and shred by hand. Return the meat to the pot and toss with the sauce. Taste for seasoning.
For the pickled cabbage: Toss the cabbage, carrot, and red onion with 1 teaspoon salt in a colander; let drain for about 20 minutes to wilt slightly. Squeeze the vegetables to remove excess moisture, then transfer to a bowl and toss with the sugar and vinegar.
Drain the beans, reserving the liquid. Heat the vegetable oil in a medium saucepan over medium heat. Add the serrano chile and sauté for about 1 minute to release its flavor. Set the chile aside if you prefer the beans relatively mild; leave it in if you prefer them spicy. Add the beans and 1 cup of the reserved cooking liquid. Bring to a simmer while mashing with a potato masher until the beans are nearly smooth. Simmer for about 5 minutes to blend the flavors, thinning with reserved bean liquid if needed and stirring to prevent scorching. If the beans are too thin, simmer until they are as thick as you like. Taste for salt and keep warm.
To serve, reheat the rabbit if necessary. Spread a large tablespoon of the refried beans on each tortilla. Top with a generous spoonful of the braised rabbit, some pickled cabbage, and chopped cilantro. Arrange the tacos on a platter or individual plates and accompany with lime wedges.
Enjoy with Cakebread Cellars Rubaiyat or another young and fruity red wine.
Rabbit Raised Right
CHEFS IN THE SAN FRANCISCO BAY AREA are fortunate to have a network of suppliers who practice sustainable agriculture and humane livestock production. These suppliers often know each other, so one will lead you to another. That’s how we found Mark Pasternak, who raises rabbits for meat on his Devil’s Gulch Ranch in Marin County. He and his wife, Miriam, a veterinarian, also grow wine grapes and raise other livestock, but they are building a reputation among local chefs for the quality of their rabbit. Even in the well-supplied Bay Area, fresh rabbit raised humanely can be hard to find.
At Devil’s Gulch Ranch, each rabbit has its own spacious cage and a diet free of hormones and antibiotics. The Pasternaks breed for quality meat, not just for fast growth. They use a wind turbine to produce some of the ranch power, host summer camps and after-school programs for kids, and work as volunteers in Haiti to develop a meat-rabbit industry there. We love supporting a business with these ambitions and ideals.
Workshop chefs typically separate the rabbit into parts: the loins, which are suited to roasting; and the fore legs and hind legs, which are better for braising. Canadian chef Jonathan Gushue made rabbit rillettes during the 2008 Workshop. Brian’s chipotle-braised rabbit, served in soft tacos or on crisp tostadas, shows this tender, lean meat at its best.
Grilled Summer Vegetable Sandwich with Romesco Sauce and Serrano Ham
Save this pressed sandwich for the height of summer, when you can get locally grown zucchini, eggplant, and tomatoes. After grilling the zucchini and eggplant, layer them on a roll slathered with romesco, the Spanish tomato and almond sauce. (Refrigerate any unused romesco and use it within a day or two on another sandwich or with grilled fish or shrimp.) The sandwich can be made hours ahead, so it’s a good choice for a backpack lunch or a picnic. Omit the ham to make it vegetarian. Piquillo peppers are small, slightly spicy roasted red peppers sold in jars at shops that specialize in Spanish or Mediterranean foods (see Ingredient Resources).
SERVES 4
ROMESCO SAUCE
1 dried ancho (pasilla) chile, stemmed and seeded
½ cup extra-virgin olive oil
1 slice dense, day-old Italian-style bread, about 6 by 3 inches and ¾ inch thick, crust removed
3 large cloves garlic, peeled
½ cup canned plum tomato (pulp only, no puree)
⅓ cup marcona almonds (see Notes in recipe for Kabocha Squash Panna Cotta)
1 tablespoon red wine vinegar
Kosher salt
1 globe eggplant (about 1¼ pounds)
1 small zucchini (about ¾ pound)
2 small cloves garlic
Kosher salt
½ cup extra-virgin olive oil
1 tablespoon chopped fresh thyme
Freshly ground black pepper
4 sandwich rolls, 5 to 6 inches long
Romesco sauce (recipe follows)
4 ounces (4 handfuls) arugula
8 thin slices Spanish serrano ham
8 piquillo peppers, slit opened and seeded, or 2 large red bell peppers, roasted, peeled, seeded, and sliced
For the romesco sauce: In a small bowl, cover the chile with hot water and let soak for 15 minutes to soften. Drain and tear into 3 or 4 pieces.
