Zapiekanka: A Polish Street Food Goes Gourmet, with Swiss Chard Pesto, Sauteed Crimini Mushrooms, Oven Roasted Corn, and Garlic Aioli on a Fresh Homemade Baguette for the 5 Star Pizza Makeover

Imagine my surprise when the theme for this month's 5 Star Makeover - hosted as always by the prolific Natasha of 5 Star Foodie and Lazaro of Lazaro Cooks! - was announced. Pizza. But wait a minute. I just made a pizza for last month's 5 Star farmers market challenge: the glorious Tycoon, a manly pie dripping with steak and blue cheese and potatoes and quail eggs.

No matter - if there's one thing I love it's stuff on bread, and the possibilities are endless. And it seems I tend to get inspired by the various permutations of pizza  I encounter on my travels.  Last year I recreated (and created) a few versions of langos, Hungarian deep fried pizza, after visiting Budapest. So it seemed only fitting that for this pizza challenge I would create a gourmet version of zapiekanka, a  pizza-esqe Polish street food I enjoyed in Krakow. Remember?

Zapiekankas often  feature a bizarre combination of toppings, but they tend to have certain things in common: the French bread, a layer of mushrooms, and often a hard cheese and some sort of sauce. The one on the right, with sausage and pickles and barbecue sauce, was every bit as delicious (and kind of weird) as it sounds. The one on the left, however, did not deliver on its promise of big flavors that I thought it would have thanks to  the spinach and garlic sauce. So I decided to make my own, from scratch, the way I wanted it to taste.

I promised myself I wouldn't make a pizza with a  50 million ingredients to put together  like I did with the Tycoon, but as it turns out, I lied. Won't be the last time!

But this pizza was worth every minute I spent in my hellishly hot kitchen, occasionally (well, maybe almost constantly) cursing  like a drunken sailor for being crazy enough to blast the oven in August in a house with no central air. Seriously. The earthy mushrooms, the nutty Swiss chard pesto, the sweet crunchy corn, and the very garlicky aioli piled on top of a fresh-from-the-oven-baguette is definitely worth its weight in my sweat. And if you still have an appetite after that visual, read on.

Zapiekanka Makeover

For the Swiss chard pesto, in a food processor  combine one bunch of stemmed chard leaves, 1/2 cup chopped walnuts, 3 cloves of garlic, and a squeeze of lemon juice, and whizz it all together while adding  enough olive oil to reach a spreadable consistency. Salt and pepper to taste. 

For the roasted corn, soak 2 un-shucked ears in water and then roast at 400 degrees F for 30 minutes. To get some charring, shuck the corn and hold over the flame of a gas burner. When cool, cut the kernels from the ears. 

To make the mushroom saute, chop one shallot and about a pound of crimini mushrooms. Saute the shallots in butter until transparent, then add the mushrooms, cooking over medium high heat until they release their water. Add a few sprigs of thyme and some chopped fresh rosemary and  continue to cook to cook until most of the liquid evaporates. Then add 1/4 cup good red wine and simmer until evaporated. Salt and pepper to taste.

For the garlic aioli, by all means use a stand mixer! I know that the classic way is to hand whisk, but your emulsion is much less likely to break with machine power. And make sure to buy fresh eggs from real cage-free chickens at your local farmers market. If you're worried about using raw egg, you could use pasteurized. You'll need 2 yolks, 1 tsp mustard powder, 1 tsp salt, 1/2 tsp cold water, 1 tsp lemon juice, 1 cup of good extra virgin olive oil, and 3-5 minced garlic cloves, depending on how garlicky you like it. Except for the cold water, everything should be at room temperature. First, whisk together the yolks and the garlic. With the wire whisk attachment and your mixer going on high, start adding the olive oil one drop at a time. DO NOT RUSH THIS STEP. Once you've added about half the oil, add the mustard powder, salt, cold water, and lemon juice. Then slowly add the rest of the oil.

To make my baguette, I followed the (almost) no-knead recipe at the King Arthur flour blog, except I used half bread flour and half AP rather than all AP. I have made yeast breads many times, but never a baguette for some reason. And while I am not about to put Peter Rhinehart out of business, I'm pretty proud of my results:

Note that you must begin this bread the night before you plan to bake it.

After making all of my ingredients in a single afternoon, I was finally ready to have some zapiekanka! I layered the ingredients, added a bit of Parmesan for good measure, and stuck it all under a broiler to get everything warm. (Of course the garlic aioli didn't go on until the zaps came out of the broiler.)

Who knew that making street food in your kitchen is so much work?

Thanks to Natasha and Lazaro for hosting this monthly soiree, and make sure to check out all the other pizzas - Natasha will post the round up Friday, just follow the link below. And guys? Let's not have September's theme be a zapiekanka makeover, okay?

hosted by 5 Star Foodie & Lazaro Cooks!