The Cass House Mulberry Pizza

We’re about to visit with Chef Jensen Lorenzen and his wife Grace in a small coastal town in Central California with a series of upcoming webisode segments.  I was recently watching one of the pizza making sessions where Jensen and Peter used some unique local ingredients and created a wonderful pizza.  I felt compelled to give it a shot.

I recently came “clean” hinting that my pizzas may look more appetizing than they really are.  Now I have to wonder if the photos are all that good!  I’ll tackle that subject later.  But, let me tell you right up front that it turned out as tasty as it looks!  Again, you’ll never know the difference, so just enjoy the pictures, try it yourself and let us know how it goes for you.  That’s the real test anyway.

When you watch the pizza segment you will be invited to see the process as Peter and Jensen create this pizza together.  It looks and tasted amazing.  But, for me, all this time later what caught me and made me have to make this pizza at this time was specifically when Jensen spoke about the mulberries.  That was my “go” moment.  You see, I seem to get “hooked” like this on occasion.  I realized that I had this affliction when I found myself craving simple cheese burgers for a prolonged period of time a number of years ago.  The simpler the burger – the better.  I even liked the words “cheese burger”.  In fact, this may be happening to some of you now.  Cheese Burger – Cheese Burger…  One day I was watching what had become a favorite movie of mine “Crimes and Misdemeanors”.  Woody Allen and Mia Farrow were playing hooky from work at a movie theater and Woody hands Mia a ball of foil saying “Have another cheese burger.”  Mia slowly unwraps the foil.  It crinkles as it she peels it back and she goes about eating what appears to be a cold and very basic cheese burger.  Well, they hooked me.  I still laugh about it today.  Excuse me, I have to go make something for lunch.

Back to the Cass House, which is a place I found because of this self diagnosed affliction in the first place.  I’ll tell you more about that story when I post my gallery for this visit.  I was chasing smoked fish at the time.  I had seen a Bobby Flay show where he had visited Ruddell’s Smokehouse in Cayucos, and I had that registered in the will visit next time through file.  More to come on that.

Ok, now back back to the pizza!

Chef Jensen and Peter created this amazing pizza using local Mulberries.  They used a variety of amazing ingredients to create this pizza that really stood out to me.  Jensen even suggested to his surprise after they tasted it, that this could even be served as a desert pizza.

The pizza starts with some toasted pine nuts sprinkled on the dough.  They then added some caramelized onions followed by the mulberries.  They used two different cheeses one on each half of the pizza to experiment with their creation.  The first was a Saint Pat from Cow Girl Creamery out of Point Reyes, CA.  The second was a smoked blue cheese from Rogue Creamery in Oregon.  After the pizza came out of the oven Jensen squeezed a balsamic reduction that he had made over the pizza to finish it off.

Off I went to the local market.  I doubted they had the mulberries and I was right, but as with any recipe, you use what is fresh and available.  I ended up with blackberries and some alternative cheeses for my recreation.  They didn’t have a smoked blue cheese, so I thought I would try a regular blue with a little smoked Gruyer added in to try to create that flavor.

Please play with this one!  Send me your thoughts/notes.  Also, shoot Jensen an email, or comment on his website: www.casshouseinn.com.  This pizza was only the first in the journey to perfect and play with this gathering of ingredients.

Good luck with yours!

The Cass House Mulberry Pizza

Peter’s Classic Neopolitan Dough
Peter’s Onion Marmalade
Mulberries, Blackberries, or other dark local/fresh berry.
Toasted Pine Nuts