In a small skillet, warm the olive oil over medium heat. Add the bread and fry until golden-brown and crisp on both sides, about 30 seconds per side. Transfer with tongs to a plate and let cool. Reduce the heat to medium-low, add the garlic cloves, and fry until golden all over, about 1 minute. Transfer with tongs to the plate with the bread. Let the oil cool, then transfer it to a measuring cup with a pour spout.
In a food processor, combine the bread (breaking it into smaller pieces to fit), garlic, chile, tomato, almonds, and vinegar. Puree until smooth, scraping down the sides of the bowl once or twice. With the machine running, add the reserved olive oil in a slow, steady stream to emulsify, as if making mayonnaise. Transfer to a bowl and stir in salt to taste.
Prepare a hot charcoal fire or preheat a gas grill to high. Trim the ends of the eggplant, peel it, and slice crosswise ¼ to ⅓ inch thick. Trim the ends of the zucchini and slice lengthwise as thickly as the eggplant.
In a mortar, pound the garlic to a paste with a pinch of salt, or mince garlic and salt to a paste with a knife. Combine the garlic paste, olive oil, and thyme in a small bowl. Brush the eggplant and zucchini on both sides with the olive oil mixture and season with salt and pepper. Grill on both sides until lightly charred and soft, about 2 minutes per side for both vegetables. Let cool to room temperature.
Cut the sandwich rolls in half and pull out some of the soft interior crumb. Spread each side with 2 tablespoons romesco sauce. On each of the four bottom halves, make a layer of arugula, then 2 slices serrano ham, some of the grilled eggplant, piquillo peppers, and grilled zucchini. Top with the upper half of the roll. Press the sandwiches for 20 minutes between two plates or sheet pans with a couple of 2-pound weights on top. Cut in half on the diagonal and serve.
Enjoy with Cakebread Cellars Rubaiyat or other youthful, fruity red wine.
It takes a little more attention to grill a pizza than to bake one, but the smoky touch of the grill is appealing—the next best thing to baking in a wood-fired oven. When Brian teaches pizza classes at the winery in summer, he demonstrates the grilling technique because so few people have a wood oven at home. The trick is to start the pizza crust in a hot zone to set it, and then flip it and move it to a cooler zone to add the topping and finish cooking. This topping is vegetarian, but you could add some crumbled sausage or pancetta, if you like.
MAKES FOUR 8-INCH PIZZAS
2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
2 large cloves garlic, minced
Pinch of red chile flakes
1½ pounds ripe plum tomatoes, peeled, seeded, and diced
1 sprig fresh basil
Kosher salt
2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil, plus more for brushing the dough
1 pound summer squash, preferably green and yellow varieties, cut into ½-inch dice
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 tablespoon chopped flat-leaf parsley
1 tablespoon chopped fresh basil, plus a few more leaves for garnish
1 pint cherry tomatoes, halved
½ pound fresh whole-milk mozzarella, coarsely grated
4 tablespoons freshly grated Parmesan cheese
Freshly ground black pepper
For the tomato sauce: Heat the oil in a skillet over high heat. Add the garlic and chile flakes and sauté until fragrant, about 30 seconds. Add the tomatoes and basil. Season with salt and simmer briskly, stirring often, until the tomatoes collapse into a thick sauce, about 10 minutes. Remove the basil sprig and remove the sauce from the heat.
