PIZZA PARTY!

A Party for Six

SURPRISE GUESTS

My friend Bob Currie loved parties. He was a wonderful interior designer and was often too busy to entertain on his own. So he and I would entertain together. I would do the cooking, he would arrange the setting, and we would each invite half the guests. I would invite my food friends and he would invite his designer friends. Surprisingly, they always seemed to have lots in common. Bob would invite an architect who I had been dying to meet, and I would invite a chef whose restaurant Bob loved. Once, Bob even invited someone who turned out to have gone to high school with me!

The challenge for a party where people don’t know one another is getting them to connect quickly. This is when I love to have an interactive party—where the guests help make the meal. So it’s the perfect time for a pizza party. Before everyone arrives, I mix a big batch of pizza dough (or you can buy some from your local pizzeria) and cut up all the toppings for the pizzas—peppers, fontina, turkey sausage, goat cheese, basil leaves, arugula—whatever you dream up. After drinks, we all go into the kitchen, assemble our favorite pizzas, and put them in the oven. We sit down for a Caesar salad with pancetta while the pizzas bake. The camaraderie of cooking together guarantees that everyone will get to know each other fast. But the dirty little secret here is that I don’t even have to cook dinner; the guests do all the work. In fact, at this party, I also had all the fixings for ice cream sodas, and we all made our own desserts, too. How clever is that?

CAESAR SALAD WITH PANCETTA

SERVES 6 TO 8

I adore a good Caesar salad, but most of them don’t have enough flavor for me. This one packs a wallop. Making it involves a few steps, however, but everything can be prepared well in advance. Serve it alone for a first course before dinner, or add Grilled Lemon Chicken (see The Barefoot Contessa Cookbook) or Grilled Herb Shrimp (this page) for a hearty lunch.

¾ pound	pancetta, sliced ½-inch thick
2 pints	cherry tomatoes
	Olive oil
	Salt and freshly ground pepper
2	large heads Romaine lettuce
1 cup	freshly grated Parmesan cheese
	FOR THE DRESSING
1	extra-large egg yolk at room temperature (see note)
2 teaspoons	Dijon mustard
2	large garlic cloves, chopped
8 to 10	anchovy fillets (optional)
½ cup	freshly squeezed lemon juice (3 lemons)
2 teaspoons	kosher salt
½ teaspoon	freshly ground black pepper
1½ cups	good mild olive oil
½ cup	freshly grated Parmesan cheese

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.

Cut the pancetta into ½-inch cubes and cook it in a skillet over medium-low heat for 10 to 15 minutes, until browned and crisp. Remove to paper towels and drain.

Place the tomatoes on a baking sheet and coat with olive oil. Sprinkle with salt and pepper. Roast for 15 to 20 minutes, until soft.

Wash the lettuce leaves carefully and spin-dry in a salad spinner. Stack the leaves on a cutting board and cut them crosswise into 1½-inch slices. Place them in a large mixing bowl.

For the dressing, place the egg yolk, mustard, garlic, anchovies, lemon juice, salt, and pepper into the bowl of a food processor fitted with a steel blade. Process until smooth. With the food processor running, slowly pour the olive oil through the feed tube (as though you were making mayonnaise) and process until thick. Add ½ cup grated Parmesan cheese and pulse 3 times.

Toss the lettuce with enough dressing to moisten well. Add 1 cup grated Parmesan and toss. Divide the lettuce among 6 to 8 plates and sprinkle with the pancetta and roasted tomatoes.

Pancetta is Italian bacon. You can find it in your Italian grocery or a specialty food store. Insist that it’s cut ½-inch thick.

If you’re nervous about raw egg yolks, substitute 2 tablespoons mayonnaise.

CALIFORNIA PIZZAS

MAKES 6 PIZZAS

When Alice Waters opened Chez Panisse in Berkeley, California, her use of fresh, local—often homegrown—ingredients revolutionized the American food world. When she opened the cafe upstairs at Chez Panisse to make what we now think of as California pizzas, she changed our idea that pizza was just a crust slathered with tomato sauce and chewy mozzarella. Make this dough ahead and let your friends assemble their own pizzas.

