Pama-drizzled Steak, Fontina and Frisee Pizza in Cyberspace

Please vote for my Pama-drizzled Steak, Fontina and Frisee Pizza at Pama on Facebook!

I was a late-comer to the whole Facebook rage. My teens had been connecting with their friends via this social networking site long before my H and I jumped on the cyber bandwagon. I am still a little bit undecided as to whether or not I like it.

As newbies my H and I have been confronted with a few of the perils of Facebooking, like when you first sign up and it asks if you want your entire contact list to be asked to be your friend...which my H unwittingly did. To his embarrassment anyone, including people he works with, from whom he had ever received an email was sent a little note saying "...XXX would like you to be his friend...". Yeah, embarrassing. I fell victim to tagging. Tagging is when someone posts a picture of you identifying you as the person in the photo for all contacts on yours and your friends pages to see. A high school friend, not knowing how sensitive I would be to presenting photos of my past to acquaintances of my present, posted a picture of me after a day at the Jersey Shore from the early 1980s with my behind in the freezer attempting to cool the worst sunburn of my life; benign, I know, but still embarrassing (at my request she promptly removed it and sent some flowers as an amends).

The positives to Facebook and other social networking sites are that it allows you to connect with long lost friends from the past that at one time you may only have caught up with at high school reunions every 10 years or so. It also gives you an instant connection with people and family, allowing you to immediately keep those you care about informed of what is going on in your life via daily status updates and photo albums. The negatives are quite frankly the same as the positives.

While I have found it to be a mostly positive experience I can clearly see the drawbacks; maybe you were OK with catching up with people only at your high school reunions, maybe you don't want to be tagged in a dredged up old photo of yourself from the eighth grade wearing pinball wizard t-shirt earrings and a homemade rope necklace. But like it or hate it, social networking sites seem to be here to stay and the wave of the future for many people and now for many companies.

I entered my first recipe contest that is being run exclusively on Facebook. Pama, the pomegranate flavored liqueur, asked consumers to come up with recipes using Pama, become a fan of Pama on Facebook and then vote on your favorite recipe for a chance to go to the Aspen Food and Wine Festival. Cool prize, right? I could not resist.

Immediately I thought of a sweet-savory combination of beef and the pomegranate liqueur. I went with a pizza-which I seem to be making a lot of lately. The crust I used for testing was my favorite multi-grain crust from Whole Foods (I cannot say enough great things about it: fabulous flavor, great texture, easy to use). I lightly oiled the crust then spread a thin layer of beef demi glace over before topping with shredded fontina. Next I seared a steak in a cast iron grill pan to medium rare. While it was resting I reduced a cup of the Pama liqueur to a syrupy 2 tablespoons. After topping the pizza with slices of steak and additional cheese I drizzled the Pama syrup over the entire pizza. For a final cool crunch I topped it with coarsely chopped Frisee. It really came out delicious.

If you are on Facebook I would really love it if you could find in your heart to cast a vote for my pizza. You just need to look for Pama-drizzled Steak, Fontina and Frisee pizza....thanks so much!I promise I won't bug you to be my friend!

Pama-drizzled Steak, Fontina and Frisee Pizza Flour
1 pound Multi-grain or whole wheat pizza dough
1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
1 tablespoon beef or veal demi glace
1/2 lb. Fontina Cheese
1/2 teaspoon crumbled dried rosemary
1 cup Pama Pomegranate Liqueur
1 clove garlic, peeled and split
1 boneless beef loin strip steak (about 8 ounces)
3/4 teaspoon kosher salt
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper,
1 cup coarsely chopped frisee lettuce


1. Preheat oven to 450 degrees. On a lightly floured surface stretch the dough to fit a 13 or 14 inch round pizza pan.

2. Brush the dough with the oil then evenly spread the demi glace over. Sprinkle two thirds of the Fontina cheese over the crust and top with the rosemary. Bake in the oven until crust is browned and cheese is bubbly, about 15-20 minutes.

3. Bring the Pama Pomegranate Liqueur to a boil; reduce heat and simmer until liquid reduces to 2 tablespoons.

4. Heat a heavy grill pan or skillet over medium high heat. Rub both sides of the steak with the garlic; discard garlic clove. Add the steak to the hot pan and cook 4-5 minutes per side turning once. Remove steak from the pan and season with 1/2 teaspoon of the salt and the pepper; let rest for 5 minutes before carving into 1/4 inch thick slices.

5. Remove the pizza from the oven. Arrange the steak slices over the crust and sprinkle with the remaining cheese. Return pizza to the oven for 1-2 minutes to melt the cheese. Remove from the oven and top with the chopped frisee and season with the remaining salt. Drizzle the reduced Pama over the pizza before cutting pizza into wedges to serve.