In a large skillet over high heat, warm the 2 tablespoons olive oil. Add the diced squash and a pinch of salt and sauté until slightly softened, about 2 minutes. Add the garlic, parsley, and basil and sauté until fragrant, 1 to 2 minutes. Spread the mixture on a baking sheet to cool.
Prepare a medium-hot charcoal fire, then move the coals to one half of the grill, arranging them in an evenly thick layer. Or preheat a gas grill, turning one burner to high and one to medium.
With lightly floured fingers on a lightly floured work surface, flatten one ball of pizza dough into a round. Pick up the round with both hands and, grasping the round by an edge, rotate the dough clockwise between your fingertips, always holding it by the edge. As you rotate the dough, stretch it into an 8-inch circle; the dough will also stretch and lengthen from its own weight. Alternatively, drape the flattened round over your lightly floured knuckles and rotate the dough, moving your knuckles slightly farther apart, until the round stretches into an 8-inch circle.
Set the stretched dough on the floured work surface. Brush the top with olive oil, then place the dough directly over the coals or on the hot side of the gas grill, oiled side down. Brush the new top side with olive oil. Cook until the underside is nicely marked by the grill and the dough is firm enough to move with tongs, about 1 minute. Give the dough a quarter turn and continue cooking for about 1 minute longer, using tongs to check the bottom often to be sure it is not burning.
With tongs, flip the pizza over onto the grill’s cooler zone. Working quickly, brush with one-quarter of the tomato sauce, spreading it evenly but leaving a ½-inch border uncovered. Top with one-quarter of the squash, cherry tomatoes, and mozzarella, in that order. Sprinkle with 1 tablespoon Parmesan and a few grinds of pepper. Cover the grill and cook until the mozzarella melts, about 2 minutes.
Transfer the pizza to a cutting board. Sprinkle with a few torn basil leaves. Cut into wedges and serve immediately. Repeat with the remaining 3 balls of dough.
Enjoy with Cakebread Cellars Sauvignon Blanc or another refreshing white wine.
Flawless Fungus
THE IMPECCABLE FUNGI from Gourmet Mushrooms enhance Cakebread Cellars menus year round. Unlike wild mushrooms, which emerge only when conditions are right and can be weather-beaten by the time foragers find them, Gourmet Mushrooms arrive at the winery in pristine condition. They mature in a sawdust-based medium in a controlled environment, a setting that challenges any conventional notion of farming. Entering a room lined with shelves of fungi sprouting from bottles feels like a scene out of science fiction. When we take Workshop chefs to visit the production facility in Sonoma County, they are captivated by this convergence of science and nature.
When Malcolm Clark founded Gourmet Mushrooms in 1977, fresh shiitake were exotic. The company was the first in the Western Hemisphere to grow them commercially. Now they have abandoned shiitake—they are far too common—in favor of a half-dozen more unusual types, like maitake (hen-of-the-woods) and Alba Clamshell (known in Japan as hon-shimeji or buna-shimeji).
Gourmet Mushrooms has participated in the Workshop every year since the beginning, and we have enjoyed watching the company’s product line grow. Brian particularly likes the Trumpet Royale, a large, thick-stemmed, meaty mushroom that he often roasts in our wood-burning oven. But many Workshop chefs like to mix varieties to showcase the contrasting colors and textures, as chef George Brown did in his Roasted Mushroom and Bacon Salad.
Pizza with Cremini Mushrooms, New Potatoes, and Crescenza Cheese
Brian spreads a roasted-garlic paste on the dough under the mushrooms and potatoes, which gives this pizza an irresistible fragrance. If you have access to wild mushrooms, by all means use them. Bellwether Farms Crescenza cheese is a soft, supple, young cow’s milk cheese that melts well; mozzarella is stretchier, but a good substitute.
