Real quick for pizza lovers...

One of the things I started this blog with was pizza. With our company this weekend, I perfected a couple of things and wanted to share...

(1) My sauce this weekend was PERFECT. Saute 1/2 of an onion (diced) with 2-3 large cloves of garlic put through a press or zester (minced if not an option) and olive oil. Once all nice and sweaty, dump in a can of diced tomatoes juices and all. Saute until the mixture turns pretty "dry" (most of the excess is out). Then add a can of paste, the volume of the can in water, and mix well over heat. The sauce will be pretty thick, and not simmer right (read: hot tomato sauce splattering all over the kitchen and you), so you just want to bring it up to heat. Process in a blender or with an immersion blender for a nice smooth consistency and flavor with salt and pepper to taste. If you want to add some herbs, feel free to do so with the diced tomatoes. We like fresh basil ON the pizza, so I opt to leave the sauce more plain.

(2) The crust was the same recipe, but I spread the dough out on parchment paper pieces to rise a little again (in little personal-pizza sized portions). At cooking time, I flipped the pieces over onto the grill (paper on top), and peeled the parchment off once placed. It worked PERFECTLY and yielded beautiful, crunchy on the outside/fluffy on the inside, crust. Usually the crust gets sort of mashed down, but this was GREAT. I also, as a first layer, spread garlic butter over the whole crust (after it was flipped like a pancake and the cooked side was up). THEN I put sauce down and made pizza as usual. Gave the part of the crust that didn't have sauce on it a nice taste.

Once the dough was on the grill, everything I'd done in the past was the same.

I totally need to do a tutorial on grilled pizza with everything and delete the old posts...put that as a "to-do" :)

Pizza, undone.

So, in February I posted about my pizza making escapades. While that pizza was good, I have since discovered what is most easily described as spectacular pizza. And these are not my words.
Several weeks back, a good friend of the ball and chain came down for a little visit. Since we have taken up vegetarianism, cooking for company has become...well..interesting. How do you cook for good friends, without them feeling like they went to visit the health nuts?

So, I decided to make individual pizzas that we all could top ourselves. That way, J's friend could add the pepperoni or not. I then had to decide how we would cook the pizzas. The oven would be difficult (I only had one large pizza stone). So, I decided to attempt a trick that I had seen on Food Network ages ago: pizza on the grill. As I brought all the ingredients out, I warned J's friend that we'd never tried this before. J was nervous about making his friend a guinea pig. I assured him that if all else failed - we would be ordering in! Turns out J's friend was ready to invest in our new pizza venture. He liked the pizza so well, he made it at his next get together.

The nice thing is, all the ingredients are the same, the process is just different.

Detailed instructions for making pizza on the grill.

1. Start the water-yeast-sugar mixture on the dough. Set aside.

2. Dice 1 onion and 1-2 cloves garlic. Add to 1/8 cup warm olive oil in medium pot. Cook until onions are starting to turn translucent.

3. Add one can diced (unspiced) tomatoes. Bring to a vigorous simmer and reduce heat (you don't want to burn it, but a small bubble is still good. We are looking to cook down the tomatoes and evaporate excess water).

4. Finish crust. Set aside to rise.

5. Add one can of tomato sauce to the cooking pot, bring to a boil. Use immersion or regular blender to whip and blend sauce up. Return to heat, bring to boil, and simmer to reduce/thicken. Salt as needed (but be careful - it won't need much if any!) Watch closely over the next hour to determine when it is thick (creates a nice thick film on the back of the spoon). You also want to get as much of the water evaporated from the sauce as possible, without turning the darn thing to paste.

6. As the sauce finishes, let the dough rise for the required hour. Remove sauce from heat when necessary. This is a great time to get everything else together, like toppings, plates, and tools. I like to take everything outside with me so fellow eaters can partake in the topping and cooking process.

7. When the crust is done, cut it into 4 equal pieces. I do this right in the bowl, cutting into quarters as best I can visually. Place pieces on large, oiled, cookie sheet in mounds. Work dough as little as possible in this process.

8. Prepare grill. Heat high to clean grill. Reduce heat. Optimal cooking temperature is 400-500 degrees. Spray grill with oil.

9. Quickly work dough to a loose circle. Perfection is not necessary. Imperfection will add to rustic feel. Toss onto grill, and close. Until you get a feel for this, do just one pizza at a time.

10. When the dough is two-thirds done (think a pancake), turn with a pair of tongs or a spatula. Spread some sauce (to desired taste), toss on the toppings, saving the cheese for last. While you can top with the typical mozzarella generally used, I really recommend fresh from the deli (sold in little balls). Just slice up and toss on in chunks. Our favorite pizza is basic: Fresh tomatoes, fresh basil, topped with fresh mozzarella. When topped, close grill and wait for cheese to melt. If extra water is forming on the top, you can tip the pizza to allow it to run off. This can come from the mozzarella or the tomatoes if enough water hasn't evaporated from the sauce.

