A Pizza Stone, Pesto, and Arugula

tourists in Ohio

Logo for a friend’s organic farm / Vicki Smith

Hello,

You know that you have become invisible when you drive seven hours to a family wedding in eastern Ohio and the newlyweds lament in their thank you note that you could not attend. In any event, my husband and I enjoyed the church wedding, the fairground reception, and catching up with his family. My brother-in-law had booked rooms at a cinder block, family-owned motel with rust stains in the tub that smelled like a musty basement. To his credit, it looked better in the photos online. I thought my husband would tell me to “offer it up”, but we moved on to more comfortable accommodations for only ten bucks more a night.

Ohio, as anyone who watches the Antiques Road Show knows, is renowned for its art pottery from the turn of the 20th century exemplified by such companies as Roseville Pottery Co., Rookwood Pottery, and Weller Pottery. Immigrants from Europe brought along their pottery-making skills and discovered that the clay of Ohio was free of impurities. We did a bit of sightseeing and visited the National Road and Zane Grey Museum in Norwich. The museum houses a significant collection of local pottery including tiles that were designed for the ceiling of the state capital in Albany. The National Road was the first major highway built by the federal government between the Potomac and Ohio Rivers to move pioneers West. An original Conestoga wagon was on display and much larger than I could have imagined from watching Westerns with my dad as a kid. Conestoga wagons were pulled by oxen and carried the necessities for resettlement. Our tour guides were an older married couple who interrupted each other along the way but provided additional local color as they were descendants of Germans who had settled in the area. The wife, for reasons that I can not remember, mentioned that the most authentic sauerkraut is from Aldi. Zane Grey, the other component of the museum name, was a novelist who wrote adventure stories about the Wild West.

My Dad’s ox yoke

The John and Annie Glenn Museum in nearby New Concord was the boyhood home of John Glenn, decorated WW11 fighter pilot, the first American to orbit the earth, and a senator from the state of Ohio among many other accomplishments. The house has been recreated to resemble life during the Second World War and was also staffed with guides who had a strong connection to the area and would offer their first-hand insights into the character of John Glenn. Plus, they seemed genuinely delighted to share their information. One of the guides reminisced about watching the parade, given by his hometown when Glenn returned from space, from her father’s shoulders. Another guide was a period actor playing John Glenn’s mother. She greeted us as if we were prospective boarders that the Glenn family took in from the local college. During the tour of the family kitchen, she explained that leftover cooking fat was turned over to the butcher and then used by the government to produce glycerin for making bombs. A form of recycling that I had been blessedly ignorant of.

Zanesville Pottery is a shop loaded with pottery, but I purchased a pizza stone. I immediately had second thoughts as I realized that the pizza stone is heated first in a very hot oven and then requires a pizza peel, which I didn’t want to purchase and store, to transfer the dough to the hot stone. It seemed like too big a commitment for the number of times that I would make pizza. However, I discovered a way around it. I have been able to quite easily make individual pizzas on my wooden cutting board that has been heavily dusted with cornmeal. I pull out the oven rack with the pizza stone on it and the pie simply slides from the board onto the stone. My friend Elizabeth recently told me about some delicious pesto pizza topped with arugula that she had in Providence RI so I decided to duplicate that.

Pesto

Ingredients

4 cloves garlic, peeled and minced

1/3 cup olive oil

2 cups firmly packed fresh basil

1/4 cup pine nuts or walnuts

1/2 cup grated parmesan

Directions

In a food processor or blender combine the garlic and oil. Process until smooth. Add the basil and nuts. Process until smooth. Transfer the mixture to a bowl and stir in the parmesan.

Heat the pizza stone on a lower rack of the oven for 45 minutes at 450 degrees. I bought one pound of pizza dough at the grocery store and divided it into five sections. I always try to twirl it around a bit, but when that fails I resort to a rolling pin on a wooden board heavily covered with cornmeal. Spread the dough with the pesto and follow the baking instructions on the package. Mine baked in about 12 minutes. Top with arugula.

Thanks for reading!

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Vicki