Friday, January 21, 2011

Pizza Trio! A Dance in Italy.


What's better than piping hot homemade pizza? Why the pizza from your favorite pizzeria of course! I kid, I kid, but up until a few days ago, that was completely true for me. My homemade pizzas had a way of morphing into mass piles of toppings heaped onto a watery 'dumpling' dough or a dough so chewy, it felt like pizza flavored gum (NOT as nice as it sounds). But this time I teamed up with a fellow pizza lovin' cus, teamwork helps! Three types of pizzas in one night? No problemo. (Dough recipe from allrecipes.com, Phyllis's pizza dough).

  • Baby Spinach Feta
  • White Wonder
  • Mushroom Craze

First of all, this does not take that long. Of course being homemade pizza, it does take more than most of my quickie recipes here. Consider this a Friday night dinner, the whole family will have fun joining in and spending time together. Now first you should know I made a quick recipe pizza dough, but it still came out beautifully. I have in mind an overnight dough for later, which I will compare and update you guys on.
  • 1 package yeast
  • 1 c warm water (not hot, just warm-ish
  • 2 ts sugaR
  • 2 c all purpose flour
  • 2 tb oil (olive recommended)
  • 1 ts salt
  • Combine the yeast, water, and sugar. Let sit for ten minutes, get everything else together until then.

Add the flour, oil, and salt to your yeast mixture and either start kneading (for 10 min) or throw it in your stand mixer. If using a stand mixer, keep it on 2, use a dough hook, and let it rip for 5 -7 minutes. Using this dough recipe from allrecipes.com, I had to add extra flour as the dough was pretty unworkable. So go ahead and add tiny bits of flour until you get something workable. Let it rest, covered, and near (12 in) a medium flame on the stove top.


When the dough is doubled, turn on your oven, 450 F. If you have a Pizza Stone -
use it! I not being able to afford stones, bought four unglazed ceramic quarry tiles from a Lowe's Home Improvement store. Do make sure they are unglazed. And place on the bottom rack in your oven. I will give a link for a good Pizza Stone as well.

Using a sharp knife, cut the dough into 2 pieces, be gentle. Take a piece and start to shape it into a round pie. By using your fingertips and pressing and gently (gently) stretching at the same time. (1/4 inch thick is good) Take your little pizza and lay into a heavily cornmealed sheet. Bake in the oven for 3-4 minutes. Take out and add sauce and toppings. Be gentle with both, I know it is tempting but I have finally learned my lesson. After ripped and wet pizzas, one after the other. Ideally, make or buy a pizza sauce, they are thicker than bottled. Or boil your bottled sauce until it becomes thicker. In a pinch go ahead and used bottled, it just wont be as good.


WHITE WONDER

  • Layer mozzarella down (no red sauce in this one guys, don't worry it is AMAZING)
  • Next add some baby spinach leaves, a packed cupful is good.
  • Throw small 'blobfuls' of ricotta on top, randomly, all over the pie.
  • Throw feta all over the pie, the amount depends highly on your preference.
  • Lightly sprinkle with salt, and black pepper.Place the pizza directly on the stones (or keep it in your tray)

MUSHROOM CRAZE

  • Saute a cupful of chopped, Shitake, Cremini, Portobello, Button, and Beech. Now obviously guys you can use any mushrooms you want. These are what I happened to pick up at the Chinese Grocery (aka mushroom heaven). Add salt and black pepper, a bit of rosemary can be good too.
  • Spread your pie with sauce, mozzarella, and then mushrooms.

BABY SPINACH and FETA

  • Spread your sauce.
  • Your mozzarella, or mix in some Parmesan and other cheeses - if you're wild :)
  • Add well packed cupful (or 2) of spinach and sprinkle with feta.
  • Sprinkle pie with olive oil, and a bit of salt.
  • Bake your pizzas (right on top of your stones) until the cheese is melted, and bubbly. The recipe I gave was for two medium pizzas.

5 comments:

  1. I could eat your pictures!

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  2. Never made more than one pizza at a time. Looking forward to trying your white version or White Wonder as you called it. I've only had it once a long time ago and as I remember it was pretty good. I will comment on how it went. Cheers.

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  3. Well thanks! I have a pretty poopy camera - like ten years old! 1.2 Megapixels! But I gotta say those pizzas were delish!

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  4. Thanks for coming by my blog and for your nice comments. :) I love homemade pizza, too!! I've never tried shiitake mushrooms before on pizza (althoug I love them!). Can't wait to try it.

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  5. Wow. Do you have an extra room because I'd like to move in! (But not in a creepy way. More in a your-food-is-so-delicious-looking-it-would-never-be-the-same-if-I-made-it kind of way.)

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