[2] Pear, Blue Cheese & Walnut Pizza from 2Teaspoons.com..

[3] Chicken Alfredo Pizza With Walnuts & Gorgonzola from Pillsbury.com.

The restaurant serves both conventional pizzas (arugula, mushrooms, pesto, sausage, etc.); but we can get those elsewhere. Instead, we go for the more unusual selections, such as:

 
This time, we chose a “special” topped with walnuts, goat cheese, and baby spinach.

We loved the toasty, nutty crunch—plus the opportunity to deny the carbs we were consuming by focusing instead on the added nutrition of the walnuts: protein, fiber and different phytonutrients (types of antioxidants).
 
 
INSPIRED BY WALNUT PIZZA!

We then returned to the office to research other approaches to walnut-topped pizza.

We found quite a few pizza recipes that combined walnuts with different cheeses—blue, cheddar, goat, and others—with fruits (apples, pears) and with more conventional pizza toppings (bacon, ham).

So this tip is for home pizza makers: Try some of these ideas for a gourmet Super Bowl experience or for a new take on comfort food.

You can also add some of the ingredients to delivery pizza and frozen pizza.
 
 
TAKE A BITE OF WALNUT PIZZA

So many walnut pizzas, so little time to try them all!

 
 
SUMMER WALNUT PIZZAS

These are summer recipes that require seasonal ingredients such as fresh tomatoes and summer squash (yellow squash, a close relation* of zucchini).

What’s your choice?
 
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*Both zucchini and yellow squash are varieties of the species Cucurbita pepo, which also includes crookneck squash, scalloped squash, straightneck squash, vegetable marrows (no relation to bone marrow, but a name given to the mature fruit (see below), zucchini and cocozelle, a type of zucchini with pale green or yellow stripes. Zucchini and yellow squash are picked from the vine before they are mature, but are tender. If they remain on the vine and grow to maturity, they are larger, drier and tougher—and referred to as marrow.
 
 

CHECK OUT WHAT’S HAPPENING ON OUR HOME PAGE, THENIBBLE.COM.

Chef Ingrid Hoffman created these fun marshmallow snowmen as a project for kids.

All you need:

 
Chef Ingrid stuck the skewers into a piece of styrofoam covered with burlap. You can use half a melon, a stale loaf of bread, or present the skewers on a tray.

Find more of Chef Ingrid’s recipes—serious and fun—at IngridHoffman.com.
 
FONDUE, ANYONE?

These snowmen make great fondue dippers to add to our list of 40 chocolate fondue dippers.

If you want to whip up a batch of chocolate fondue, here are our favorite recipes.

Pisco Portón is an acholado mosto verde
pisco. Its sister brand, La Caravedo, is a
pisco puro, from estate-grown Quebranta
grapes. See the definitions below. Photo
courtesy Pisco Portón.

Peruvians honor their pisco so much there are two annual holidays celebrated nationally: Pisco Sour Day (Día del Pisco Sour), the first Saturday of February; and Pisco Day (Día del Pisco), the fourth Sunday of July.
 
WHAT IS PISCO?

Pisco, a grape-based white spirit, dates from the 16th century. It is Denomination of Origin (D.O.) protected, which means it must be made in Peru, in traditional copper pot stills in small batches.

Pisco was created as an act of rebellion. In 1641, Philip IV, King of Spain imposed heavy taxes on all wine produced in Peru. His Peruvian subjects dodged the tax by distilling the year’s grape harvest in hand-forged copper vats.

A new white spirit was born and christened pisco, after the Port of Pisco from where it was exported. (Pisco means “bird” in the indigenous Quechua language.)

Types Of Pisco

There are three types of pisco:

 
Pisco Portón, marketed as a “super-premium pisco,” is the number-one pisco brand exported to the U.S. It’s the most award-winning pisco in the world.
 
*To make the other two styles of pisco, the fermentation process turns all the sugar content in the grape juice to alcohol. The fermented juice is then distilled. With pisco mosto verde, the juice is distill when there is still sugar present. This results in a product that is velvety and smoother on the palate.

RECIPE: PISCO SOUR

It is believed that the Pisco Sour was invented in at Morris’ Bar in Lima the 1920s by its American owner, Victor Morris. The recipe was perfected by bartender Mario Bruguet, who added the egg whites to create the velvety cocktail we enjoy today.

Here’s Pisco Portón’s recipe for the most popular pisco drink, Pisco Sour.
 
Ingredients Per Drink

 
Preparation

Pisco Sour, the national cocktail of Peru. Photo courtesy Pisco Portón.

2. STRAIN into a glass. Garnish with 3 drops of Angostura bitters.
 
MORE PISCO DRINKS

Here’s a recipe for Pisco Punch. You can find other classic pisco recipes at PiscoPorton.com.