Milk Street's My Family Recipe

♪ CHRISTOPHER KIMBALL: Welcome to Milk Street's My Family Recipe.

We help home cooks rediscover and recreate lost family recipes.

- My grandmother Margaret's was the absolute best.

- Don't put any pressure on us or anything!

CHRISTOPHER: We bring home cooks to our Boston studio...

I'm gonna stand back.

...where, along with our host and pastry chef Cheryl Day... - Isn't it great how food can take you back?

CHRISTOPHER: ...we teach them how to make their family recipe from scratch.

- You're gonna be able to bake this cake.

- I can do it.

CHRISTOPHER: Just the way it was made by, say, their grandmother.

- Beautiful!

- Grandma would not tolerate lumps.

CHRISTOPHER: Then we send them home to recreate that recipe for the toughest audience... - There it is.

CHRISTOPHER: ...their own family.

[laughing] CHRISTOPHER: Can our home cooks pull it off?

- Mom, that's really good.

- I think that's a yes.

CHRISTOPHER: Or will the recipe be lost forever?

Right here on Milk Street's My Family Recipe.

- That is delicious.

[upbeat music playing] ♪ Funding for this series was provided by the following.

Mowi Salmon comes ready to cook.

Ready to grill, ready to season, or pre-seasoned and ready to eat.

In an assortment of flavors for an assortment of people.

Mowi Salmon.

♪ - I'm Tim Donovan, and we're here in Huntington, Long Island, on a beautiful sunny day at my home.

Huntington is on the north shore of Long Island, probably about 25 or 30 miles from Midtown Manhattan.

I've been cooking since I was about ten years old, which is a long time ago.

I used to watch my mother cook, and particularly loved to watch when she was baking something.

I think I connect a lot of my memories about my mother with food, so there's a lot of things that I might make that bring her back to my memory.

She cooked breakfast.

She made us lunch that we took to school every day and dinner every day, 365 days a year.

And a lot of my memories of my mom are Mom in the kitchen.

If you're cooking three meals a day, guess what.

You're going to be spending a fair amount of time in the kitchen.

I'm trying to remember what I did with the yeast.

Now I don't remember.

Oops.

The dish that I'm trying to master, my mother called it a calzone.

Then, typically, calzone is a pizza dough that's got mozzarella, ricotta, maybe some prosciutto, and it's folded up and it's baked, and it's pretty heavy.

They're good, but nothing like what my mother used to make.

My mother's recipe was very unusual because it combined anchovies, raisins, black olives, and caramelized onions.

And, uh, I wasn't sure how she made the dough.

Since it doesn't weigh it, it's-- you have to kind of eye it up to see how much.

When I made it, it came out more like those pizzeria calzones with the different filling.

But no one really knew how did Mom get that nice sort of crispy, flaky crust on the top and so that it was more about the filling with pastry-like crust around the dough.

And that's the secret that I was looking to master.

♪ - Tim, how are you?

Nice to meet you.

- Well, we're excited to hear about your calzone.

- This was a recipe that came from my grandmother's family, and my mother used to make it only on special occasions.

- What did it look like?

What was the shape?

That's the mystery here.

The crust on my mom's-- on the pastry, especially on the top, was very, very thin.

- So is this less like a pizza dough?

- Yes.

- So it was a little thinner and maybe even flakier than a typical pizza dough?

- Flaky might go a little bit too far, but not that far off the mark.

It wasn't like a strudel dough or phyllo dough.

And it was definitely yeast dough.

- Who are you most excited to share with?

- My daughter, particularly, is interested in tradition.

She had asked, "Do we have any traditional family recipes" from her grandmother, my mother?

This one, I would say, of all the things she might have made, is the most memorable that I would want to recreate and pass on.

It really brings back my mom to me.

And a lot of times when I'm cooking, because she was the one who showed me how to crack eggs that went half on the floor or spilled sugar all over the counter.

What I cook often reminds me of my mom, and really getting this recipe right would give me a lot-- bring back a lot of memories.

- Food is the way into the past, right?

We'll try to sort this out and we'll have you up to Boston.

Uh, you can have a taste, and if you like it, we'll show you how we did it.

- Looking forward.

- Thanks, Tim.

- Another challenge accepted.

- Another challenge.

But I can kind of visualize that crust, and it sounds like you kind of can, too, but it's probably thinner than, like, a pizza crust.

Not quite pastry.

- In this country, we don't really have-- That's not something we usually have.

- No.

Right.

- We have pie pastry or we have pizza dough or we have yeast dough.

♪ So if I say calzone, you're going to think of a rounded pizza dough that's filled with cheese and meat and tomato sauce, folded over into a half-moon and baked.

