One of the things we like to cook at home is pizza. We found a recipe for yeast dough in Marcella Hazan's book, and by now I have it committed to memory.Whenever we make pizza, we usually rummage through the fridge to see what's leftover. Ends of cheese? Remains of onions, peppers? Some tired but still OK mushrooms? A few tail-ends of salami or prociutto?
I make the dough in the Cuisinart - it takes about 30 seconds - and then let it rise for a couple hours in a Tupperware bowl.
The recipe made enough dough for two good-sized pizzas and one small pie for The Man I Love, who likes anchovies. We let him have his own pie for anchovies, because Our Son and I can't bear them.
We use a pizza stone, and we bought a paddle at a local restaurant supply store years ago, to help us slide the pie into the oven to cook.
I made one pizza, using leftover cooked chicken, barbecue sauce, and some pickled red onion we'd made for a party this past weekend. It was my version of Wolfgang Puck's California barbecue chicken pizza.
The second pie was Our Son's for designing. He went with tomato sauce, fresh onions and green peppers with fresh mozzarella.
He's really interested in good food. I like to watch him as he cooks and prepares food with such an intense and creative sensibility.
Ummm that pizza looks good...and your son is a cutie pie chef! :)
ReplyDeleteI'm with your husband on this one...bring on the anchovies!!
Isn't it great when the kids grow up and start cooking?
ReplyDeleteWe make pizzas at our house all the time, too, even though our pizza stone cracked in half the first time we used it, but it still works!
Do you have trouble sliding the pizza off the peel onto the stone? Sometimes mine look like a crazy free-form amoeba!
Jane, I sprinkle the peel and the stone with cornmeal, and have no trouble. I have noticed that if there's too much liquid sauce, it's harder to slide it neatly, but since I don't like my pizzas too saucy, that rarely comes up.
ReplyDeleteGreat post! I'm a big fan of homemade pizza, too! Happy Thursday!
ReplyDeleteThis is a great post! I had one of those pizza stones but I gave it to my youngest when she went off to the big city to live. She was really the only one who used it. Now I'm going to ask a dumb question. Do you pre-heat the stone in the oven? We never did but I always wondered if I should. Or I guess I should say my daughter should. Or she'll have to find a pizza cooking boy similar to your son to do it.
ReplyDeleteHomemade pizza = yum!!
ReplyDeleteI really ought to pull out the pizza stone that my mother passed on to me.
"Do you pre-heat the stone in the oven? "
ReplyDeleteHi, NJ - Yes, we preheat the stone. The instructions we got said preheat it for at least 30 mintues - although we are often not that patient. We turn the oven on to 450-500F.
The stone needs to be hot to do what its supposed to do.
your son's pizza looks good.
ReplyDeletebut
anchovies!
mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm
I've never made pizza in my life.
And now that I live one block away from Little Italy, with the best Italian and Pizza joints within a hundred miles, I doubt I ever will.
But I can appreciate the fun of it!
I HAVE THAT SAME STONE AND PADDLE!!!!!!!!!!!!
ReplyDeleteAnd oh my, that hot sauce...
Oh my goodness that looks SO good! Gary and I are going to go out for his Birthday tonight and now I want pizza : ). I guess I have to let him pick since it is his Birthday!
ReplyDeleteI love homemade pizza--I usually buy the whole-wheat dough at Trader Joe's. My fave is with artichoke hearts and red peppers--using the oil from the artichoke hearts instead of a red sauce.
ReplyDeleteYour son and my son look like brothers!
wait! we need a photo of the final product! :) i love making my own dough. i'll have to try to find that recipe and give it a try.
ReplyDelete