If you read through the recipes for the pizza sauce, the dough, and then baking off the pizzas, you may start to feel daunted by what seems like a lot of work. Don't let the length of the recipes throw you off. Make the pizza sauce well ahead of time and have it in the fridge or freezer, ready to go any day. For the dough, you only need a couple of hours before dinner to have it ready. If you want to eat at 6, start making it around 4, or earlier if you are more organized than myself!
When it comes to the toppings, the sky's the limit. I let the kids top their own mini pizzas on Friday. Fresh mushrooms, onion, green olives, black forest ham, baby spinach, mozzarella cheese. For the pizza cheese, I love the balls of mozzarella (usually made by Tre Stelle or some brand like that) that I have to grate myself. I find that pre-shredded mozzarella has a weird way of melting. When you grate the mozzarella just before using it, it is absolutely oozing over the pizza when it comes out of the oven.
About the pizza stone; I bought one not too long ago, after borrowing one from my neighbour to make homemade pita bread. It worked like a dream and I decided I must have one, too. When I was finishing the kid's pizzas the other night, all of a sudden there was smoke coming from the oven and the fire alarm started going off. The bottoms of their pizzas were burnt black. I can't really understand why it happened, but if you are going to use a pizza stone, put the pizza on it for a minute and then check it. Another minute, then check it. Don't assume that if I say leave it on for two minutes, it won't burn. The cookbook that I was following said to leave it on for 4 minutes, and if I would have done that, I would still be airing out the house this morning.
The dough and baking directions for the pizza come from a cookbook that I haven't seen around much. "The Cheese Board Collective Works" by the Cheese Board Collective, a group of people running a bakery in Berkeley, California. I have made many pizza doughs over the years and I found this one to be what I was looking for. It could have something to do with baking the pizza at a high temperature, but the pizza ends up with a really nice chewy crust. The pizza sauce came from my friend Elaine. She emailed the recipe to me in 2004 and I happened to keep a hard-copy of it in my recipe file. I spoke to Elaine last week and told her that I was making the pizza sauce and she asked me to send her the recipe back so that she could make it! (she actually had it in one of her cookbooks, "The Best of Better Baking" by Marcy Goldman & Yvan Huneault)
I am officially starting "Pizza Fridays" at our house from now on. If you have any favourite pizza topping combinations, let me know.
Homemade Pizza Sauce
4 oil packed sun-dried tomato halves
1-28 oz. can plum tomatoes or an equal amount of fresh tomatoes
1-12 oz. jar roasted red peppers, drained
3 T. extra virgin olive oil
4 cloves garlic, crushed
1 1/2 t. dried oregano
1/4 t. red pepper flakes
1 large onion, chopped
3/4 t. kosher salt
1/2 t. sugar
1/4 t. fresh ground black pepper
2 T. fresh basil, minced
2 T. fresh flat leaf parsley
1. In a small bowl, cover the sun-dried tomatoes with boiling water. Let stand for 5 minutes and drain. In a food processor combine the roasted red bell peppers and the sun-dried tomatoes and process until smooth.
2. In a large pot, saute the onion and garlic until soft and fragrant. Add the tomatoes and cook for about 5 minutes. Add the sun-dried tomatoes and roasted red pepper mixture and all other ingredients. Cook until thick and saucy. Using an immersion hand blender or a food processor, blend the sauce until it is thick and fairly smooth (see picture above). Adjust seasonings to your taste.
3. Let cool completely. Cover and refrigerate for up to two weeks or freeze in 1 c. portions. Or if you're in a canning mood, use 1 c. jelly jars and process as you would for canned tomatoes.
Yeasty Pizza Dough
1 T. active dry yeast
1 1/2 c. warm water (around 110 degrees)
2 T. extra virgin olive oil
1 1/2 t. kosher salt
3 1/2 to 4 c. flour (the recipe calls for bread flour but I used all-purpose)
1. In the bowl of your KitchenAid mixer (or a large bowl if you are going to mix by hand), whisk the yeast into the warm water until dissolved. Let stand for 5 minutes.
2. Add the olive oil, salt and 2 cups of flour to the bowl. Using the paddle attachment on low speed, mix for 5 minutes to form a wet dough. Switch to the dough hook, add 1 1/2 more cups of flour, and mix on medium speed for 5 minutes. Add the remaining 1/2 cup flour by the tablespoon, as needed to form a soft dough with a nice sheen; it should be a bit sticky but not too wet. (I didn't have to use any of the last 1/2 cup of flour)
3. Form the dough into a ball and place it in a large oiled bowl. Turn the dough over to coat it with oil. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap or a damp tea towel and let it rise in a warm, draft-free place for 1 hour, or until doubled in size. Or put the dough in the fridge and let it rise overnight; the next day, let it stand at room temperature for 2 hours before proceeding with the recipe.
Baking Your Pizzas
1. Preheat the oven to 450 degrees. If you have a bread stone, place it in the bottom of the oven. Place one of the oven racks near the top of the oven, and the other rack in the middle. Prepare three baking sheets with parchment paper. Sprinkle each piece of parchment paper with cornmeal.
2. When the dough is ready, divide into three pieces. Form each piece of dough into a round circle of about 10 inches. Proceed with adding your pizza sauce and your favourite toppings.
3. Place one pizza on the middle rack of the oven for 8 minutes. After 8 minutes, put the first pizza on the top rack and add the second. Bake for 10 minutes. After 10 minutes, slide the first pizza onto the baking stone for about 2 minutes (I left mine for 3 or 4 minutes and it was burnt on the bottom. Watch them very carefully!), and at the same time, add the third pizza to the middle rack. After the 2 minutes that the first pizza is on the stone, continue cooking the second and third pizzas in the same manner.
4. Cool pizzas for about 5 minutes once they are out of the oven. They taste so much better if they aren't piping hot and burning the top of your mouth!
