Yid.Dish: Pizzatashen?

Yid.Dish: Pizzatashen?
by Leah Koenig · February 20th, 2008
Tags Bread, Cheese, Cookbooks, Cooking, Holidays, Recipes

pizza.jpg

Tonight, a few friends are coming over for a pizza-making party - it seemed like an apporpriate activity for a random mid-winter night. Meanwhile, last night was Purim katan (the mini-Purim celebration that occurs a month before regular Purim - and only on leap years when the month of Adar rolls around twice).

Something about the convergence of these two events must have released the crazy bug in me - because, as I was scanning cookbooks for a good dough recipe and shopping for ingredients (a combination of wilted broccoli rabe, toasted pine nuts, roasted garlic, red sauce, mozzarella and parmesan), a BRILLIANT IDEA hit me: pizzatashen! Pizza dough, pizza ingredients, hamentashen shape - there really couldn’t be a more obvious culinary partnership.

I recognize that hamentashen - those little jam-filled, tri-cornered pastries, fall pretty squarely in the sweet category - cherry, poppyseed, ginger marmalade if you’re feeling bold. Until the possibility of pizzatashen crossed my mind, I’d don’t think I’d ever used “savory” and “hamentashen” in the same sentence. But once the initial kitsch factor wears off, this new cousin of the calzone seems long overdue. If you’re feeling a little freaked out about the whole idea, check out this photo of another pizza-inspired pastry.

And if you have other recipes/traditions for savory hamentashen - please share! Check out the recipe for herbed pizza dough below the jump.

Herbed Pizza Dough
*Recipe adapted from How It All Vegan!: Irresistible Recipes for an Animal-Free Diet

If you’re in a rush, many pizza stores will sell you hunks of fresh dough, but this recipe is remarkably quick and low-maintenance.

1 1/2 cups tepid water
1/4 oz packet yeast
1 tsp salt
1 tsp dried oregano
1 tsp dried basil
1/2 tsp dried rosemary
3 cups flour

Preheat oven to 350. In a medium bowl, whisk together the water and yeast until dissolved. Add the salt and whisk again. Stir in the flour and herbs and knead dough for about three minutes. Set aside and let dough rise for 20 minutes in a warm, draft-free place. Knead again and if the dough is too sticky, add a bit more flour. Let the dough rise for another 10-20 minutes (or longer). Roll out dough onto a pizza pan and prick all over with a fork before adding all your goodies! Bake 30-40 minutes.