Ahh... the succulent taste of Pizza! Those who know me well knew this post was coming soon, I suppose. The wait is over, the time is now, and the food is Pizza.
Sunday night is Pizza night at the Vranizan residence. A time when we can take all the leftovers from the previous week, pile them atop dough sauce and cheese, and enjoy. It is my favorite food, and a solid way to ease me back to work the next morning.
I will try and share the recipe the best I can, but I do not really measure when I make pizza dough. My father taught me to cook my pizza from the heart, and I am my father's son. Instead of sharing my exact recipe with you, I'll leave you with some helpful pointers I have learned over time:
- When using Olive Oil, don't use the "Extra Virgin" stuff! It burns when you bake it (Thanks Pops!).
- Punch it and kneed it throughout the day as it rises. Doing so gives you a springy dough that is easy to manipulate and tastes full! We don't want flaky pie dough!
- When orignially mixing it all together, don't skimp! The more time you spend kneeding it the better it will turn out. I use a Kitchen-Aid with the dough hook for at least 15min.
- Use Brown Sugar to feed the yeast! They love molasses as much as I do (Not really true but it tastes delicious)!
Toppings we used:
- Peppers (Left over from stir-fry)
- Black Olives (Found in pantry)
- Sundried Tomatoes (From some pasta we made)
- Jalapeno stuffed olives (Found in fridge)
- Pepperoni (Left over from something... don't remember. Still good!)
- Mushrooms (Left over from fried rice)
- Fresh Pineapple (Other half goes to the dinner tomorrow night! Stay tuned...)
- Cornmeal instead of flour under the pizza pie when baking. Learn it, love it, live it.
- Some will tell you the point of a pizza stone is to pre-heat it in the oven first. I have done it pre-heated and not pre-heated and never noticed a difference. It heats up fast in the oven regardless and gives the pizza a good solid bake.
- Tillamook Mozzarella cheese is not my favorite, but when it is on sale I buy it anyways to support the local flavor. I prefer Precious.
- Anything can go on a pizza. Anything.
- Chianti is almost always my favorite wine pairing, regardless of what ends up on the pizza.
I do not appreciate you trying to tell ME how to make a pizza. Maybe you forgot the results of the pizza bake off? Here's a shot of the pizza I made for breakfast moments ago: http://www.joespizzapalace.com/img/pizza.jpg
ReplyDelete-Love, Cam.