Gorgonzola Pepperoni Pizza Muffins #MuffinMonday

As I write this and schedule it to post on Monday morning, the moving company folks have just called it a day for day one of Pack Out Cairo.  We have two more days of packing up and then on Tuesday, the 40-foot-high-top container will arrive and they will attempt to make all the boxes fit into that sucker.  Always a nail-biter but I am feeling good this time.  I have bought just a couple of things since we moved to Cairo and they aren’t big.  And I have given some stuff away.  And we came 11 months ago with the same size container.  So: feeling pretty good.  Also feeling pretty good about Muffin Monday this week!  Finally, a savory muffin!  Anuradha didn’t tie us down to one recipe, just an ingredient: Cheese.  Well, you know I am all over that!  So I had a rake through the freezer and the cheese drawer (You don’t have a cheese drawer in your refrigerator?  Well, why the heck not?  I am flexible on what can go in there and, so, there is actually a baloney from Bologna there too.  And some beef salami.) and came up with some gorgonzola, pepperoni and a bag of frozen homemade pizza sauce.  Oh, yeah!  But you knew that from the title already, didn’t you?  As they say in Malaysia, you so smart.   Make this muffin.  You even smarter.

Ingredients
1 1/2 cups or 190g flour
1 teaspoon sugar
1 tablespoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon crushed red pepper
1/2 teaspoon dried oregano
3/4 cup or 180ml milk
1 egg
1/4 cup or 60ml canola oil
1 cup or 240ml pizza sauce, divide into 1/2 cup or 120ml for muffin and balance for topping
100g Gorgonzola (And other strong cheese can be used as well.)
50g pepperoni

Method
Preheat your oven to 375°F or 190°C and generously grease your muffin tin or use paper liners.

Cut your pepperoni into pieces and grate or cut your cheese into chunks.  My Gorgonzola had been in the freezer so, as you can see, it crumbled when I tried to cut it.   If you would like, reserve 12 small pieces of the pepperoni to put on top of the batter before baking.

In a large bowl, mix together your flour, sugar, baking powder, salt, crushed red pepper and dried oregano.

Add the cut pepperoni to the flour mixture and use your hands to separate the little pieces from each other.

In a separate bowl, whisk the egg, milk, and oil together.

Add your wet ingredients to your dry and mix just until it is just combined.

Gently fold in half of the pizza sauce and all of the Gorgonzola cheese.  It's NOT pretty but don't let that put you off.  It will be delicious.

Spoon the batter into your prepared muffin tin.

Divide the remaining pizza sauce between the muffin cups.  Top with a little piece of pepperoni, if saved.

Bake in your preheated oven for 20-25 minutes or until a toothpick inserted comes out clean.

Allow the muffins to cool for a few minutes then remove from the muffin pan and cool on a rack.

Enjoy!

Pepperoni, Mozzarella and Tomato Appetizer

Now, you may never have this problem:  Leftover pepperoni.  But I had lovely guests last night and we made pizza!  It was delicious and the companionship sublime.  I finally saw the final, final Harry Potter movie in very good company.  When he died?  My heart stopped.  When his eyelid wiggled, my heart leaped.  J.K. Rowling is a master.  

Anyhoo, I had leftover pepperoni and since I had spent the day cleaning out my cupboards and freezer in anticipation of my move to Cairo, I felt I deserved a bit of bubbly.  And you just can’t drink bubbly, even one glass, without a little something to go with it.

As a child, I remember fondly the days my mother would let us fry, yes, fry, salami.  Did we not have bacon? Did we prefer salami?  I have no recollection of the reasons why.  But I do remember how the salty salami tasted and how it rolled up to a little bowl when it cooked.  I wondered if pepperoni, basically a small salami, would do the same.  If it didn’t, my plan would be spoiled.

Whoo hoo!   It does curl up.  Which means I can fill it.  Man, I am happy!

Ingredients

Pepperoni – as many slices as you need to feed your guests at least two or three each (But, this isn’t the only appetizer you are serving, right?)

Mozzarella – this can be the packaged kind.  As much as you need to cut a small cube of 1cm or 1/2in each per pepperoni slice

Red, ripe tomatoes – once again, as many as it would take to cover your pepperoni with a thin slice of tomato

Black pepper

Method

Drizzle a little olive oil in a non-stick pan and then fry the pepperoni until it curls up into tiny bowls, turning them over halfway through.

Turn the fire off and remove the pan from the stove.  Cut small chunks of mozzarella and put them in each pepperoni bowl. 

Cover the skillet and let the cheese melt.  Meanwhile, slice your tomatoes pretty thin and cut the slices into pepperoni sizes pieces.

Check on the cheese.  Fix the ones that melted out of the pepperoni bowls.  As the cheese cools again, it will stay in the pepperoni.  Just keep putting it back in.

Transfer your mozzarella-filled pepperoni bowls to a plate.  Top with the tomato slices.  Give the whole plate a good couple of grinds of freshly ground black pepper.

I can’t tell you how nicely all these three things go together: the spicy, salty pepperoni, the mild mozzarella and the naturally, slightly acidic tomatoes!  Especially with a cold glass of bubbly.  Try it yourself.   Pop this in your mouth!