The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
One-pan pizza broccoli is pantry-friendly cooking
Make dinner with mostly what you have on hand.
This week, you may be tempted to write me a note along the lines of, hey, just putting the word pizza in front of something doesn’t make it pizza. That’s fair enough, but as a colleague noted, this Pizza Broccoli recipe from food writer and editor Dawn Perry was devoured by her family, including her 6-year-old. She urged me to make it. I did and I was sold on the recipe and, subsequently, Perry’s new cookbook, “Ready, Set, Cook.”
If de-stressing or simplifying your life is one of your 2022 resolutions, then Perry’s dinner-making philosophy of stocking your pantry and refrigerator with food you really like and then making dinner with what’s on hand might be one key to success. Yes, it may seem obvious, but truly putting this into practice takes, well, practice.
“Pantry cooking isn’t just a hook for this book — it’s how I cook in real life,” writes Perry, who has two small children and a career. She empathizes with busy folks and those without access to specialty markets (or equipment). Economy and cutting waste are top of mind with her, as well.
As I read through Perry’s cookbook, I was inspired to adopt some of her recommendations for setting myself up for success. I started, as she recommends, with an assessment of my cabinets, refrigerator and freezer contents.
I checked the labels and dates on everything. We finished off that frozen squash soup and chili, grilled the various chicken thighs, chops and sausages. We quick-pickled fresh peppers in the crisper and made Perry’s Any Vegetable Fritters with some sad carrots and squash. I made hummus from a few of the six (six!, how’d that happen?) cans of garbanzo beans.
That meant a couple of weeks of eating with minimal cooking and shopping. Best of all, by the end, I had space to smartly restock, and I truly knew what I had on hand. Goal!
One other bit of advice from Perry: If you bought boxed or canned food that, if you’re honest, you’ll never eat, donate it to a food bank or give it to a friend — don’t let it expire or spoil.
Her advice for restocking and reorganizing covers common staples of oils, vinegars and flours, but she also recommends long-lasting flavor boosters, such as miso, kimchi and sauerkraut and shelf-stable coconut milk and tinned fish. If you’re starting from scratch, her basic equipment list is spot on, too.
The cookbook is then loaded with more than 125 adaptable dishes that require few fresh ingredients. Most are ready in about 30 minutes. They include great toast ideas, soups and salads, as well as more than a few onepan dishes.
Take this Pizza Broccoli: I had to buy broccoli, the fresh mozzarella and the optional, but desiredby-me, fresh basil. The rest of the ingredients I had on hand: oil, salt, pepper, crushed red pepper flakes, onion and a can of whole peeled tomatoes. Bonus: All of the fresh ingredients were used in this recipe.
I actually enjoyed the process of making this. Searing the broccoli until it had a golden crust on both sides was a great tip, giving the dish a nice smoky flavor and texture. I loved crushing the whole tomatoes over the skillet with my hands. (No making a sauce.) It’s finished in the oven, so you get the great melty cheese on top.
Missing the crisped pizza dough? Perry recommends serving this with your favorite crusty bread. (Try toasted pita, too.) What, no sausage? She advises carnivores to start the dish by removing a link or two of fresh sausage from its casing, frying it up and then searing your broccoli in the rendered fat.
In other words, make it your own, just as you would with pizza.
“I don’t know if this recipe came to me in a fever dream or a divine vision. All I know is one day I saw it, complete, and had to make it as soon as possible,” Perry writes of the dish.
Here’s my theory about why it sprung whole from her subconscious: Practice. Practice. Practice. Yes, Perry is a food writer, but she has also set herself up for success by training herself to think simply and deliciously and preparing her kitchen to make it a reality.
I’m betting that with a little practice and preparation, I can tone that cooking-from-the-pantry muscle. I’ve resolved to try to do just that in 2022.