And that's what we know here as calzone, but that's not what people mean by calzone in Italy.

This is a very specific regional Italian calzone.

It comes from Bari, Italy, in Puglia.

That's right across from Naples but on the eastern coast.

And this is where Tim's grandparents were from.

They don't fill it with meat and cheese.

They fill it with onions and raisins and black olives and anchovies.

It's really referred to as an onion calzone, similar to a stromboli, which, again, is filled and rolled and sliced.

So, let's get started in our recipe development and see if we can come up with a recipe that reminds Tim of his grandparents in Puglia.

♪ - So, Tim's challenge here is with the dough, not so much the filling.

It's about getting the right consistency of the dough so that it's sturdy but not too doughy and a little bit crisp at the end.

So, we're going to assign this to Rose.

She's a master at pizza dough, and she started out with kind of a basic recipe here: bread flour, yeast, salt, water, olive oil.

And we started there.

A little too chewy, a little too much like a pizza.

And we knew it had to be thinner and a little bit crisper.

So we switched from bread flour in the first batch to all-purpose flour, used a little less oil, a little less water, and got something that we think was really great.

It was firm enough but not too chewy like a pizza dough.

So, for the filling, was all about the right balance-- olives, onions, raisins, and anchovies, so it's about the right ratio there.

- I'm not, like, crazy about that.

- So, let's see.

So, what do you think?

How can we do that?

- So, what I'm thinking now is, instead of putting all the filling on one side and kind of rolling it over, is maybe to kind of put it more towards the center and then bring the two sides together.

- So we got the dough figured out, got the filling nailed.

The shaping is the toughest part.

So, shaping this calzone is all about how you work with the dough, how thin you roll it out, and how you actually roll it up with the filling inside.

If there's too much dough on one side, it's going to be doughy on the bottom and too thin on the top to hold together.

So, it has to be perfectly handled.

Finally, we nailed it.

Yeah, look at how perfect that crust is.

Holding the two sides up and then flipping it over onto the baking sheet.

So we love how this turned out.

This is not your calzone that you're used to.

Different flavors, and the crust is very different than what you might buy from the pizzeria.

It's so good.

So, Tim's on his way from Long Island.

We've got some calzones in the oven.

We're very excited to teach him this recipe.

But is this the dough that Tim remembers?

♪ - Welcome to our kitchen.

We think we have the answer to your mother and your grandmother's calzone, or at least we hope so.

- Well, this is a really interesting recipe because we saw calzone, but this is not at all an American calzone.

Right?

This is from Puglia.

So, we're really excited by this 'cause I think this is a great way to do it.

- I'm very confident that they're going to be able to figure this out.

I'd really like to get the recipe to come out the way my mom made it, but I'm also open to better techniques.

♪ - We've got our flour, we've got our yeast and then some salt.

And then I'm just going to start that on low and get that all mixed together.

And then we've got olive oil and some warm water to activate the yeast.

- Okay.

If I were doing this as a nine-year-old boy, that flour would be all over the kitchen by now.

- Sure.

- That's why she wouldn't let you do this part.

Probably.

- That's right.

- And then, Tim, if you don't mind, if you could oil the bowl for us.

- Okay.

- And then we'll just let this go for about seven minutes until it starts to look elastic and pulls away from the sides of the bowl.

Meanwhile, Chris is going to get us started on our caramelized onions.

- For a long time, I used to heat oil and then add the onions, but I realized, actually, you don't need to do that.

So I start my onions now-- and garlic-- in cold oil, and that way you don't overheat the oil.

Sometimes you put the onions, and it's too hot-- - Right.

- And they brown too quickly.

A little bit of salt.

So, uh, we're going to caramelize these.

You want to do that over pretty low heat.

♪ - Okay.

- So, as you can see, it's a soft dough.

I'm going to finish it a little bit by hand.

Just getting that love in there.

Want to see the feel of that?

- Sure.

- And I know you know how to toss it right in the bowl.

- Yep.

Oh, yeah.

That feels beautiful.

- Yeah.

Just plop it in your bowl.

- A little coating.

- Yeah.

- Look it.

Tim knows exactly what to do.

- Well, a good memory.

- Is that how your mom would have done it?

- I think so.

- Feels good to get your hands in the dough.

- Oh, yeah, it's beautiful.

- So, we still have to finish cooking the onions, but I have hot water here, and we're just going to plump up the raisins.

So, we had to let that rise a couple hours, and this will take another 20 minutes to finish caramelizing the onions.

And then we'll get to the fun part, which is the shaping and filling.

- And eating.

- Eating.

- Oh, I forgot that part.

♪ - So, I'm just going to dust... ...for this dough, and it has doubled in size.

