Tour of Fifty States: Missouri's meal

This week’s meal was from Missouri.  The state that is just about in the center of the US certainly has some unique foods.   The rest of the county serves round pizza “pies” that are cut into triangles whether New York style or Chicago style.  The definitive characteristics of St. Louis-style pizza are a very thin crust made without yeast, the use of Provel cheese, and pizzas cut into squares or rectangles instead of wedges.

All of us are familiar with ravioli and we most often see it served with red sauce, Alfredo, or simply melted butter.  However, in Missouri, the ravioli are fried or “toasted.”  The first toasted ravioli seems to have been made in the 1950s at a restaurant called Angelo Oldani's on the Hill, the Italian neighborhood where both Yogi Berra and Joe Garagiola grew up.  According history, it happened this way: ''Angelo was busy and told a new assistant, a German cook, to prepare the ravioli. He had a pan of boiling hot oil on the stove, and the cook thought it was supposed to be for the ravioli, so he dropped them into the oil.'' When Mr. Oldani saw what had happened, he tried to salvage the ravioli by brushing on some grated cheese. The result was local history.

The dessert famous in Missouri is the Gooey Butter Cake, which originated in the 1930s. According to legend, a German baker added the wrong proportions of ingredients in the coffee cake batter he was making. It turned into a gooey, pudding-like filling.

Menu:  St. Louis Style Pizza, St. Louis Toasted Ravioli, Gooey Butter Cake

Outcome:  Well….with the above descriptions of the food, we thought it would be an amazing meal.  We were less than thrilled, however.  The pizza crust recipe -- as written -- states that it will make two 12” pies.  Oh no, not for me!  I rolled and rolled and rolled and rolled and could barely get one 12” oddly shaped crust that was literally paper thin.  So I made a second batch of the dough and had the same results.  The recipe for the sauce says that it is enough for four 12” pies but it adequately covered the two that I made.  We really liked the (imitation) “Provel” cheese blend – the liquid smoke kicked it up a notch.  Real Provel isn’t sold outside of St. Louis, except by mail order and I didn’t want 5 pounds of it, so I went with the substitution.  When we ate the pizza that night, it was super crispy and it was  like eating pizza on a cracker – but the crust just didn’t have a bit of flavor and reminded us of cardboard.  (Next day’s reheating of the leftovers made the crust a soggy gooey mess.)  Sad to say it, but it was an overall thumbs down on the pizza. 

As for the toasted ravioli, I opted to “oven-fry” the breaded ravioli instead of deep-frying them.  NORMALLY when I put food like breaded chicken breasts on a cookie sheet and spray it with cooking spray, it will crisp up and get nice and golden brown.  Not the ravioli…it just couldn’t develop a good crust.  So it as well was just lackluster.

Moving on to the dessert… the Gooey Butter Cake is AWESOME.  Outstanding.  Fabulous.  Scrumptious. Super yummy!  Bill said that I don’t ever ever need to make another kind of cake again.  It was THAT good.  The edges were crisp and chewy, and the center had a creamy, gooey, cheesecake-like texture that was so very, very good.  A real winner! 

Next up:  Brandi’s turn! She chose Georgia!

Missouri's meal

 St. Louis Style Pizza

Ingredients

Crust

In large mixing bowl combine:

• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 2 Tbsp. all-purpose flour
• ½ tsp. salt
• 1 tsp. baking powder
• 2 tsp. olive oil
• 2 tsp. dark corn syrup
• 1/2 cup Tbsp. water
• 2 Tbsp. water

Sauce

• 16 oz. whole tomatoes ( diced into fine pieces)
• 6 oz. tomato paste
• 1 ½ Tbsp. sugar
• 1 tsp. crushed basil
• ½ tsp. salt
• ¼ tsp. thyme

Cheese blend (since Provel is not available outside of the St. Louis area)

• 1 cup white cheddar cheese, shredded
• ½ cup Swiss cheese, shredded
• ½ cup provolone cheese, shredded
• 1 tsp. liquid hickory liquid smoke

Italian Seasoning

• 2 tsp. oregano
• 2 tsp. basil
• 1 tsp. thyme

Directions

Crust:

Mix until thoroughly combined - Dough will be very stiff. Makes enough for two 12" pizza pies. The dough is ready to use "as-is" No need to rise or knead. Divide the dough in half, shape into a round ball and roll out paper thin.

