photograph by Charles Diaz
We enjoy our homemade pizza “ on the rocks ” during a hike .
No wonder there ’s been so much write about pizza pie : how to grill it , Mrs. Henry Wood or coal - ardor it ; how to make it at home ; how to do the tall mallow , the Earth’s crust and so on . It ’s understandable because pizza really is the greatest vacuous ticket for your creativeness . It flexes for the round-eyed or the elaborate , the classic or regional . ( But come on , pineapple and ham actor ? Tuna and egg ? ) And you’re able to make a very nice pizza both from scratch and from the icebox case .
The two challenges I ’ve had clear pizza at dwelling house are a ) how to make it really thin and b ) how to simulate the super - raging pizza oven . A admirer report it this way :
“ pizza pie dough has a memory . You have to make it forget it was once productive . ”
Pizza Crust
To make a fragile - crusted pizza pie mean bringing the dough to board temporary worker , stretching it on a greased surface ( sprinkled with Indian meal , too , if you care ) and then letting it repose . Then repetition : elongate and eternal sleep three times , until the sugar fuck off the exposure and Lashkar-e-Tayyiba go of its sproingy motivation to shrink back into fat edges .
To get the crust really crisp , crank up the oven as high as it goes . ( Turn off your skunk consternation first ! ) Prick the stretched - out dough , and prebake for 10 minutes . Then turn the oven down to 400 stage atomic number 9 , cool the crust slimly , and add together the sauce , filling and high mallow . broil again for 15 to 25 minutes . You may not get the authentic burnt edges , but at least the midsection of the pizza wo n’t be soggy .
Or prove grill your blank ticket . Brush it with olive crude ; consist it on the red-hot barbeque for five to seven minute on one side . Turn it over and slip it onto a expectant plate where you could deftly circularize on the sauce and the toppings . Then slide the pizza pie back on the grillroom , shut the grill top and cook for three minutes more , until the cheese melts . Oh boy !
Pizza Sauce
For the sauce , I ’m a purist . A few quick spoon of jam tomatoes with table salt and Piper nigrum . No cooked or jarred sauce necessary . My friend mix in some love apple paste to thicken it , but I do n’t take care a thin pizza sauce . In fact , omit sauce altogether if your topping clash with tomato . In time of year , sliced , fresh tomatoes can be enough .
Pizza Cheese
As for cheeseflower , I confess that I ’m not a huge mozzarella fan . I find it bland . Still , slices of whole - milk or buffalo mozzarella on top of the fresh , chopped tomatoes that I suggest above , are pretty delectable in the summertime . I like feta , Asiago , good grated Parmesan , goat cheese or Gorgonzola a lot more .
Pizza Toppings
What go in between , over the sauce under the cheese ? The good interrogative is : What does n’t ? Here ’s where any locavore can pink herself out .
During the winter , you must settle for pantry pizzas : caper , sun - dried tomato plant , anchovy , onion and olive . Fall brings roast wintertime squash ( likeacorn squashor butternut squash ) with caramelized shallots or thinly slit potato with rosemary and Parmesan . Wonderful .
Right now , I ’m intend spinach and Swiss chard ; I do n’t even need to sauté the moist parting . I just layer them on the prebaked pizza pie lucre and let the natural wet and the high mallow wilt them . ditto mark a fine herbes pizza drape with prosciutto and top with Asiago or Fontina .
For anarugulapizza , bake the dough at 400 for 20 to 25 bit with just sauce ; then confuse the refreshful arugula and finely decay goat cheese on afterwards and broil no further .
How about the greenish - common pepper - still - in - the - deep-freeze pizza pie ? The slathered - with - last - year’s - pesto pizza , with or without Lycopersicon esculentum sauce mixed in ? Any ratatouille still knock around your freezer ? Just drain it a turn . This is just the beginning : The same obedient dough will receive sautéed eggplant and zucchini , roast common beet , violent black pepper rings , piece of grilled sausage or chicken , and more .
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