International Cooperation – Columbus Pizza

What would you call the biggest proof of successful international cooperation? If you follow media, you will probably talk about globalization, Kyoto protocol, G8/G20 meetings and of course – global war on terrorism. Than those of you whose activities are related to Sales will say that there also goes the possibility to trade commodities worldwide, basically providing us with the ability to fulfill our primary needs, such as heat, cultural development and iPhones. Gen Y will fight you to death until you agree that it all can be defined by all those buddies around the world you can communicate through Facebook, Google +, Twitter etc. Even though there is a seed of rational in each of mentioned above thoughts, I truly believe that the key illustration to international cooperation and development is food we eat every day. Sounds intriguing, right?

Let’s consider onions. They were first cultivated in ancient Egypt. Actually, those poor guys who had to sweat all day long under burning sun to build pyramids were eating lots of onions. Talking about pyramids, it troubles me that those workers had no unions, and their rights were heavily abused on a daily basis – what a shame, building Wonder of the World with no appropriate treatment. Why didn’t their activists do something? Oh, now I start getting it – that’s what all those protests last spring were all about! But what is even more interesting is how onions were perceived. Typically we say that onion stinks and stings eyes; but Egyptians had the whole different idea – they took spherical onions with all its’ layers as a symbol of eternal life. Maybe they did respect their workers feeding them such a divine food after all? Then Greeks and Romans came, conquered Egypt, took over onions to combine them with olives in traditional Mediterranean salad; but that is not of much interest to us anymore.

And guess what was happening half-way across the globe in North America? I think it will not come as a surprise that no one heard of onions there. Corn was the trend of those times. Its cultivation was not as sophisticated as it is now. I mean, their technologies were primitive and no one had this genius idea to grown genetically modified corn, but still – our ancestors managed to hand corn crops down to their sons and on and on. I bet they were just trying to cultivate pop-corn seeds to be able to sit back and observe what will be happening around now – no one will deny we live through interesting times to observe; now, it gets ugly when you have to experience all this, but simply observing with pop-corn must be fun.

And there is one more issue I wanted to rise today. Even as school kids we learn about monkeys that heroically travelled into open space and made space exploration possible. But what about hens and pigs that were aboard ships travelling to New World? Weren’t they as much important in 15^th century as rockets in 20^th? Where do humane associations look?

Bringing thoughts back to international cooperation – what would be your guess, where did corn, onions and hens meet first? I bet it was on Christopher Columbus’ caravel, when Old and New Worlds collapsed, producing, among others, tons of new dishes. Therefore, please find below the recipe that combines best traditions of both old and new, modern and traditiona.

Columbus Pizza

You will need:

For dough:

1 glass                   Flour

1 dash                   Yeast

3 oz                       Butter

1                           Egg

1 dash                   Sugar

                             Salt

                             Warm water

For sauce:

1 cup                     Tomato paste

¾ cup                    Chicken broth

                             Dried Italian herbs

                             Paprika

                             Allspice

                             Salt

For topping:

1                            Chicken breast

¾ can                     Sweet corn

½ can                     Black olives

1                            Onion

5 oz                        Cheese
3 tbsp                     Vinegar
                               Salt
                               Ground black pepper

Method:

1. In a medium pot boil chicken breast.

2. Prepare dough like described here.

3. Pickle onion.

    3.1. Peel and wash onion. Keep in under cold water for around a minute – this way it will lose some of its bitterness and stinginess.

    3.2. Cut onion into rings. Place them into a bowl.

    3.3. Add black pepper, salt and vinegar to onion.

    3.4. Cover with water. Let stand aside for around 30 minutes.

4. Make tomato sauce according to this recipe. For richer taste and flavor substitute water for chicken broth or bouillon left after boiling chicken.

5. Cut chicken into medium pieces.

6. Cut olives in halves.

7. Grate cheese.

8. Generously spread tomato sauce over pizza crust.

9. Arrange, in order, cut chicken, corn, pickled onion rings, olive halves.

Tip: if you wish, you might sprinkle chicken and vegetables with salt and dried Italian herbs.

10. Sprinkle shredded cheese on top.

11. Preheat oven to 360 F. Put baking sheet with pizza into oven. Bake for around 30 minutes until crust is ready.

12. Columbus Pizza is ready to be served. Bon appétit!

There still is so much to be discovered in the voyage for truth and understanding. So never stop and keep moving. Hopefully, good food will help you in the quest.

Sincerely yours,
Mrs Lovett