MAKES FOUR 8-INCH PIZZAS
1 whole head garlic
5 tablespoons plus 1 teaspoon extra-virgin olive oil, plus more for brushing
4 small fingerling potatoes, very thinly sliced (no need to peel)
1 pound cremini (common brown) mushrooms, ends trimmed, sliced
2 cloves garlic, minced
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
Cornmeal or durum flour for dusting
½ pound Bellwether Farms Crescenza cheese or fresh whole-milk mozzarella
4 tablespoons freshly grated Parmesan cheese
4 small handfuls arugula
Preheat the oven to 400°F. Slice about ¼ inch off the stem end (opposite the root end) of the garlic head to expose the individual cloves. Put the whole garlic head, root end down, on a sheet of aluminum foil and drizzle with 1 teaspoon olive oil. Seal the foil package and place in the oven until the cloves are soft, 45 to 50 minutes. (You will have to open the package to check.) Let cool. Squeeze the softened garlic cloves out of the papery skins and mash with 2 tablespoons olive oil into a paste.
Bring a small pot of salted water to a boil over high heat. Add the potatoes and cook until just tender, about 3 minutes. Drain.
Heat a large skillet over high heat. Add the remaining 3 tablespoons olive oil. When the oil is hot, add the mushrooms and sauté until well browned, about 5 minutes. Add the minced garlic and season with salt and pepper. Cook, stirring, for 1 to 2 minutes longer to release the garlic fragrance.
At least 45 minutes before baking, put a pizza stone on a rack in the bottom third of the oven and preheat the oven to its highest setting (500°F to 550°F).
With lightly floured fingers on a lightly floured work surface, flatten a ball of pizza dough into a round. Pick up the round with both hands and, grasping the round by an edge, rotate the dough clockwise between your fingertips, always holding it by the edge. As you rotate the dough, stretch it into an 8-inch circle; the dough will also stretch and lengthen from its own weight. Alternatively, drape the flattened round over your lightly floured knuckles and rotate the dough, moving your knuckles slightly farther apart, until the round stretches into an 8-inch circle. Place the dough on a pizza peel lightly dusted with cornmeal or durum flour. Work quickly now to prevent sticking.
Brush the dough with one-quarter of the garlic paste. Top with one-quarter of the potato slices, then scatter with one-quarter of the mushrooms. Distribute the Crescenza cheese in 5 or 6 clumps, using a total of 2 ounces. Sprinkle with 1 tablespoon Parmesan. Slide onto the pizza stone and bake until the crust is brown and crisp, about 10 minutes.
Transfer the pizza to a cutting board and scatter a handful of arugula over the surface. Cut into wedges and serve immediately. Repeat with the remaining 3 balls of dough.
Enjoy with Cakebread Cellars Chardonnay or another rich, barrel-fermented Chardonnay.
Narsai David, a San Francisco Bay Area radio personality and former restaurateur, joined us at the Workshop for many years as a sort of camp counselor. He would lead the chefs in their brainstorming sessions, and while the chefs worked feverishly on their courses, he would co-opt one quiet corner of the kitchen to make bread. Narsai surprised us every year with imaginative loaves that almost always incorporated whole grains, like the brown rice from California’s Lundberg Family Farms, or this three-seeded bread that he devised after sampling a similar bread in Australia.
MAKES TWO LOAVES, 1¼ TO 1½ POUNDS EACH
⅓ cup whole wheat berries
⅓ cup flax seeds
4 cups all-purpose flour, plus more for kneading
1 cup whole-wheat flour
1 package (¼ ounce) active dry yeast
1½ teaspoons kosher salt
2 cups lukewarm water
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
2 tablespoons molasses
¼ cup sesame seeds
Put the wheat berries in a small saucepan with water to cover by 2 inches. Bring to a simmer and cook until tender, about 1 hour. Drain and let cool.
Toast the flax seeds in a small dry skillet over moderately high heat, shaking constantly, until the seeds darken and develop a toasty aroma. Be careful; they jump like popcorn when they get hot.
In a large bowl, combine the all-purpose flour, whole-wheat flour, yeast, and salt. Mix to blend. Stir in the wheat berries and flax seeds, then add the water, oil, and molasses. Stir until the dough comes together, then turn it out onto a work surface and knead until smooth and elastic, about 5 minutes, adding all-purpose flour as necessary to prevent sticking.
