CSA Week 2 (Parma Parma)

What am I a rabbit or something??!?  Week two of the CSA included a bunch of greens and lettuces again.  The Wife and I have been enjoying salads for lunch every day (and some days for dinner too) since we picked up our first CSA share and, based on the items for week two, that trend is going to continue. Week two’s CSA included cabbage, red leaf lettuce, green leaf lettuce, spinach, arugula, (more) kale, onions and beets.

As far as pizza goes, lettuce can be a challenging pizza topping, unless you’re California Pizza Kitchen, in which case everything from lettuce to avocado to gummy bears is fair game.  Thankfully week two’s CSA share included one of my favorite greens, ARUGULA!!  I’m a huge fan of the peppery, earthy flavor of arugula and love it as a pizza topping.  My pizza for week two was:

PARMA PARMA

While I didn’t use prosciutto di parma (opting instead for prosciutto di san daniele with its slightly less fatty, yet creamier texture (and cheaper price tag)), I like the name of this pizza given that I used parmigiano reggiano and prosciutto.  Of note, I admit that this pizza is very similar to the pizza that I made last week (the Sopressata and Mizuna Pie), but such is the nature of pizza making with CSA ingredients!!

Finished pie (minus parmesan shavings, which I forgot to put on before I took the picture)

Ingredients

• Basic pizza crust
• Basic tomato sauce
• Prosciutto di Parma or San Daniele (about 5-10 slices) torn into bite sized pieces
• Fresh mozzarella torn or chopped into roughly two inch pieces/cubes
• About two cups of arugula torn into bite sized pieces
• About 3/4 cup caramelized onions (approx. 1.5 cups fresh onions prior to caramelization, 1 t sugar, 1 T butter)
• Extra virgin olive oil
• About 1/2 T lemon juice
• 10 or so shavings of parmigiano reggiano or grana padano
• Kosher salt to taste

Directions

• Prepare the oven
• For the caramelized onions, chop the onions into even width pieces
• Preheat a large skillet over medium high heat
• Add olive oil (and about 1 T butter if you want some extra flavor)
• When the oil and butter are shimmering, add the onions
• Cook the onions, stirring constantly, for about five minutes
• Stir in sugar
• Continue to stir occasionally until (about every two minutes) for about 20 minutes until the onions are nice and brown.  You can add some water or more oil if you think the onions are sticking too much or burning
• Once you’ve got the onions where you want ’em, prepare the remainder of the ingredients
• When the oven is ready, spread out the dough and put it on a lightly floured pizza peel or baking sheet
• Top with tomato sauce, caramelized onions and mozzarella
• Slide onto the preheated pizza stone
• While pizza is baking, toss, arugula with olive oil and lemon juice
• When crust is browned and cheese is bubbly, remove from oven to a cooling rack
• Top with prosciutto, oiled arugula and parmesan shavings
• Cut and eat!!