Cold Pea Soup

Mark Bitman: It goes without saying that good stock is a must here. Fresh peas aren’t mandatory, but they are an added bonus if you can find them.

Yield 4 servings

Time 30 minutes, plus chilling

Ingredients

• 1 pound peas in the shell, snow peas or sugar snap peas (frozen are acceptable)
• 3 cups chicken or vegetable stock
• Salt and freshly ground black pepper
• Sour cream for garnish - (or not!)
  
• Chopped parsley for garnish

Method

• 1. In a saucepan, combine peas and stock, and bring to a boil over medium-high heat. Reduce heat to a simmer, and cook until peas are bright green and tender, 10 minutes or so. Cool a few minutes. If you are using regular peas, remove some from their shells for garnish. (Refrigerate those until serving.)
• 2. Pour the cooked peas into a blender, and carefully blend them until they are puréed. Add salt and pepper to taste, and force through a fairly fine strainer, discarding solids. Refrigerate until cool; serve garnished with a dollop of sour cream and the parsley.

Source: The New York Times Diner's Journal

Pizzeria Quality at Home

Recipe from NYT - Diner's Journal, Melisa Clark, June 20, 2011

The key to this recipe is a using the oven and broiler in combination. A hot oven heats the pizza stone (you can also preheat a baking sheet), which bakes the bottom of the pizza crust. Then the broiler comes on and cooks the top of the pizza.

It works like this. Heat the oven and pizza stone at 500 degrees for one hour (if using a baking sheet, heat it for 30 minutes). Roll out the dough and top your pizza, then slide it onto the pizza stone or baking sheet. Bake it for three minutes. Then turn off the oven and turn on the broiler. Broil the pizza until golden, crisp and a bit blistery and charred in places for one to four minutes, depending on the heat of your broiler. (Watch carefully to see that it does not burn.)

If you don’t have a top broiler in your oven, just bake the pizza a little longer, until the cheese is melted and the crust well browned, about 8 to 10 minutes total. But go on how it looks, not by the clock.