Transfer the dough to a lightly oiled bowl and turn to coat with oil. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and set it in a warm, draft-free place until the dough doubles, 1 to 1½ hours.
Put the sesame seeds in a bowl. Turn the dough out on a floured board, punch it down, and divide it in half. Shape each half into a round. Moisten the surface with a wet towel or a spray bottle of water, then dip the surface of the bread in the sesame seeds.
Place the loaves on a baking sheet dusted with cornmeal or lined with parchment paper. Cover the loaves with a dish towel and let them rise in a warm, draft-free place until almost doubled, about 1 hour.
Preheat the oven to 400°F. Place a rack in the middle of the oven.
With a razor blade, cut 4 deep gashes in the shape of a large square on the surface of each loaf. Cover the loaves again and let rise for another 10 to 15 minutes.
Place the loaves in the oven and mist them well with water from a spray bottle. Repeat the misting two more times at 10-minute intervals. Bake until the surface is well browned, the crust is firm, and the loaves sound hollow when rapped on the bottom with your knuckle, about 45 minutes. Cool completely on a rack before slicing.
This modern interpretation of a comfort-food classic comes from chef Tom Wolfe, who participated in the 2004 Workshop. Chef Wolfe uses the pungent washed-rind Red Hawk, a cheese from California’s Cowgirl Creamery, but you can substitute another washed-rind cheese such as French Époisses or a milder Havarti. The pickled red cabbage provides a crunchy counterpoint to the oozy melted cheese. You will have more pickled cabbage than you need for the sandwiches, but it keeps well. Use it on a hamburger or meatloaf sandwich, or as a slaw.
SERVES 4
¼ head (about ¾ pound) red cabbage, cored and finely sliced
2 tablespoons kosher salt
1½ tablespoons Champagne vinegar
1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil
1 teaspoon sugar
¼ teaspoon celery seeds
4 teaspoons Dijon mustard
8 slices brioche from a sandwich loaf, about ⅓ inch thick
¼ pound Cowgirl Creamery Red Hawk, or other semisoft washed-rind cheese
2 tablespoons unsalted butter, or more as needed
For the pickled cabbage: Toss the cabbage with the salt in a colander and set aside to wilt for 30 minutes. Rinse the cabbage thoroughly, then taste to be sure the rinsed cabbage is not too salty (if it is, rinse again). Squeeze well to remove excess moisture.
In a nonreactive bowl, combine the wilted cabbage, vinegar, olive oil, sugar, and celery seed. Mix well.
To assemble the sandwiches, spread Dijon mustard over 4 slices of bread, using about 1 teaspoon per slice.
Lay the 4 slices of bread, mustard side up, on the work surface. Top each with ¼ cup of the cabbage, then with 1 ounce of cheese in 2 or 3 slices. Top with the second slice of bread and press lightly.
Melt 1 tablespoon butter in a 10-inch nonstick skillet over moderate heat. Add 2 sandwiches to the pan and cook until browned, about 2 minutes, then turn and cook until the second side is browned and the cheese is molten, about 2 minutes longer. Cut each sandwich in half on the diagonal and serve immediately. Repeat with the remaining 2 sandwiches.
Enjoy with Cakebread Cellars Pinot Noir or another medium-bodied red wine.
Belgian endive, toasted walnuts, and Gorgonzola make a satisfying winter salad—and a successful pizza topping. Brian first covers the pizza dough with a layer of caramelized onions, then sprinkles on the braised endive, crunchy nuts, and clumps of creamy Gorgonzola dolce, a young, mild version of the familiar Italian blue cheese. Cut the hot pie into thin wedges for an appetizer, or serve larger wedges with a salad for dinner.
