Asparagus and Pecorino Vincenzo “Chaoson”

You are probably wondering what the hell is a “Chaoson”? Well in Breton, it means “slipper” as in “Hey Ma! Where are me slippers?” and slipper in French is “chausson” but “chausson” is also the name of a folded pastry or pizza. So “pizza en chausson” is literally “Pizza in slipper” which is basically a “calzone”. I hope I haven’t offended my Italian friends out there, but since my latest story “The Kittiwakes of Goulien” is set in a stronghold of Breton culture, it was only fair that I would “Bretonise” this little baby. It is also a way to link the fact that I have moved on from mushrooms in brine which made me the victim of many a laughs from my fellow ornithologists on the cliffs of Cap Sizun. I also had some Irish Pecorino that Vincenzo La manna- Cheesemaker at Vincenzo’s Little Dairy in Cork- had sent me, a younger one this time and I wanted to do something with it, even if I had enjoyed most of it on its own…

For The Dough: You’ll Need

• 200 g of organic pasta flour
• 10 cl of water
• a drop of good olive oil
• a pinch of sea salt
• 10 g of yeast

How to?

Knead the salt and flour together first, with olive oil and water. I didn’t have any fresh yeast this time, but I had some organic “Cream of Tartar”, a by product of wine making also known as Potassium Bitartrate. It sounds a bit scary, but it worked well for what I wanted to do and so you know, it is also vegan. Just sayin’!

I didn’t want to use tomato sauce in this recipe, but I still wanted to make it moist inside. I creamed some organic Spinach with a bit of chopped red onions and raw organic cream from Crawford’s farm in Tipperary… Salt and pepper to taste. Don’t cook it too long, just let it melt a bit…

For the mushrooms, gently fry them with olive oil, dill and a bit of garlic…

For the Asparagus, I blanched them in boiling and salted water for 5 minutes, purposely short of 2 minutes from the “legal” 7. The pizza was ready to roll, the ingredients about to go in! Remember to put the cheese first in a calzone, othewise, disaster!

Make a neat little fold that I learned when I was a Pizzaiolo in Galway and Sligo a long time ago. If you can’t do it, you can use a bit of egg wash or water to seal it, just don’t tell anyone!

Sprinkle the dough with a bit of water and olive oil for a sexy finish and make a little hole on top so it doesn’t blow or burst, that would be heartbreaking! Bake in a hot oven for 20 to 30 minutes, keep an eye on it, it really depends of your oven, they are all a bit different. Serve with the creamed spinach, mushrooms and asparagus on the side, a salad of fresh seasonal leaves is also lovely, with olive oil and lemon dressing…

Keep Well and Eat Happy

Slán Tamall

Franck