In order to move the crusts around a pizza peel sprinkled with cornmeal works well.

Sauce:  Combine together and it's ready to use - do not pre-cook the sauce! This makes enough sauce for about four 12" pizza pies, so that should give you some idea of how much to use on each pizza.

Cheese:  Toss until cheeses and smoke flavoring are completely incorporated. Typically it's enough cheese for two 12" pizza pies, but if you like extra-cheese you'll want to make more.

Seasonings: Combine all the ingredients in a small mixing bowl and blend well.

St. Louis style pizza before baking

Assembly:

Traditional St. Louis toppings include: Extra-Cheese, Onion, Green Pepper, Sausage, Hamburger, Pepperoni, Bacon, Black Olive, Mushroom, Canadian Bacon, and Tomatoes.

NOTE:  In a professional pizza oven the meat toppings (Hamburger, Sausage, Bacon, etc.) can usually be put on raw, but at home you'll want to fully precook the meat before assembling the pizza.

NOTE:  While in the restaurant the pizza is baked in a pizza pan, at home you'll have the best results using a pizza stone and an oven temperature around 450 º. If you don't have a pizza stone, use the thinnest baking sheet you have and the lowest oven rack position. The pizza is done when the underside of the crust is a dark golden brown, and the cheese is has a slight golden tint to it.

Under baking the crust will result in a limp crust, over baking will result in a hard, tough, burnt-tasting crust; getting the right baking time to produce a crisp crust will require a bit of experimentation. The amount and type of toppings you use will also affect the total baking time. A rule-of-thumb is to check the pizza after about 10-12 minutes and adjust baking time from there accordingly.

Cut the pizza into tile-like squares instead of the traditional triangle slices.

St. Louis Toasted Ravioli 

Ingredients:

• 2 Tbsp. milk
• 1 egg
• ¾ cup Italian seasoned bread crumbs
• ½ tsp. salt (optional)
• ½ (25 oz.) package frozen cheese or meat ravioli, thawed
• 3 cups vegetable oil for frying
• 1 Tbsp. grated Parmesan cheese
• 1 (16 oz.) jar spaghetti sauce

Directions:

1. Combine milk and egg in a small bowl. Place breadcrumbs and if desired, salt in a shallow bowl. Dip ravioli in milk mixture, and coat with breadcrumbs.
2. In a large saucepan, heat marinara sauce over medium heat until bubbling. Reduce the heat to simmer.
3. In a large heavy pan, pour oil to depth of 2 inches. Heat oil over medium heat until a small amount of breading sizzles and turns brown. Fry ravioli, a few at a time, 1 minute on each side or until golden. Drain on paper towels. Sprinkle with Parmesan cheese and serve immediately with hot marinara sauce.

Makes about 2 dozen.

Gooey Butter Cake

Ingredients

• 1 (18 oz.) package yellow cake mix
• 1 large egg
• ½ cup butter, melted
• 1 (8 oz.) package cream cheese, room temperature
• 2 eggs
• 1 tsp. pure vanilla extract
• 4 cups powdered sugar
• Powdered sugar for dusting top

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 º F. Lightly grease a 13- x 9-inch baking dish.
2. In a large mixing bowl, combine yellow cake mix, egg, and butter. Press mixture onto bottom of prepared baking dish; set aside.

   

   Crust pressed in the bottom of the pan

3. In a medium bowl, beat cream cheese until creamy; add the 2 eggs and vanilla extract. Blend in powdered sugar until well mixed. Pour batter into the crust-lined baking pan.
4. Bake 30 to 40 minutes or until cake is nearly firm when you shake if (you want the center to be a little gooey, so do not overcook the cake). Remove from oven and let cake cool in the cake pan on a wire rack.
   
5. When cool, remove to a serving plate and sprinkle with powdered sugar.
6. If making ahead of time, refrigerate in an airtight container up to one day.

Serves 9.

Gooey Butter Cake!