Part pissaladière, part Salade Niçoise and part pizza, this week’s French Fridays with Dorie recipe (Fresh Tuna, Mozzarella and Basil Pizza, p166) was a cinch to make and I was excited to find sushi grade tuna at our local fishmonger (not for me, mind you, for Mr Neil – I don’t “do” raw fish) to elevate this simple dish into something a little bit special for a weekend lunch.
You’ll note that one half was sans tuna. Ahem, that would be mine. The combo of mozzarella, tomatoes, onions and radishes with a little bit of basil worked really well and radishes is something I’ll need to remember on pizza again soon. Loved the crunch!
Would I make this again? Yes I think I would. But I might make my own crust next time. We are on a bit of a kick to use up the food we have in our freezer and pantry (this will make for some interesting meals, let me tell you!) and so I used pre-made puff pastry that I always keep on hand (as per the recipe, mind you). Amazing that a year or so ago I would have been happy to have made this with pre-made pastry, yet now I really felt it would have been much nicer with a homemade pastry crust. Next time…
French Fridays with Dorie participants do not publish the recipes on our blogs (though this week, you can find the recipe online here), we prefer if you purchase Around My French Table for yourselves which you can do here on Amazon or Amazon Canada. Or for free worldwide shipping, buy from The Book Depository. Go on, treat yourself then join us here!
Homemade is always better…but your large version still looks divine!
Thanks Liz!
Beautiful compromise. I would love to try the ahi version.
I keep telling myself that one of these days I am going to make a bunch of puff pastry just for the freezer. I think it would be fun to be able to say that “I just pulled this out of the freezer” 🙂
Let’s just say Mardi almsot had to kick me out of the kitchen on this one…
As I was slicing the gorgeous tuna for the pizza, it was one of those “one for the pizza, one for me…” deals. Good thing she didn’t want any for the other half. 😉
What I liked about this was that adding the tuna just at the end let it shine through on its own, and not get lost with the other elements.
As for a wine pairing, I went with a 2011 Domaine du Poujol l’Hérault Pico Blanc. From the south of France where we just came back from, it has a vibrant acidity with a fragrant nose of lemon/lime and white flowers. The slightly tart finish of crushed peach pits married very well with the tuna, with enough to balance the radishes.
So all in all….would repeat both again, happily!
Nice wine pairing Mr. Neil!
I’m glad we can find that sushi grade tuna so close to us!
That looks mighty pretty. I’m intrigued to know that homemade puff pastry is nicer than the storebought frozen kind. The frozen ones always make me feel greased up on my insides. I wonder if I’d prefer homemade. Probably would. I mean, homemade everything is better.
I like the look of one big pizza. It’s always more fun to share (even if you are only eating from a designated half).
Indeed!
My daughter the baker was really turned off by the frozen puffed pastry. She said it wasn’t hard to make but we didn’t have the ingredients with us at our camp. So you have another in agreement homemade dough is the way to go.
I don’t doubt it!
This looks perfect for a late summer meal — with or without tuna!
I wanted to keep my pizza square as well! Who wants to waste puff pastry dough? But, I’ve been “modifying” Dorie’s recipes so much lately, I thought I should try it her way for a bit.
Since there was only one of us eating this, I felt it was silly to waste any pastry….
I can’t even think of making puff pastry dough from scratch – seeing how I am a complete disaster in the kitchen when it comes in a box, that would probably set me into looney land for a good week!
Beautiful pizza!
That was a good idea to make the large pizza, and so easy to please everyone’s taste.
The wine pairing sounds lovely. Hubby and I brought so many different wines home from our
trips to France, it is so much fun. One of our favorites is the Chateauneuf de Pape.
Have a great weekend.
I used homemade puffpastry too – saved me from buying heaps of pastry I won’t use.
Wow – so impressive!
Had I made it this week, I’m sure E would have pulled a Neil. And Gatamiaux would have probably had a field day if any tuna pieces made it to the floor.
I have most of the ingredients in the house to make the pizza, but somehow tuna and mozzarella don’t go together in my head. The mixed opinions this week are not helping either. I think I would like your version with the Niçoise ingredients.
Good thing you have someone in the house who likes fish so that you can cook along on such recipes. But both sides of your pizza look very tasty. I thought that the radishes sounded weird at first, but I too really liked them.
I’ll use them again on a pizza for sure!
Wouldn’t you know that this was the first week in a “decade” that I didn’t have puff pastry at the ready in my freeze? I had to sub with flat bread instead… but I quite liked it.
I think it would be great with flatbread too…
Well I am running behind on playing catch up (making it TWICE as silly 🙂 and have not made the pizza as of tonight but did get the veal done. We will see what gets posted as of Friday but I can say that your photos are definitely encouraging me to try this. Especially since you commented that you also skip the raw fish – my would be pizza will be split down the middle for hubby like yours was. Now, if I can just get mine to pair it so wonderfully with wine…..