Many Franklin County residents have happy memories of The Copper Angel.
Chef Gail Beauregard has cooked in restaurants under that name off and on for years — most memorably to me in Shelburne Falls from 1993 to 2002, but also on the border between Erving and Orange from 2004 to 2008.
For a couple of years around 2010, she sold pizza from her home in Warwick. She put an end to that venture when she took a full-time job in Greenfield.
A couple of years ago she moved on to work as the chef at the Shutesbury Elementary School and found she had a little more time on her hands.
“I wasn’t intending to open again really, because I had a good job,” Beauregard told me when I interviewed her a couple of weeks ago.
“But … every time I would go to the dump and see someone in town or see someone at the library, they would say, ‘When are you opening again?’”
She gave in to public pressure (and, it would seem, her own secret desire to serve pizza to adults once more) and reopened her pizza business on Athol Road in Warwick a year ago.
Beauregard still works at the school, so she limits the Copper Angel to one day a week. The restaurant serves pizza and Beauregard’s fresh breads every Thursday from 5 to 8 p.m.
“It’s been great. I love having the community here,” she told me. “I just have fun.”
Beauregard prepares and bakes pizza and bread in two commercial kitchens at one end of her home. The bright red wall of the bread kitchen, the wood paneling in the pizza kitchen and the general atmosphere of a profesasional home make her workspace warm figuratively, as well as literally.
Diners may either take out their bread and pizza or eat in Beauregard’s yard. Outdoor tables are available in warm months in the front yard. A small (20-seat) building in the back yard can also be used in spring, summer, and fall for indoor dining.
Like the cooking space, this outdoor/indoor dining room radiates warmth and hospitality. Originally a small barn, it has been lovingly restored and decorated by its owner. A propane heater keeps the elements at bay on cold spring or fall evenings.
Each week, Beauregard offers one vegetarian special pizza, one meat special and à la carte options from standard toppings. Customers may also request gluten-free pizza.
I asked the chef why she chose to serve pizza.
“I guess I feel like I’ve always been into breads, and so the pizza dough with the yeast is a very easy transition for me,” she explained. She added that her experience working at a school made her realize that pizza is a more or less universal food.
She finds cooking at the school extremely satisfying. “I cook for a bunch of really cute kids. I feed between 40 and 50 for breakfast and between 80 and 90 for lunch; that’s a number that’s good for me. I feel like I can make everything from scratch, and it’s not a stress,” she noted.
She also derives a great deal of satisfaction from her pizza business. “People have responded,” she said. “It has become a community gathering place. People eat and socialize. New people in town meet other people in town.”
When Paul Franz and I stopped in to watch Beauregard make pizza one Thursday evening last month, she was in fact being assisted by one of Warwick’s newer residents.
Wolven (“I don’t know his last name,” Beauregard admitted with a smile) helps out at the pizzeria every other week in exchange for pizza, beer and the chance to meet his neighbors.
If I lived closer to Warwick, I would probably help out in exchange for pizza as well. The butternut squash and caramelized onion pizza Beauregard served us was warming and flavorful. And eating the bialies she gave us to take home was practically a religious experience.
Ingredients:
For the toppings:
1 medium butternut squash
olive oil as needed
salt and pepper to taste
a tiny bit of grated nutmeg
onion, julienned
for the white sauce:
2 T. butter
2 T. flour
1 cup milk
2 to 4 T. Parmesan cheese
salt and pepper to taste
For assembly:
1 14-inch round pizza crust
a small amount of olive oil, Italian seasoning and granulated garlic
6 ounces shredded cheese — mozzarella or a blend of mozzarella, cheddar, and provolone
Instructions:
First, roast the squash. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Cut the squash into small cubes. In a bowl, toss cubes with olive oil, salt and pepper to taste and a small amount of nutmeg.
Transfer the coated squash to a baking sheet and roast it until it turns golden brown and soft to the touch, about 15 to 20 minutes.
While the squash is roasting, begin caramelizing the onion pieces. Cook them in a skillet over low to medium heat with a little bit of olive oil and salt and pepper to taste until they start to turn golden brown, 20 to 30 minutes. Stir from time to time.
When the vegetables are ready, preheat the oven to 450 degrees and get started on the white sauce. Melt the butter in a saucepan and whisk in the flour. Continue to whisk and cook the combination for a couple of minutes to allow the butter and flour to meld. Then slowly whisk in the milk.
Cook the sauce until it is thick, adjusting the density with more cooking or a little more milk as needed. Toss in the Parmesan and salt and pepper to taste.
Pat or stretch the pizza dough across your pizza pan. In a small bowl, combine a small amount of olive oil, Italian seasoning and granulated garlic. Brush this mixture onto the crust; then spread the white sauce on top.
Toss on some of the squash (you will have leftover squash to enjoy on its own) plus the onions. Add the cheese and bake the pizza until it starts to turn golden brown and bubble, about 15 minutes.
Makes six to eight slices.
Tinky Weisblat of Hawley is the author of “The Pudding Hollow Cookbook” and “Pulling Taffy.” If you have a suggestion for a future Blue Plate Special, please email Tinky at Tinky@TinkyCooks.com. For more information about Tinky, visit her website, www.TinkyCooks.com.