White Pizza

I used to live in Florida back when I was 19.  There was this amazing pizza joint down the road from our apartment, and for the life of me - I can't remember the name of it.  Anybody in Cocoa Beach?  It started with an A.  That's all I can remember.  But anyway, it was there that I experienced my first white pizza.  Different from the traditional tomato-based pie, a white pizza has a garlicky olive oil base and usually just simply topped with some ricotta (truly my favorite part) and mozzarella.  It's simple and heavenly. 

And so being a little nostalgic, and in the mood for pizza, I prepped myself a pizza dough this morning in hopes of having this beautiful pie for lunch.  It met every expectation. And while I didn't include any ricotta this time (I didn't have any in the fridge), I've got dough to spare, so I'll definitely be picking up some ricotta to make the "original" very soon!

So while the rest of America is ordering out, why don't you take a little bit extra time and make your own?  Seriously, only an hour and 45 minutes isn't half bad for a homemade pie.

Ingredients:
Adapted from a Food Network recipe

Dough:


1 & 1/4 cups warm water
1 tablespoon active dry yeast
1 tablespoon honey
3 tablespoons olive oil
1 cup all purpose flour
3 cups whole wheat flour
2 teaspoons salt


Topping:

4 cloves of garlic, sliced
1 teaspoon dried thyme
1/4 teaspoon red pepper flakes
1 cup sharp cheddar cheese, shredded
3/4 cup mozzarella cheese, shredded
1/4 cup olive oil
zucchini shavings (or any other topping you'd like)

To make the dough, combine the water, yeast, honey, and olive oil in a medium bowl.  When yeast is dissolved, add in all purpose flour and 2 cups of whole wheat flour.  Add in salt.  Mix until dough comes together and slowly add in remaining cup of wheat flour until a soft dough forms.  Knead dough on a floured surface for about 10 minutes, or until smooth and elastic.

Grease a medium bowl and add dough.  Cover with a warm kitchen towel and let rise for 30 minutes.

Meanwhile, in a small saucepan, add 1/4 cup of olive oil, garlic, thyme, and red pepper flakes.  Simmer over low heat for about 10 minutes, making sure that garlic does not burn.  Set aside.

Preheat oven to 500 F.

Divide dough into 6 pieces and place dough on a cornmeal dusted baking sheet.  Cover with a warm towel and let rise for 10 minutes.  You can now either use all 6 pieces of dough immediately, or do what I did and make one pizza and freeze the rest of the dough.  I just placed the remaining dough in a freezer bag with a little bit of olive oil and it can keep in the freezer for up to a month.  (Some sites say more, but seriously, pizza dough never last too long in our house!)  When you're ready to use it again, just thaw out in the fridge for about 1 hour, or until you're able to knead it a little bit.

Stretch the dough ball into an 8 inch circle and place on cornmeal dusted baking sheet.  (I only made 1 pizza, but you could easily do two per baking sheet).

Brush each pizza with the garlic oil and season with salt and pepper.  Sprinkle pizzas with cheeses and drizzle a little bit more garlic oil over top.  Then top with zucchini shavings (just take a peeler and literally "shave" some zucchini)  Bake pizzas for about 10 to 15 minutes or until crusts are browned and crisp.

This was a perfect Friday (or any day) lunch!  And would be perfect for one of those stay-in Friday pizza nights!

Hope you guys have a great weekend!

Valentine's Day Cheeseburger Pizza

Yes, I know.  It's well past Valentine's Day.  I just couldn't help but share with you guys what I made for Andy on Valentine's Day.

And some of you may turn your nose up to some of the ingredients... well, one in particular - Velveeta.  Yes, I know, it's not real cheese.  But to Andy.  It is real cheese.  In fact, he thinks it's the best cheese.  While we don't obviously share the same opinion regarding this, Valentine's Day is a day of love.  And because I love that man, regardless of his food and cheese preferences, I set my food snobbishness (or well, real sensibility, hehe) aside, and made this heart-shaped pizza for him using one of his favorite things... Velveeta.

Hope you guys have a great weekend, and I promise to post those Nutella cupcakes next week!