And we're gonna...

It smells so good.

Do you want to see what this feels like at this point?

- Sure.

Sure.

- So it's a soft dough.

- Yes, it is.

- And it's going to be thinner than what I think you have been doing.

- I'm watching very closely as you do this because this is not the way I would have done it, and the way I did it-- - Oh, really?

- It didn't work out.

So, I mentioned my mother had a very gentle touch with the dough, and I could picture her doing it this way.

The dough is not like a bread dough.

It's a very soft dough.

I don't think that it has as much flour proportionally to something like a pizza dough or bread dough.

- So the inspector is here.

Move over.

Okay.

Very nice.

Yeah, you're there.

Just-just... - And then we're going to leave a little edge so that we can fold it over.

And then, Chris, if you want to go ahead and put the onions down.

- So put this in the middle.

- Yeah.

Oh, man.

- Yeah, those look great.

- Does that look like your mom's?

- Oh, yeah, yeah.

She cooked the onions to death, just like that.

- You cooked them to death.

- To death, yeah.

Until they gave up.

- And they become very sweet.

- And then we've got the olives.

- The olives look a little different.

She used to use the black olives out of the can because that's what was available.

- And then the raisins.

- Sometimes she'd use golden raisins, sometimes she'd use the black raisins.

I don't think it makes a difference.

- Anchovies.

- I know what he's going to say.

You're going to say it's not enough anchovies!

- No, she probably would put a couple more than that.

- Yeah, let's just put 'em all on, come on.

- So now for the fun part, we're going to seal it up.

- Okay.

- I'm going to basically pinch this together all along this seam.

You want to finish off that little corner?

- Sure.

Sure.

- Watch him whiz right through.

- He will.

- Yeah, there you go.

- Yeah, exactly.

- I think it's going to be nice and light.

- So, now I'm going to flip this seam down.

- Well, it kind of looks like my mother might have done that.

- All right, so we have our calzone.

If you would do me the honors of brushing a little oil on top.

And then we're going to cut a few slits.

- They don't do two risings.

They folded the dough over, sealed it, and put it right in the oven.

That was a big change.

- We're going to get this into the oven.

450 degrees for about 40 minutes.

- I'm looking forward to making this.

- Here we are.

What do you think?

- I think, wow, I haven't seen this image in at least 30 years, maybe 40 years.

So it's-- It looks perfect.

- Well, it's not supposed to be perfect.

It's supposed to be homemade.

- Looks perfectly homemade.

- There you go.

- The crust looks perfect.

There might have been a little less onion when my mother made it.

- Okay.

- But other than that, it looks very good.

And the other thing is, we never used a fork, so... - I was going to say, what's with you and the fork?

- Yeah, you know... yeah.

I think I'm just gonna pick it up and... and tell us what you think.

♪ - Bellissimo.

- At least you didn't say: andiamo - No.

The pastry around the dough was perfect.

That's exactly the way I remember it.

♪ - Mmm.

- Mmm.

The dough was really the-the-the missing... the key that was missing to this.

- Did we get it right?

- You nailed it.

Perfect.

When I see this sitting there, it's like my mother could have been standing there, taking it out of the oven.

It came out beautifully.

- I love this.

This is so much better than the cheesy-- - I would definitely make this.

- Oh, yeah.

- You know, sausage-y thing with tomato sauce.

This is really good.

- Even your cardiologist will like this.

♪ ♪ Today my family's going to come over and give me their honest opinion.

And I hope this meets their expectation, but we'll see.

So, I saw them do it, and I know how to do it, but watching somebody do it and doing it are two different things.

260 grams.

So, one of the things I'm going to do is to follow the instructions on weighing the flour, because that's much more accurate.

I don't have to guess, does it need more flour?

And so on.

So, I'll follow that.

I think that's a good tip.

And that's my mom's whisk.

So, here's to you, Mom.

The recipe says to put in the oil first, but I'm gonna add it to the water.

I think that's pretty good.

The Milk Street crew do this, they use a mixer with a dough hook, and I do have a big mixer, but it's such a small amount of dough, the dough hook barely touches it.

So, we're just going to knead it by hand for about ten minutes.

Now, in the old days, I might have added a little more flour.

It would make it easier 'cause it's sticking a little bit, but I'm going to follow the recipe and just stick with the amount of flour.

I think that's done.

Just kind of flip it over to make sure it's oiled.

I have the recipe, and it's-it's great, but there are a couple of things that I want to do differently.

One of the things is the olives.

I'm not going to use kalamata olives because I don't want such a briny, salty addition.

We have anchovies in it, and there's-- the onions are salted and so on.