MAKES FOUR 8-INCH PIZZAS
2 large yellow onions, halved and thinly sliced
2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
1 sprig fresh thyme
Kosher salt
3 Belgian endives
1 tablespoon unsalted butter
¼ teaspoon sugar
1 teaspoon freshly squeezed lemon juice
½ cup balsamic vinegar
Cornmeal or durum flour for dusting
6 ounces Gorgonzola dolce
¼ cup chopped toasted walnuts
1 tablespoon chopped flat-leaf parsley
Put the onions, olive oil, thyme sprig, and a large pinch of salt in a small saucepan over medium-low heat. Cover and cook, stirring occasionally, until the onions are soft, moist, and steaming in their own juices but not browned, about 30 minutes. Uncover, raise the heat to medium, and continue cooking, stirring often, until the onions are well caramelized and meltingly tender, 15 minutes or more depending on how moist they are.
Cut the endives crosswise into 1-inch pieces. Separate into individual layers. Discard the cores. Heat a skillet over medium heat. Add the butter, endive, sugar, lemon juice, and salt to taste. Cook until the endives are soft and tender, stirring occasionally to prevent browning, 5 to 10 minutes. You should have about 1 cup.
Bring the balsamic vinegar to a boil in a small saucepan. Simmer until reduced to 2 tablespoons, about 5 minutes. Let cool.
At least 45 minutes before baking, put a pizza stone on a rack in the bottom third of the oven and preheat the oven to its highest setting (500°F to 550°F).
With lightly floured fingers on a lightly floured work surface, flatten a ball of pizza dough into a round. Pick up the round with both hands and, grasping the round by an edge, rotate the dough clockwise between your fingertips, always holding it by the edge. As you rotate the dough, stretch it into an 8-inch circle; the dough will also stretch and lengthen from its own weight. Alternatively, drape the flattened round over your lightly floured knuckles and rotate the dough, moving your knuckles slightly farther apart, until the round stretches into an 8-inch circle.
Place the dough on a pizza peel lightly dusted with cornmeal or durum flour. Work quickly now to prevent sticking.
Spread one-quarter of the onion mixture over the dough. Scatter about ¼ cup endive over the onions, then place several small spoonfuls of the cheese on top, using a total of 1½ ounces. Slide onto the pizza stone and bake until the crust is brown and crisp, about 10 minutes. Remove from the oven. Scatter 1 tablespoon chopped walnuts and a sprinkle of parsley on top and drizzle with 1½ teaspoons of the balsamic syrup. Cut into serving slices and serve while still warm. Repeat with the remaining 3 balls of dough.
Enjoy with Cakebread Cellars Dancing Bear Ranch Cabernet Sauvignon or another full-bodied red wine.
Blooms You Can Use
EVERY YEAR, JUST BEFORE Valentine’s Day, a big bouquet arrives at the winery for Dolores. But it isn’t fresh flowers. Tucked inside the florist wrap like long-stemmed roses is a bundle of red and white endive, the shapely heads still attached to their thick chicory roots.
With this whimsical gift, Richard Collins of California Vegetable Specialties thanks the good customers who have helped his endive business bloom, from 16,000 pounds the first year to more than 5 million pounds annually today. Rich almost single-handedly created this market. No one was growing endive commercially in the United States until he set out to do it as a young man just out of college. He researched the production method in Europe, then planted his first five acres in Vacaville, California, near Napa Valley.
Even many of the Workshop chefs have no idea how endive grows. The process starts with the planting of a type of chicory, which sends a thick taproot into the soil and sprouts coarse, bitter greens above ground. The greens are sold for livestock feed and the roots dug up. After a dormant season in cold storage, the roots are transferred to a controlled-atmosphere forcing room where they “bloom,” sending up the tight, pale heads most people refer to as Belgian endive.
We often use California Vegetable Specialties endive as an edible spoon for stand-up hors d’oeuvres. Brian might fill the spears with beet tartare, crab salad, or blue cheese with port-soaked walnuts. Or he might slice and sauté the endive to use in a savory galette and on pizza. Rich grows both red and white varieties, and they’re always plump, pale, and blemish free. At the market, avoid endives that are “greening” from exposure to light; they may be bitter.
