Caciocavallo is a distinguished Italian cheese from southern Italy that means “horse cheese”, due to the fact that during the maturation process, two kinds of cheese are bound together with a rope in a horizontal way on a wood surface, called in Italian “ a cavallo”, then “horse”. It is an ancient traditional cheese, the first time mentioned in history was 500 BC by Hippocrates. There are other kinds of Caciocavallo cheese based on their origins as well as the type of milk. The most famous is made with cow’s milk from the southern areas of Italy

Ingredients

Basic Pizza Dough {see recipe}
3 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil, divided
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 bunch thin asparagus (about 1 pound)
Canned or jarred Roasted red pepper strips, drained
1 small handful of fresh sage or basil leaves, chopped
Sea salt and freshly ground pepper, to taste
1 cup shredded mozzarella cheese
1 cup shredded caciocavallo cheese
½ cup grated Parmesan cheese

 

 

Directions

Combine 2 tablespoons of olive oil with the minced garlic. Remove the woody stems from the asparagus.

Preheat the oven to 500 degrees F. Oil a 16-inch pizza pan.
Press the dough out in the pan to its edges.
Spread the garlic oil over the pizza dough and sprinkle the mozzarella cheese evenly over the dough. Sprinkle the caciocavallo cheese evenly over the dough. Distribute the chopped sage evenly over the cheese,
Alternate the asparagus spears and pepper strips in a circle around the entire pizza top. {see photo}. Sprinkle with Parmesan and the remaining oil.
Bake in the oven for about 15- 20 minutes until the crust is lightly brown. Serve with a salad.

 

Simple Spinach Salad

Ingredients

5oz baby spinach
1 tablespoon lemon juice
3 tablespoons olive oil
1/3 cup grated Parmesan cheese
2 tablespoons diced walnuts
Fresh ground black pepper

Directions

To toast the walnuts*. Add walnuts to a small ungreased skillet over medium heat. Let the diced walnuts warm up, stirring occasionally until they just begin to darken and become fragrant, this usually takes about 5-6 minutes.

Remove the skillet from the heat, give the walnuts a little shake, and let the walnuts rest on the warm skillet 2-3 more minutes to finish toasting until ready to add to the salad.

Place the spinach to a bowl and drizzle with lemon juice and olive oil.
Toss the spinach to coat in lemon juice and olive oil.

Add cheese, walnuts, and a dash of freshly cracked pepper. Toss again and serve immediately.


Posted by in asparagus, Healthy Italian Cooking, peppers, Pizza, Salad, Salad Dressing, spinach