VIEW SLIDESHOW: Top This: Arugula Salad Foldover (à la Simmzy's)
Shimmering sunshine and a lazy ocean breeze drifts through Simmzy's open walled dining room. One whiff of the sea salty air—plus a pint—will draw anyone into the endless summer that is Long Beach's Naples Island. That laid back attitude stops at the glass window into the kitchen. Behind the unassuming burger, pizza, and beer menu is the refined talent of Corporate Executive Chef Anne Conness. Her infectious smile contains a refined palate, honed from years in Los Angeles fine dining establishments. Each dish is a carefully calibrated assemblage of otherwise casual ingredients. On the pizza menu, the Arugula Salad Foldover stands out as the best of the bunch.
It's a simple sounding pie, made of relatively common ingredients combined into four sharply flavored slices, meant to be folded. The crust is covered in rich basil pesto, grassy Drake Family Farms goat cheese and mozzarella. This could be an overtly rich pizza on its own. The heavy base is balanced with peppery Dijon dressed arugula, red peppers, briny olives and sweet oven-roasted tomatoes. As the summer sun streams into the kitchen, Simmzy's Executive Chef Justin Lewis guides us through the making of this not-so-simple simple pizza.
What You'll Need
- 1 portion of dough
- Pesto
- Goat Cheese
- Mozzarella
- Arugula
- Red peppers
- Olives
- Oven-roasted tomato
- Honey Dijon dressing
About the author: Kelly Bone lives in Los Angeles writing The Vegetarian Foodie. She spends the rest of her time designing office cubicles... you might be sitting in one right now! Follow her on Twitter at @TheVegFoodie