Week 15 — Summer 2023 — Pizza Contest
OUR FIRST EVER FRESH FORK COMPETITION!!
THE RULES
Send us pictures of your pizza, a description, and any special assembly techniques! Essentially share your recipe. Photos may be used in future newsletters, so extra points are given for pictures with good composition. Don't be afraid to show your family participating or enjoying.
How will it be judged? Very subjectively with no judging rubric! I'll be looking for creativity, execution, and whether it makes me crave it!
The prize = $50 in FFM online credit and $50 gift certificate to OCP.
THE RESULTS
Wow, thanks for all the response to the competition. We had over 50 submissions and there were a lot of good ones. It took a few hours to go through them all.
To be fair to all the work you put into submissions, we are creating a separate page on the website for the recipes, photos, and more.
Being that the phone is already ringing asking what's in this week's bag, I'm going to get this newsletter out then send a separate Pizza Contest Winner newsletter as soon as I can.
There were a few fun themes and lots of creative tips I liked:
~a lot of you grow basil at home, and it was a prevalent ingredient
~thank you for all the tips, from salting the crust to preserving basil in oil for color retention
~confit and roasting were popular techniques - roasting onions and tomatoes for sauce, or making a garlic confit to infuse an olive oil
~hot honey and balsamic reductions are definitely trending
~the recipes were honest, including my favorite..."sorry no photos, we were to hangry to wait"
~ regional touches, from New England to Iowa, and everything in between
~ pizza, and Fresh Fork, is certainly a family endeavor and we appreciate everyone sharing how the whole family participates
GRAND PRIZE WINNER - anna s.
GRILLED ZUCCHINI & RICOTTA WITH CARROT TOP PESTO
Ricotta mixture: 3/4 cup ricotta, 1/4 cup parmesan, zest + juice of 1 lemon, 2 tablespoons pesto, garlic, salt + pepper to taste
Zucchini: thinly slice, grill, season with salt + pepper
Toppings: ricotta mixture, zucchini, fresh basil
CHERRY TOMATO BALSAMIC PIZZA
Toss halved cherry tomatoes with oil, garlic, basil, salt and pepper. Top with balsamic reduction and fresh basil as desired.
CARAMELIZED RED ONION WITH FETA & FIG JAM
Roast/caramelize 1 red onion. Top pizza with fig jam, mozzarella, goat cheese, caramelized onion and drizzle with balsamic.
2nd place - gina d.
BIANCA MARHERTIA PIZZA
The garlic confit is key according to Gina!
3rd place - cher b
BREAKFAST PIZZA
Sauté one candy onion and one pepper, and once lightly sauteed, add in ground pork. Once pork is browned, add 4 whisked eggs into the mixture and cook. For the sauce, Cher has a homemade sausage gravy that she keeps on hand in the freezer so it made for a quicker breakfast. Then add the pork/egg/pepper & onion sauté and top with mozzarella.
honorable mention
Tori T. - good looking deep dish
Carla F. - cast iron deep dish, started stovetop then moved to the oven.
Stuart M. - roasted romas with garlic, onions and hungarian peppers, then blended it all up with basil for the sauce. Pro-tip to salt the crust before adding the toppings.
Shannon R. - added three hot hungarians to sauce for a little heat and fun orange colored sauce. With the exception of the basil, all the toppings were from Fresh Fork (mozzarella, kale, onion, bell peppers, mushrooms, italian sausage). Topped it off with a drizzle of hot honey. Even the cat approves!