Ingredients:
Adapted from a Taste of Home recipe

2 cups bread flour
2 tablespoons sugar
1 & 1/2 tablespoons active dry yeast
1 & 1/2 teaspoons salt
3/4 cup warm water
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 lb. meatballs, about 10-15 (you can use homemade or frozen - just make sure to defrost them a little if they're frozen), chopped
3 garlic cloves, minced
salt and pepper, to taste
1 cup Pecorino-Romano cheese, grated
1/2 cup homemade tomato soup, or sauce (I made a tomato soup recently that had a pizza sauce taste, so I used that)
1/2 onion, sliced
4 strips bacon, cooked and chopped
1/2 cup Velveeta cheese, chopped
1/2 cup pepperjack cheese, shredded

Start by making the crust. In a large bowl, combine the bread flour, sugar, yeast, and salt.  Add the warm water and oil.  Mix until the dough is smooth.  Add additional flour if dough is still sticky.

Knead on a floured surface for about 5 minutes or until dough becomes elastic and smooth.  Cover with a warm damp towel and let rise for about 10-15 minutes.

In a large skillet, cook the chopped meatballs and garlic.  Season with salt and peppper, if desired.

Preheat oven to 450 F.

On a floured surface, roll out the dough into a large circle, about 1/4 inch thick.  Or if you like a thicker crust, you can always make a smaller circle.  If you want to be cutesy like me, you can make the circle into a heart shape, but it's not necessary.

Roll the edges slightly to form a thicker outer edge.  Poke the dough with a fork. 

Place crust on a greased baking stone or baking sheet.  Bake for about 7-10 minutes, or until crust is slightly browned. 

Sprinkle the crust with the pecorino cheese and top with tomato sauce/soup.  Add meatball/garlic mixture, onion, chopped bacon, and Velveeta and pepperjack. 

Bake the pizza for about 15-20 minutes or until cheese is melted and golden.  Slice and serve.

Seriously.  This was a 'man' pizza.  Andy said he liked it a lot.  I could give or take on it.  We both agreed that the crust was different and unusual.  Not something you associate a pizza crust with being, but it was pretty tasty.  The toppings, of course, could be alternated to suit your tastes.  This was a winner in Andy's book, and seriously, that's all that mattered to me. =) 

So have a great weekend guys and I'll see you back on Monday!

Homemade Pizzas

Everybody loves a good pizza pie. Throw anything you want on there and bam, the perfect pizza. But it all starts with a good dough. And a good sauce. Then you can do your thing. For this recipe, I saw a good video tutorial about tomato sauces, and within that, there was a pizza dough recipe. So I figured I'd give it a go...

Dough Ingredients:

1 & 1/4 cups warm water
1/2 teaspoon sugar
2 teaspoons instant dry yeast
2 tablespoons olive oil
1/2 cup all purpose flour
3 & 1/4 cup bread flour
2 teaspoons salt

In a large bowl, combine the water and the sugar. Sprinkle the yeast on top and wait for it to dissolve. Then add olive oil, and half of each flour. Stir a few times and add the remaining flours and salt.

Bring dough together and knead on counter top until it feels smooth. Form dough into big ball, cover lightly with olive oil, and place in bowl covered with plastic wrap. Place in fridge and leave there over night. This step is VERY important. I once only let my dough sit in the fridge for a few hours, maybe 3 or 4. NOT ENOUGH. You won't get the air pockets or the texture of a perfect pizza! Trust me, this is not a step you want to cut corners on! Or you'll regret it. There's my warning, what you do after this is not my fault.

Dough will be about double in size the next day.

Tomato Sauce Ingredients:

1 can crushed San Marzano tomatoes
2 garlic cloves, thinly sliced
1 teaspoon salt
freshly ground black pepper
4-5 basil leaves, roughly torn
1 tablespoon olive oil

Combine all ingredients in medium bowl, and there you have it, pizza sauce. Simple, right?!

Roll out dough to about 8-10 inch rounds. Roll it out pretty thin. You can be all fancy and spread it out with your fingers, but I took the rolling pin approach because I tend to be hasty with the other method and always end up with holes.

The topping of the pizzas are pretty much up to your own preference.

Personally, I made three pizzas all together, the dough will make four, but with the fourth ball I made breadsticks because I had TONS of left over sauce. And 3 pizzas was way more than enough for the two of us.
Two of the pizzas were prosciutto, mozzarella, and parmesan.


The 3rd pizza was a sinful mouthful of heat. I had some shredded chicken, buffalo sauce, cheddar and mozzarella cheese, and Serrano peppers.


Make sure you put a THIN layer of tomato sauce on the pizzas. Too many people put too much sauce and it weighs AND waters down the pizza. In other words... it won't be perfect and it won't cook properly.

Preheat oven to 450 degrees and cook each pizza for about 10 minutes or until done to your liking. And no, I didn't have a pizza stone, I just put the pizzas on a baking sheet, but I'm sure they would have been even better on a stone, but you have to improvise when you have little to work with. Enjoy!