With an overabundance of basil due to failure of the tomato crop (thus no sauce to put the basil in), I went with my next favorite use, pesto. Also, substituted walnuts for pine nuts (another surplus situation). Drew a blank on what to top the pie with, so I stayed with the walnut theme & made two varieties of smoked nuts...
First, the pesto: fresh basil, walnuts, garlic, olive oil, locatelli, salt & pepper:
All spun together, added to the mozzarella & mixed:
For the smoky sweet & hot nuts, coat walnuts in olive oil, cayenne & sugar. For the bacon nuts, coat with olive oil & bacon salt. Set up the cooker for pizza, toss in a little chunk of cherry, spread the nuts out on a pizza screen & give them about 20 minutes at 450 or so, toast’m up a bit & get those seasonings welded on:
When they’re done, crank up the temp & build the pies. First up, the bacon walnut pie:
After about 7 minutes on the egg @650:
Next up, the sweet hot nuts with additional sliced hot red peppers:
All done:
Finally, the obligatory plain for the boy:
I would say the sweet’n hot nut pie was definitely better, the sweetness & heat of the nuts were a nice contrast to the garlic/saltiness of pesto, the nuts really stood out; the bacon nuts sounded good, but went too far off into the same direction as the pesto so they kind of got lost in the mix, good, but not great.
Have a great weekend all, Marc
First, the pesto: fresh basil, walnuts, garlic, olive oil, locatelli, salt & pepper:
All spun together, added to the mozzarella & mixed:
For the smoky sweet & hot nuts, coat walnuts in olive oil, cayenne & sugar. For the bacon nuts, coat with olive oil & bacon salt. Set up the cooker for pizza, toss in a little chunk of cherry, spread the nuts out on a pizza screen & give them about 20 minutes at 450 or so, toast’m up a bit & get those seasonings welded on:
When they’re done, crank up the temp & build the pies. First up, the bacon walnut pie:
After about 7 minutes on the egg @650:
Next up, the sweet hot nuts with additional sliced hot red peppers:
All done:
Finally, the obligatory plain for the boy:
I would say the sweet’n hot nut pie was definitely better, the sweetness & heat of the nuts were a nice contrast to the garlic/saltiness of pesto, the nuts really stood out; the bacon nuts sounded good, but went too far off into the same direction as the pesto so they kind of got lost in the mix, good, but not great.
Have a great weekend all, Marc