Accidental Pizza

A slushy snow storm last week cancelled some of my "food appreciation" classes and left me holding four wads of pizza dough the kids had made the day before.

I had been holding the dough in the fridge, wrapped in four bundles. By the time Sunday rolled around I was desperate to do something with it. A call to sister Linda and brother-in-law Tom and we were soon cooking the toppings and readying ourselves for a championship football game to be broadcast from the frozen depths of Green Bay, Wisconsin.

For the occasion, oenophile Tom brought the usual traveling bag containing his favorite wine glasses--mighty big ones, the better for swishing the wine around--as well as two outstanding red wines. The first, a 2003 Saint-Emilion Grand Cru, was incredibly deep and rich, almost chocolatey. The second also was wonderfully inky and smooth, a Craneford Cabernet from Australia.

As for pizzas, we had caramelized very slowly two onions, thinly sliced, in our cast-iron skillet. The sweet onions make a wonderful combination with Gorgonzola cheese. A second pizza was topped with fennel, browned very aggressively in the skillet, then simmered with white wine. We paired this with a truffled Pecorino cheese we just happened to have on hand. A third pizza was slathered in the home-made pesto we keep in the freezer, then topped with turkey pepperoni. Finally we made a vegetarian pizza with broccoli and fresh mozzarella.

I'll have to call this Clean Out the Fridge Pizza Night, because we did not do a lick of shopping, just used the stuff that was there.

We watched the New York Giants miss two field goals and send the game into overtime. Improbably, the Giants' kicker came onto the field for a third time and we were certain he'd miss. Lucky guy--he had his redemption. I couldn't help thinking the Redskins coulda been in that game, going to the Super Bowl.

Any bets on New England versus the Giants?