Prosciutto di Iowa?

"Shall I make a flat bread?" I asked last month. "What's a flat bread?" my mother responded.  I explained.  "Oh, a pizza. Well, why didn't you say that?"  Why indeed? I guess it only comes down to shape (round vs. rectangular) and perhaps the presence of yeast to tell the difference. But if there are Sicilian pizzas and Provencal flat breads like pissaladierre that have yeast in the dough, where does that leave us?


S and I used to love the different flat breads at Founding Farmers in DC.  Perhaps missing that she and I made a flat bread dish as a late lunch of sorts yesterday. While we were shopping we bought some goat brie (triple cream!), organic red pears ('tis the season) and prosciutto. However, as I knew this would be baked, the idea of using superb up-market prosciutto would be unconscionable. That's when I discover La Quercia's Prosciutto Americano at the local gourmet store. I told my sister who grew up there how interesting it was to discover prosciutto from Iowa! Some dogmatic devotees of Italian food may be wincing, but I can assure you, I regret nothing.

S rolled out some dough on the pizza peel. I brushed on some olive oil and dusted on some dried, sweet basil. After some quick and coarse slicing and assembly, the pizza/flatbread/whatever went into the oven. Soon a crispy and bubbly circle of molten goodness came forth.

I decanted a bottle of Côtes du Rhône while it cooled. It was hard not to wolf it down. This crust was chewy yet crisp and the pears suitably softened (i.e. only slightly).  The lumps of brie had oozed around the ham; the brie rind crisping-up like phylo.  The "prosciutto di Iowa" had thankfully not turned into jerky and proven the right semi-salty balance to the richness of the cheese.  This is Sunday done right.