*Manila Clam Pizza

Manila clams and white sauce

Sometimes you nail it right on the head.

This is one of those times.

Second term ended with bakeshop principles. After a week of gooey creme caramels, custards, fruit sauces and ungodly sweet desserts, the chef threw us a mercy pass and called our final Friday officially Pizza Night. Getting off on a technicality that grouped pizza in the tart category, we ran like hell to receive that pass and make a touchdown. I do believe I/we knocked this one outta the park. I would be proud to serve it to any one of my friends, any day.

Inspired by the recurring meal I snarfed down while waiting tables in the school dining room, I brought that concept to the “Short End Of The Stick Assignment” when pizza sauces were dished out. Not to be disgusting my homies with Bechamel sauce (shit on a shingle, anyone?), my goal was to class it up and lay down my reputation as someone not to be trifled with in the face of a challenge. I am very pleased with this one. Not so many dishes I create leave me feeling like I have accomplished something truly delicious, well crafted and, well, just plain happy.

Ladies and Gents, I bring you my Happy As A Clam Pizza…

I recommend making your own pizza dough, of course, but Trader Joes does a magnificent job without the mess.

This will take you a little while to prepare. I’d even start the morning before, or a day ahead if you can spare the time to let flavors infuse better.  Keep the clams on ice, pour some beer and collect this stuff:

32 fluid ounces of clam juice

8 fluid ounces Chardonnay

1 Lemon, juiced and a few long strips of zest reserved

4 shallots, diced

3 cloves garlic, minced

2 T Olive Oil

1/8 teaspoon black pepper

1 tablespoon crushed red pepper flakes (trust me)

8 fluid ounces of heavy cream

In a hot saute pan, heat the oil and dump in the shallots. Saute them briefly and toss in the garlic. Keep the pan jumpin’, toss and cook the aromatics until they are a little dry, just taking on a slight toasting. Add the crushed red pepper flakes, give them a toss, and deglaze the pan with a little splash of clam juice.  Add in all the rest of the ingredients and bring to a simmer. You’re going to reduce this all down to about one third of a cup, about 2 1/2 fluid ounces and then pass it through a fine strainer and let it cool down. Its gonna taste and smell divine. Try not to cry into it, okay?

Once it has cooled, you want to set the heavy cream on the stove to simmer. Add all of the clam broth reduction you just made and reduce the cream by two thirds. You will end up with about 3-4 ounces of a heavy cream that tastes like Poseidon blessed your mouth. Let this cool down before trying to put it on raw pizza dough.

Part two: Caramelized onions. Yum!

1 Yellow onion, sliced into 1/2″ julienne

16 fluid ounces veal or chicken stock

Kosher salt to taste

1-2 T Olive oil

Heat a stainless steel pan over medium heat. Add oil and onions. Toss’em a little to coat them with oil, blot any serious excess with a paper towel- you want them a bit on the dry side, but not too dry. Heat your stock up and put a ladle in it. As the onions start to color and your pan begins to get a tan as well, add about a half of a standard soup ladle of hot stock to the onions, deglaze and let it reduce to a slightly sticky brown wad, stirring the pan with a heatproof spatula as you deglaze. Alternate adding stock and simmering it almost dry until the onions are medium brown. Season with kosher salt and remove from pan to cool.

Gather this stuff, too:

1 ounce of Radicchio leaves, torn into bite sized pieces (about 5-7 leaves, white part ripped off)

3 T grated Asiago cheese

About a dozen Baby Arugula leaves

A dozen or so Manila Clams, rinsed just before cooking, held on ice

8 fluid ounces white wine or clam juice

2 ounces thinly sliced Linguica sausage

Semolina flour

White AP flour for rolling

Cook off the clams.

No, silly, they don’t really cook in a pizza oven that well…

In a medium saucepan, heat the clam juice or wine (or a combo of both, actually) to a boil. Drop in the clams and cover them, Grab a pair of tongs and a soup bowl, and wait. Don’t wander off or you’ll miss the magic window of clam harvesting opportunity.

After a minute or two of boiling, take the lid off the pot. Watch your clams, Man. They will start to open up a little and you must resist the urge to snatch them outta the pot at that time. Waaaaiiiit for iiiiiiit….. POP! They actually snap open when the ligament thingie finally shrinks from the heat. As soon as they open wide and say “AAAAH!”, grab ‘em with tongs and hotfoot them into the bowl. Wait for each one to open. If you have any that just don’t budge after the whole party has left the boiling cauldron, 86 them. They’re losers.

Cool them slightly, take off the half of the shell they are not attached to and toss the empty halves. Loosen them from the bottom shell and keep them moist in the cooled liquid until you dress the pizza.

Okay. Now, heat up your baking stone for at least an hour at the highest temp your oven can get to without burning down the wall behind it. Cheat if you have to by cracking the oven door a little to let the heat out, which keeps the thermostat workin overtime to keep up.

Roll out the pizza dough on a floured surface until its about a foot or more in diameter. Pick up the dough carefully and work around, stretching the outer edge of the dough to thin it out a little. The dough stretching is important. Never mind why. Just get a thin, thin dough out of it is all I ask.

Sprinkle semolina flour on the back of a baking pan (not the rimmed side) and carefully lay out the dough in as close to a circle as you can. Brush a little olive oil on the edge of the crust. Take about 2 fluid ounces of the creamy clam reduction and spread it in a thin layer around the base, leaving about atwo inch margin. Lay down a sprinkle of onions, some radicchio, the slices of Linguica and then some Asiago cheese. Lay the clams out on the halfshell for baking off.

(Now, don’t go apeshit with the pizza toppings. Leave some room, Man, let it all breathe! You are not making a Chuck E. Cheeze dungpile, here. Go easy on it all.)

Bake the pizza on the back of the baking pan or on the hot stone until the dough is puffed and browned. Remove the  pizza, immediately toss the leaves of Arugula on the pie very casually, drizzle some heated leftover clam sauce over the whole thing (a tablespoon or so is fine) and let it cool a little before cutting. Cut around, not through the clam shells and let everyone dump their own clams on the slice.

Yields one large pizza.

Close eyes, insert into mouth. Give thanks to my parents for conceiving me.

Yeah, actually, it IS that good.

(I would use any leftovers to make another pizza or to toss over some hot fettuccini the next night.)