Several months ago, we took advantage of a sale at World Market and we each bought a pizza stone. The stone came with a pizza cutter and a serving rack. We christened Sue’s stone with the goat cheese tart on a previous blog, and used both stones for this pizza party. By using both stones we were able to keep the first pizza hot while baking the second one. We now consider these a particularly good investment and a great addition to our cooking paraphernalia.
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| A taste of Italy. |
Basic Pizza Dough
Serves: 4 as main course or 8 as appetizer
Source: “The Italian Cooking Encyclopedia”, Hermes House Press,1997
Ingredients
2 ½ tbsp. fresh cake yeast or 1 pkge dry yeast (1 T)
1 c lukewarm water
pinch of sugar
1 t salt
3 – 3 ½ c unbleached white flour
Warm a medium mixing bowl by swirling some hot water in it. Drain . Place the yeast in the bowl, and pour on the warm water. Stir in the sugar, mix with a fork, and allow to stand until the yeast has dissolved and starts to form. 5 – 10 minutes.
Use a wooden spoon to mix in the salt and about one third of the flour. Mix in another third of the flour, stirring with the spoon until the dough forms a mass and begins to pull away from the sides of the bowl.
Sprinkle some of the remaining flour onto a smooth work surface. Remove the dough from the bowl and begin to knead it, working in the remaining flour a little at a time. Knead for 8 – 10 minutes. By the end the dough should be elastic and smooth. Form it into a ball.
Lightly oil a mixing bowl. Place the dough in the bowl. Stretch a moistened and wrung-out dish towel across the top of the bowl, and leave it to stand in a warm place until the dough has doubled in volume, about 40 -50 minutes or more, depending on the type of yeast used. (If you do not have a warm enough place, turn the oven on to medium heat for 10 minutes before you knead the dough. Turn it off. Place the bowl with the dough in it in the turned off oven with the door closed and let it rise there.) To test whether the dough has risen enough, poke two fingers into the dough. If the indentations remain, the dough is ready.
Punch the dough down with your fist to release the air. Knead for 1 – 2 minutes.
If you want to make 2 medium pizzas, divide the dough into 2 balls. If you want to make 4 individual pizzas (in pans 10 ½ inches in diameter), divide the dough into 4 balls. Pat the ball of dough out into a flat circle on a lightly floured surface. With a rolling pin, roll it out to a thickness of about 5/8 – ½ inch. If you are using a pizza pan, roll the dough out about ¼ inch larger than the size of the pan for the rim of the crust.
Place in the lightly oiled pan, folding the extra dough under to make a thicker rim around the edge. If you are baking the pizza without a round pan, press some of the dough from the center of the circle towards the edge, to make a thicker rim. Place it on a lightly oiled flat cookie sheet. The dough is now ready for filling.
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| Baked eggplant for Sicilian pizza |
Sicilian Pizza
Serves: 2
Source: “The Italian Cooking Encyclopedia”, Hermes House Press 1997
Ingredients
1 small eggplant, cut into thin rounds
2 T olive oil
½ recipe risen Pizza Dough
½ recipe tomato sauce
6 oz mozzarella cheese, sliced
½ c pitted black olives
1 T drained capers
¼ c grated Pecorino cheese
salt and freshly ground black pepper
Preheat the oven to 400’ F. Brush one or two baking sheets with oil. Brush the eggplant rounds with olive oil and arrange them on the baking sheet(s). Bake for 10 – 15 minutes, turning once, until browned and tender. Remove the eggplant slices from the baking sheet(s) and drain on paper towels.
Raise the oven temperature to 425’F. Roll out the pizza dough into two 10 inch rounds. Transfer to baking sheets and spread with the tomato sauce.
Pile the eggplant slices on top of the tomato sauce and cover with the mozzarella. Dot with the black olives and capers. Sprinkle the Pecorino cheese liberally over the top, and season with plenty of salt and pepper. Bake for 15 – 20 minutes, until the crust on each pizza is golden.
Cook’s tip: For best results choose olives that have been marinated in extra virgin olive oil and flavored with herbs and garlic.
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| Before baking. |
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| Hot out of the oven! |
Mushroom, Artichoke, and Prosciutto Pizza
Serves: 2
Source of topping: “Oprah Magazine”, June 2013
Source of Pizza Dough: “The Italian Cooking Encyclopedia”, Hermes House Press, 1997
Ingredients
1 recipe risen Pizza Dough
½ lb mushrooms, sliced, cooked in 1 T olive oil until tender, seasoned with salt & pepper
2 (6 oz) jars marinated (or plain) artichoke hearts, drained and sliced
2 c shredded mozzarella
8 very thin slices prosciutto (4 oz)
1 t ground black pepper
Olive oil to taste
Preheat the oven to 425’F.
Cook the mushrooms. Set aside.
Roll out the pizza dough. Add the toppings evenly across the dough. Sprinkle with olive oil and black pepper.
Bake for 15 – 20 minutes until crust is golden and cheese is bubbly.
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| Before baking |
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| New pizza and remnants of first pizza. |
Meg got a bottle of California avocado oil at Costco. We tried it in the vinaigrette and liked it a lot. It was soft and added a round flavor to the dressing. Throw on a handful of toasted pine nuts and a salad is born. And just to be honest here, the arugula salad was really good, but superfluous. We wanted to give the illusion of creating a healthy meal. It was really all about the pizza.
The Chianti was a purchased during a wine tasting class at Total Wine last year. We are pretty sure we have now consumed both of our bottles and need to re-stock. It was a little over our normal wine budget at $16.99 on sale but well worth it.
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| La Castellina Chianti Classico |
And to top off the meal, peaches and more wine – how much better can it get? This recipe, Pesche al Vino, peaches in wine, is courtesy of Judy Witts Francini, a fellow blogger that Sue follows. Judy had the wonderful sense to go to Italy, fall in love and spend the last 20 years living in Tuscany. (Sue’s dream in another life.)
For this dessert to “wow”, the fruit needs to be tree-ripened and sweet. We used a Vino Verde, a slightly effervescent white wine that has become one of our favorites. The peaches are skinned, sliced into a serving glass, add a scant teaspoon of sugar and cover with wine. The wine dissolves the sugar and the sugar releases the wonderful juice from the peaches. We think this a perfect ending (dare we say luscious?) for any summer meal, and is so easy to fix.
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| Pesche al Vino |
It really strained our patience waiting for these pizzas to cool a little after taking them out of the oven, but they were easier to cut and serve.
The pizza dough and the Sicilian topping came from “The Encyclopedia of Italian Cooking”. If you get the book there is also a recipe for a tomato sauce for pizza. We made our own using a tomato sauce purchased from Bella Italia here in Reno. We added our own spices and garlic before simmering to reduce it to the consistency we wanted.
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When you use a pizza stone, you pre-heat it, which make it super-hot and yields a crunchy crust. The recipe uses a metal pan, which doesn’t require pre-heating. You may need to adjust your cooking time depending on your cooking method.
Both of these pizzas would make a great party appetizer and stay warm on the stones for serving. To make serving easier, make the crust oblong to fit on the stone (or baking sheet) and cut into squares. For a party, precooking the mushrooms and eggplant makes assembly a breeze.
Constructing a pizza consists of heaping all the things you love on a piece of homemade crust. We considered possibly 10 combinations before selecting the two we made. The possibilities are limitless, so use your imagination and have your own party (Celebrazione).
“You better cut the pizza in four pieces because I'm not hungry enough to eat six.”
Yogi Berra quotes (American professional Baseball Player and Manager. b.1925)
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Ciao!
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