Back to the Food

With all this puppy stuff going on - oh and the strep throat too - I haven't had much time to do anything in the kitchen. Or any other room aside from wherever the puppy is or I'm sleeping. But I had always intended on posting about this and hadn't gotten around to it in the weeks before Lucca landed in our lives. (Oh and for all of you who kindly expressed your "get well" wishes - I am about 95% better; thank you so much!)

This attempt was so successful that I made it twice in the last month.

PIZZA!!!!!

Homemade pizza to be exact

I don't know why I haven't made pizza from scratch before. Actually I know why - because I have been scared of yeast (for some reason) until the last month or so. But somehow after getting my mixer and Mom's visit to show me bread - I have no more yeast fear. Go figure. Seems like I've seen a lot of pizza on my food blog visits which basically inspired me to try this truly simple meal.

First things first - it did require a new purchase; a baking stone, but it makes the crust PERFECT so I'm not complaining. Though I'm not quite sure what else I'll use this for. But $20 for the stone and having now made 5 pizzas on it - not so bad! The box says it's great for cookies too but I think I'll stick with my Silpat.

Quite simply: flour, salt, yeast, olive oil and water

I used the America's Test Kitchen recipe for pizza dough as was "advertised" on this recipezaar entry. It was very simple and all done in the food processor. The dough comes together nicely and baked up crispy but soft. It's actually maybe a little too light and thin if you let it rise for a full 2 hours.

Mixed up a quick sauce of garlic, oregano, sugar, tomato sauce and tomato paste - mmm! And then proceeded with my toppings. A Combination and a Hawaiian.

It's nothing fancy - but it's really damn good

In order to successfully do pizza at home - you must turn your oven as HIGH as it will go. I pre-heated my oven to 500° for 1/2 an hour with the stone inside. I don't have a pizza peel so I did as follows and it really was perfect:
-Stretch out the pizza dough to the size you want it and roll/form the barrier crust
-Dust a large sheet of parchment paper with a smattering of cornstarch
-Place the dough on the parchment paper
-Cover with sauce and toppings
-Transfer all to the pizza stone including the parchment (won't burn but will get brown)

***The dough covered with sauce and toppings was too heavy to successfully transfer to the baking stone with 1 set of hands. I needed a second person here so that we could together grasp all 4 corners of the parchment paper for the transfer!!

My spin on Hawaiian - prosciutto, pineapple, shallots and a little green onions

All rustically toasty and beautiful - delicious!

The BEST part of making pizza at home? You can choose EXACTLY the toppings you want. I personally loved throwing a little sliced shallot on my prosciutto and pineapple pizza. ;)

It's a very casual eat since they only bake 1 at a time (unless you have a double oven and 2 baking stones). So the person whose favorite flavor comes out first gets to eat first! But it was really fun and very good. I think it could be a while before we order delivery again. Or DiGiorno...