	FOR THE DOUGH
1¼ cups	warm (100 to 110 degrees) water
2 packages	dry yeast
1 tablespoon	honey
3 tablespoons	good olive oil
4 cups	all-purpose flour, plus extra for kneading
2 teaspoons	kosher salt
	FOR THE TOPPINGS (SELECT 8)
1	red onion, thinly sliced
1 pound	fresh mozzarella, grated
½ pound	Italian Fontina, grated
½ pound	mild goat cheese, such as Montrachet, sliced
1	red or yellow bell pepper, cored, seeded, and julienned
¼ pound	prosciutto, thinly sliced and julienned
1 bunch	arugula, cleaned and dried
6	plum tomatoes, sliced ¼ inch thick
4	pork or turkey sausages, cooked and sliced
1 bunch	basil leaves, cleaned and dried
4	garlic cloves, roasted
	Crushed red pepper flakes
	FOR PREP
½ cup	good olive oil
	Cornmeal

For the dough, combine the water, yeast, honey, and olive oil in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with a dough hook. Add 3 cups flour, then the salt, and mix. While mixing, add 1 more cup of flour, or enough to make a soft dough. Knead the dough on low to medium speed for about 10 minutes until smooth, sprinkling it with flour if necessary to keep it from sticking to the bowl. When the dough is ready, turn it out onto a floured board and knead by hand a dozen times. It should be smooth and elastic. Place the dough in a well-oiled bowl and turn it several times to cover it lightly with oil. Cover the bowl with a kitchen towel. Allow the dough to rest at room temperature for 30 minutes.

Divide the dough into 6 equal parts and roll each one into a smooth ball. Place the balls on a baking sheet and cover them with a damp towel. Allow the dough to rest for 10 minutes. Use immediately, or refrigerate for up to 4 hours.

Preheat the oven to 500 degrees.

If you’ve chilled the dough, take it out of the refrigerator approximately 30 minutes ahead to let it come to room temperature. Roll and stretch each ball into a rough 8-inch circle and place them all on baking sheets sprinkled with cornmeal. (You will be able to fit 2 pizzas on each 18 × 13-inch baking sheet.)

Brush the dough with olive oil and add any toppings you wish, piling them high. Drizzle each pizza with 1 tablespoon of olive oil and bake for 15 minutes, until the crust is crisp and the toppings are cooked.

Make sure the bowl is warm before you put the water and yeast in; the water must be warm for the yeast to develop.

The dough can easily be mixed and kneaded by hand.

Salt inhibits the yeast; add it last.

ICE CREAM SODAS

One year on the Fourth of July I decided that we had to grill hot dogs for lunch and have ice cream sodas for dessert. The best part was that Martha Stewart was a guest and she showed us how she makes great ice cream sodas. Have lots of different syrups and ice creams on hand so guests are guaranteed their favorite flavors.

	Hershey’s chocolate syrup
	Strawberry Syrup (recipe follows)
	Pure vanilla extract
	Heavy cream, chilled
	Club soda or seltzer, chilled
	Vanilla ice cream
	Strawberry ice cream
	Chocolate ice cream
	Coffee ice cream
	THE EQUIPMENT
	Ice cream soda glasses
	Ice cream scoops
	Straws

Pour 3 tablespoons syrup or 1 teaspoon vanilla plus 3 tablespoons cream in a tall ice cream soda glass. Whisk with a fork, then slowly, while still whisking, add the club soda until the glass is three-quarters full. Add 2 scoops of ice cream, add soda to the top of the glass, and serve with a spoon and a straw.

STRAWBERRY SYRUP

1 pint	fresh strawberries, hulled and sliced
½ cup	sugar
	Juice of 1 lemon

Combine the strawberries, sugar, and lemon in a container. Cover and refrigerate overnight. Strain the syrup into a pitcher, pushing down on the berries to extract all the liquid.