11. Optional step: after you spread the sauce and top, you can paint on a layer of olive oil and spices around the edge of the pizza (on the exposed edge of the crust). All you need to do is whisk together olive oil, mashed/minced garlic, and whatever additional Italian spices float your boat (basil or oregano). It will make the edges yummy like bread sticks. This mixture is also fantastic to paint over unusable crusts (I always have one of these each batch). You know, a crust you turn to early and crumbles. One that gets a hole in it and is unable to be sauced. Makes a creat nibbler. Just let it finish cooking (in whatever state it's in), and paint the crust with this mixture.

12. Shimmy off the grill with the tongs and a nearby plate, and slice up however you prefer.

This is our pizza: This if for the kids (I use regular shredded mozzarella):

Really, the grill does such a great job of cooking the crust perfectly. It's crunchy on the outside, but soft and chewy on the inside. The only problem I have encountered is some water forming on the top of the pizza, but if you are vigilant about reducing the sauce in steps 5 & 6, it will come out better.

We made this just last night for baby boy's 2nd birthday. The nice thing about this, is that it is easy enough for a weekday night (provided you can get the crust done). You can easily cheat with store bought dough in a pinch. Such fun and so yum.

Who doesn't love pizza...

Aren't toddlers FUN? I mean, who DOESN'T love being tied to a list of 4 meals that the children will eat at any given moment in time. Hello? What rational human being can't sustain themselves on chicken nuggets, pizza, mac and cheese, and PBJ's?

I really wish my kids would eat something other than their "pre approved" list of edible delights. I really did try to expand their horizons. Aside from safety concerns, I never kept any foods from them. My son was breastfed, and I heard from some that the natural changes in flavor of the milk were supposed to support a healthy set of taste buds. Both kids started out loving most foods, but even my easy going guy has become picky as of late.

So, that brings me to pizza. My kids DEVOUR this stuff. My son actually asks for it the moment he wakes up in the morning. So, herein lies my issue.

My kids love pizza...and frozen pizza...wellllll...just doesn't meet my standards for the kiddies. Plus, they're ridiculously expensive. We started buying stacks of tombstone mini pizzas, but our local grocer stopped carrying them. So, I tried a similar looking variety, but figured out the cheese was fake and stopped there. This leaves us with Red Barron, which is good, but not HOMEMADE good.

So...I was talking to the ball and chain one night, and he insisted that he didn't like homemade pizza. If that isn't a challenge, I don't know what is.

Step One: Crust

Knowing next to nothing about baking these - I went ahead and turned to my internet cooking bible and found Jay's Signature Pizza Crust

The thing you have to note about yeast is that it is ALIVE. That's why expiration and the right water temp are important. I have found that taking hot water out of the tap into a room temperature measuring cup, and then pouring that water into a bowl, makes everything about perfect. The thing I hate about bread is that you never know if your loaf is rising until it's too late - not true with this crust. You let the yeast sit in the water with the brown sugar for about 10 minutes. You can actually see the bubbles from the yeast rising.

This makes a nice, bready, fresh crust enjoyed by all! If you are feeling adventurous, you can brush the non-sauced edge of the crust with garlic butter, or toss in some sort of herb.

Step Two: the sauce.


This is where things get fun, because the sky's the limit here.

I typically make a tomato-based sauce for the family. Start with some onion (minced) and some garlic (you can leave out the garlic if you don't like it, but come on, who doesn't like garlic?) Fry it in some olive oil until it’s all blended, translucent, and flavorful. Add the tomato sauce (just a can of the plain old stuff). Plus some paste. I like to add some Oregano, maybe some basil, and a touch of salt. Really, YOU add what YOU like as a family. Think sphagetti sauce, but a little thicker. Whatever flavor makes you want MORE.

What I really love to do is make EXTRA sauce (like I did tonight) and freeze it so it's faster the next time I want to make pizza. I went ahead and whipped up two cans of sauce, leaving me enough for 7 lightly sauced pizzas.

Not a fan of the red sauce? Got someone else in your family besides a toddler petrified of anything green? Orangette's amazing pesto is another great idea. I have not tried this myself, but top the pizza with a little goat cheese and I'm sure it's amazing

You can also try alfredo if you like white pizza. Maybe some chicken breast, or spinach...

Really, I could go on and on.

Step Three: Toppings

Repeat after me: I will not be afraid of trying something new.

Take a gander in your pantry and your fridge. What do you have that looks YUM? Veggies that need to be used? Leftovers that need to be recycled? There is not a combination that isn't (at least) edible on a pizza. Tonight, we made it standard. Just mozzarella on one side, mushrooms, olives, peppers, and fresh tomatoes on the other. When you top, make sure cheese is always the last thing you add.

While on the topic of cheese, while mozzarella is the most commonly used there are many others that are divine! Jack cheese with some different spices could make a Mexican pizza. Goat cheese with maybe some pine nuts and spinach? Really, the possibilities are ENDLESS.

Step four: Bake



I make this pizza by placing the dough on a pizza stone, and baking for between 15-20 minutes as the pizza recpie instructs. I like the evenness that a stone brings, but I don't do anything fancy like make the pizza on something wooden, artfully sliding it onto the hot stone. I make the pizza right on the stone, putting the whole thing in the oven to cook. I make sure to spread a good one-third cup of cornmeal over the stone to prevent sticking (you're not supposed to use flour for a stone) BEFORE spreading the dough around on the stone.

Step five: Eat

Really? You need instructions for this? :)