Shari Bonnin is a talented jewelry and clothing designer from Orange, CA and our November Mom of the Month. I knew Shari from Twitter (@sbonnin) and much to our surprise we met in real life when I recognized her at a parents orientation at UC Santa Cruz this summer. As it turns out, both our daughters’ top choice for college was UCSC and, based on their interest in the arts, they had both selected the same residence hall! Shari shares this recipe for Coca Mallorquina, a splendid rustic pizza from the Majorca region of Spain. She wrote this post for her website, BonninDesigns, in 2008 and it perfectly expresses my mission of not only promoting cooking at home, but honoring our parents and preserving cultural traditions through the cooking that they so lovingly shared with us through the years. Please take a moment to read Shari’s words and drool over the best pizza in the world 🙂
Three years ago my husband’s mother passed away. Prior to that we would go to their home many weekends and eat Cuban food prepared by both my mother-in-law and my father-in-law as they shared the kitchen. Since her passing, we really haven’t eaten much Cuban food and my father-in-law seemed not interested in cooking much, even for himself.
For several years, my husband has wanted his father to come to our home and teach us how to make one of the family’s favorite dishes, Coca Mallorcin. It’s a Spanish pizza but my father in law (Nestor) says that you can’t get his version anywhere, even if you spent $100. He says that in Spain, they don’t put enough stuff on the pizza and his version is the best. After eating his version last night, I would have to agree hands down that it is the greatest pizza ever eaten.
I believe one reason Nestor hasn’t made it sooner was because of the time the dough takes to make as well as just his loss of interest in cooking. I had a solution to get him over here and not worry about the dough this time. Thanks to Trader Joe’s and their refrigerated pizza dough, our first problem was solved. Next time we can make the dough from scratch. The next issue I hoped would resolve once he got started.
Our day started at 3 pm with slowly chopping and preparing the ingredients for the dough and at the same time listening to stories of Nestor’s younger years in Cuba as well him sharing his tricks and tips on how to make these cocas different and even venturing into the next time he comes over other dishes he will share with us. He was truly in his element and I hadn’t seen joy like that from him in a long time.
So, on to the recipe 🙂
Coco Mallorquina
2 bunches of swiss chard
3 prepared pizza doughs
Spanish chorizo sliced (or a hot dried sausage such as Boar’s Head Apprezzese)
1 lb uncooked, peeled shrimp
¼ cup capers
½ cup sliced green olives
1 onion sliced
3 tomatoes sliced
5 cloves garlic minced
Salt
Flour for rolling dough
Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
1. roll out dough to fit onto cookie sheet or pizza pan
2. brush the dough lightly with olive oil
3. salt the dough (we added quite a bit)
4. start adding ingredients starting with ¾ of the swiss chard and end with the remaining swiss chard
5. drizzle olive oil on the pizza
6. bake until dough is cooked on edges. Swiss chard should be a bit crispy and shrimp should be pink (about 12-15 min)
And of course don’t forget a good bottle of Spanish Rioja. We drank Marques de Riscal Reserva 2003. Chin-chin.
Thanks for this Priscilla. I’m going to have to eat that again soon. It’s sooo yummy. I love that video you did! So fun.
Hey Priscilla, I’m drooling;) Wine looks delicious too.
@Shari – glad you like it! Animoto videos are great – the song is called “Havana Rules” .
@Pachecopatty – Thanks, I know, I want some right now!
What a lovely post. Thanks for introducing me to Shari. I just love finding recipes that have deep, family connections. I’m seriously drooling over this pizza! Just delicious!
Shari sounds pretty incredible, thanks for featuring her! And the pizza looks fantastic! Food with special memories or affiliations always tastes better, doesn’t it? 🙂
Oh fantastic, I am so glad you got him to make his special recipe for you. How crazy that you met up with someone you knew on Twitter at a college orientation!
Ooo`I love that grocery list. This is my kind of pizza!
Priscilla, Thanks for introducing us to Shari. Her Coco Mallorquina looks delicious. That is a heavenly pizza!
Your meeting story is so amazing 🙂 and love that family kept recipe pizza, looks delicious and bet went well with the wine
this recipe is such a keeper..i love it. thank you for sharing this.
Hi Shari, what a great story and wow pizza…I am glad that this seemed to get your Father in-law back into his groove. He is correct in that you could never buy a pizza like this…
Priscilla,loved the video add, very nice 🙂