In a gesture worthy of Gloria Arroyo (she who regularly moves the observance of certain holidays if they happen to fall in the middle of the work week), my mother ordered yesterday that Italian Night this week be on Tuesday, instead of the usual Thursday. Since she and Pa would be in Cebu for the next few days, it seemed sensible to suggest that they get their Italian fix there, only to be told that they had “other” dining plans in mind — the underlying message being that they could not be bothered with peasant fare when the Queen City’s high-end eateries beckoned (to bleed their wallets dry, if I might add bitterly).
Now, before I get any flak from the three or so people who actually read this blog, a caveat: I know there’s nothing peasant-ish about the food in the photo spread up top. If anything, Italian food is considered an upper-middle class indulgence in this country. I was simply referring to pizza’s poor origins, as per Wikipedia:
The innovation which gave us the particular flat bread we call “pizza” was the use of tomato as a topping… (B)y the late 18th century it was common for the poor of the area around Naples to add tomato to their yeast-based flat bread, and so the pizza was born. The dish gained in popularity, and soon pizza became a tourist attraction as visitors to Naples ventured into the poorer areas of the city in order to try the local specialty.
I won’t tax your patience by claiming that I make a real-deal Neapolitan pizza, either. But as these things go, mine’s not so bad, considering that the ingredients I use are, at best, sub-par (we live in backwater country, after all). Suffice it to say that no pizza aficionado is going to beat a path to my door anytime soon. Or ever. I can live with that.
At bottom right of the spread is the house pizza: all-vegetable, with tomato, onion, bell pepper, basil, mushroom, olive, and the odd caper or two in a garlic-spinach pesto base. The one on top features Pinoy cured meats (tocino, longganisa) in a roasted garlic pesto base, with a whole egg plopped right smack in the middle. I used a homemade crust for the first one, chewy but crispy in parts (just the way I like it). The other was made with store-bought crust, thin and prone to crisp up into a tough biscuit if left too long in the oven. I’ve had no complaints either way. Just a slice of both and I’m bouncing-off-the-walls happy.
The photo at left is of the antipasto: a simple salad of iceberg lettuce dolled up like Bob Blumer did on an episode of The Surreal Gourmet. Gorgeous, no? But what really clinched it was the dressing. See that amber liquid on the plate? That’s olive vinegar, baby! I found it while rooting around in the pantry. Damizle-brand, it comes in 32g foil packs (you read right: grams; would it help if I mentioned it was made in Japan?). It’s got a kick-ass smell, although a tad too sweet, so I added a teaspoon of plain olive oil and a sprinkling of black pepper. It went nicely with the rather blah lettuce. Definitely a keeper. If you find it in your local supermarket, go grab the stuff; you’ll thank me for it.
Having done the prep work early on, everything was in and out of the oven in less than 20 minutes. Simple, easy, fast. A great meal, too: balanced, tasty, nutritious, and filling. It fed four, but could easily have accomodated two, even three more (lots of leftovers for merienda tomorrow), and at a total cost of less than ₱400 (by my reckoning), wickedly cheap.
And so: peasant fare. As for the “revenge” part, let’s just say that Ma, who’s forever on a diet, changed her mind halfway through the day and announced that she wouldn’t be having dinner, after all. Riiight… Like there was any chance of that.
This post has no comments.
Post a Comment