August 9 – Pizza!

Confession: I made pizza last Saturday, too. I’d been craving it, and despite having guests over for dinner, despite never having made this particular recipe before, despite all of that – I made pizza. Pesto pizza, to be exact. Because it’s what I wanted. And so, it’s what we were having. Democracy? Not in my kitchen!

Aaaaaaaand… it wasn’t great. Stupid me for trying out a new recipe with guests coming over! Now, to be honest, it LOOKED fantastic. And everyone said it tasted great, too. The problem? It was kind of – soggy. Kind of? Who am I kidding… It was REALLY soggy. Taste? Fine. Texture? Not optimal. Not at all.

(Luckily I had a back-up pasta dish… And our guests were not too picky!)

It could have been a number of things, but we narrowed it down to two – A) the recipe for the crust, or B) the fact that the amazingly delicious tomatos were also amazingly juicy, and thus caused the sogginess.

Being a scientist (who likes pizza), of course I needed to figure out which of these two it was.

And so, one week later – pizza (again).

This time – same crust. Different tomatos.

And how did it turn out?

Really, really good. While the crust might not be “the world’s best” (as I believe it was advertised to be) – it was really, really good. The whole damn pizza was. And so – a new tradition in the Z household. Pizza Saturdays, anyone?

The recipe (from fabulousfoods.com):

3 1/2 cups flour (I use whole wheat)

1 cup warm water

2 tablespoons yeast (I just dump in one packet from the grocery store)

2 tablespoons honey

1/4 cup olive oil

1/2 teaspoon salt

Pour warm water into a large bowl, add honey and salt. Stir a bit, until mixed, and then add the yeast. Stir a bit more, then leave for 5 minutes (or so). Add 1 cup of the flour and all of the olive oil and mix until well blended. Add the rest of the flour and anything else you might like (I’ve used parsley… I’d imagine any spices could be great additions!) and mix well. The dough should ball up; if it does not, add either flour or water one tablespoon-full at a time until it does. Once balled up, place dough on a floured surface and knead for a minute (I cheat and do this in the same bowl) – this is supposed to help build the gluten. Place dough back in the bowl and cover; store in a warm, dry area to rise.

45 minutes to 2 hours later (they say 45 minutes; I’ve left a lot longer), punch the dough down (so satisfying!). Leave for another 1-2 hours; you can then either roll out or punch down again.

After this, roll the dough out to the desired size (I found leaving it thicker was better) and add on toppings – the ones I used were my leftover spinach sauce, lots of grape tomatos, fresh mozzarella, and garlic.

Though the recipe says to bake for 20 minutes, I found leaving for 30 left me with a better result (i.e. non-soggy pizza) – YUM!