So, I'm just going to use, the way my mother did, the black olives right out of the can and cut them up a little bit.

I don't think I'm going to cook the onions as long.

Uh, I want them to be somewhat caramelized, but I don't want it to be like an onion jam.

Yep, sizzling.

It sounds a little angry, so I'm gonna turn down the heat.

And I probably will fold it a little bit differently.

When my mom made it, she used to just spread the dough in the pan, put the filling, and roll it up.

And I think that's easier.

And the last is, I don't think I'm going to bake it as they recommend it, at 450 degrees for 40 minutes.

350, middle rack.

That's a long time in a hot oven.

If I need to brown the top a little bit, I can do that.

Looks good.

40 minutes.

♪ There we go.

♪ Let's see.

Okay.

♪ Done.

♪ Looks good.

I'm looking forward to having the family over today.

That should be a lot of fun.

Hello.

- Hey, how are you?

- Hey, come on in.

- Hey, how are you?

- Today my family's going to come over and give me their honest opinion.

I'm hoping my family enjoys it as much as I did, but I think that some of them will really enjoy it and appreciate being able to make it on their own.

- Hello.

- Hey, how are you?

- Hi, everyone.

- I would love to pass this recipe on to my children.

I do have a cookbook that I just got, and I purposely wanted it to pass on recipes.

- My family has come to expect pretty good things.

I'm not boasting.

I've been cooking my whole life, so their expectation is probably pretty high.

- I think there is a lot of pressure on my dad to get this recipe right, because, yeah, it is the first recipe to go in this cookbook, and so he's got to make it good.

- If I don't like the recipe, I'll probably be honest.

I'll tell my dad that.

- I'm sure there's a little bit of pressure, but I feel like he always does everything pretty well, so I'm not worried at all.

He always knocks it out of the park.

- Um, so you're going to be the first testers of this recipe, and I want your honest opinions.

Ready?

One, two, three.

- Ta-da!

- Looks great.

- There it is.

- Very nice.

- Yeah.

- Looks yummy.

- Okay, so, it doesn't look like much, but my mother only made this on special occasions.

And believe it or not, except for my brother Matt, we all loved this.

It'll be interesting to see their reactions.

My stomach is churning right now.

I'm really nervous.

- Here we go.

- All right, now.

- Pizza time.

- Really good.

- Oh, good.

- I'll give it a 9.5.

- Whoa.

- It's very good.

I like it a lot.

- Yeah, I don't know why you never made it before.

- Well, 'cause I could never get this crust like this.

- It was really good.

It was really salty, but it was also sweet.

It was a nice, light dough.

It was a really satisfying little calzone.

- It came together very nicely, and it was pretty delicious.

- Ah, it tasted amazing.

I mean, I wanted another piece, like, right away, honestly.

- Dad, does this taste like you remember it?

- It tastes exactly like I remember it.

- I'm really proud of my dad for going through this journey.

I think this is a great experience.

I think this is a fun experience for him, and I'm proud he did it and that he'll now have the recipe that he can make and think of his mother when he makes it.

- It would be great if my mom and dad could be here today, but unfortunately they're gone many years now, but they'll be here today in spirit, I think.

And if my mom is somewhere looking down, I'm sure she has a big smile on her face seeing how her recipe brought her family, the children, the grandchildren, and the great-grandchildren all together on this day.

So, I'd like to make a toast.

Thank you, everyone, for coming here and sharing this moment, this memory with me.

Uh, so, a toast to my family here today and to my mom and our parents who are no longer with us.

- Salud.

- Salud.

- This has brought a lot of memories of my mom back to me.

And in a way, it's a way of kind of keeping some part of my memories of my mom alive.

So, it means a lot to me.

My mom would really be proud of me for making the effort and asking for help and really trying to get this right.

To Chris and Cheryl, huge thank you.

Not just for helping me recreate the recipe, but for going up to Boston, meeting everybody, spending time with great people.

Really, thank you very much.

- Did we eat it all?

- Yeah, pretty much.

- Yeah, it's gone?

All right.

- Well, this one has no anchovies.

- Here, Connor, I'll bring you the last slice.

- Thanks.

♪ ♪ (bell tolling) ♪ - (in Italian): ♪ - Thank you!

- Thank you.

- Oh, my goodness!

- (in Italian): ♪ ♪ Recipes and episodes from this season of My Family Recipe are available at MilkStreetTV.com/MFR Access our content any time to change the way you cook.

Funding for this series was provided by the following.

Mowi Salmon comes ready to cook.

Ready to grill, ready to season, or pre-seasoned and ready to eat.

In an assortment of flavors for an assortment of people.

Mowi Salmon.

♪ ♪