Katie's Pizzeria

I actually had a hard time finding Katie’s Pizzeria since it’s in the middle of a small strip of stores in Clayton. Yet, I thought the place felt familiar when I drove around the back, looking for a place to park. Sure enough, the back door to Katie’s used to be the door I went in for my one and only boxing class. I must have been in the building two restaurants ago! Heh

I had heard that Katie’s was good but I didn’t know anything about their pizzas, so I was surprised to find out that they have created their own unique and custom flavored pizzas. As another Traveling Table hosted by STLwinegirl, this gave me a great opportunity to try it out!

What got me excited the most is that quite a few of the pizzas come with a goat cheese topping sprinkled on top and I got to try a couple of them. My friend Ellen got us started off right by ordering a Smoked Salmon pizza that came with capers and red onion along with the goat cheese. During the second pizza course, the goat cheese came up again with fig, pancetta, and sage toppings. These stronger flavors paired well with the dry, California Rose from a Pinot Noir grape.

I thought the pairings were dead on in each of the three courses actually. We started off with a Butternut Squash pizza with Gorgonzola cheese, which was paired with an Italian Chardonnay. Of course this was my favorite due to the white wine holding up well to the mild flavors from the pizza.

The last pairing was quite the “meat lovers” pizza since it was covered with Genoa Salami, Fennel Sausage, and Prosciutto. This definitely needed a strong red wine to help cut through the grease, and we got it with an Australian Shiraz. I’m sure you wouldn’t be surprised that I gave away certain toppings and half of the contents of my glass.

Unfortunately, for me, piggy seems to be a popular pizza topping so I probably won’t be in a big hurry to return but there are a few pizzas that sound right up my alley. There is a Roasted Eggplant pizza that comes with Italian olives and fresh mozzarella as well as the Wild Mushroom pizza since that comes with Tellegio cheese! I wonder if you can make a custom pizza there? That way I could just pick out all my favorite toppings, avoid the piggy, and still have all those fantastic flavors.

Resources:

Katie's Pizzeria = http://www.katiespizzeria.com

STLwinegirl's Traveling Table Series = http://www.stlwinegirl.com/Traveling_Table.html

Goat Cheese Class 2011

I was really happy with the “Goat’s Milk” cheese class because that meant one of my cheese-particular friends could join me for a change. The biggest surprise for me, over the past few years, is that goat cheese comes in so many forms…from the typical chevre that we may think of to my personal favorite, a hard, dry cheese, Midnight Moon.

The other interesting fact about goat cheese that I learned this month is that it is the only type of cheese you can freeze, although it should be wrapped tightly, and allow almost two days for a slow defrost.

Instead of a chevre, the two softer goat cheeses came in the form of a runny, gooey Bonne Bouche and a goat brie from Canada. While the Bonne Bouche had quite a pungent flavor, the brie was much milder and could easily replace its milk version and you’d never know.

All three of the firmer cheese stood out and while I think the Midnight Moon had the most flavor, I was definitely biased. I learned that Midnight Moon is actually imported from Holland by Cypress Grove while Chabrin is imported from the Pyrenees. The Chabrin was definitely a close second and quite similar to the Midnight Moon. I also think Midnight Moon could have been held off towards the end to be paired with a red wine.

The cheese that was served with a dry, red zinfandel was the LeChevrot, from the Loire Valley. A strong, “goaty” and nutty flavor altogether.

I’m not sure when the next cheese class will be but hopefully seafood class and cheese class will alternate with each other so we don’t have to go too long without either one.