Homemade Pizza

This past week was fairly relaxing as my final semester had yet to begin. This left me with the opportunity to do some cooking. I made my first ever pizza from scratch. I used a recipe from Mark Bittman's How to Cook Everything Vegetarian. While I am not a vegetarian and love meat with fervor, my girlfriend is and I try to cook to please my audience of one. Cooking a new recipe is always an adventure and especially for a novice baker.

My step-mom has been making homemade pizza for years. I had watched and as a kid distinctly remembering the process of selecting toppings. My ten year old self passionately loved Hawaiian pizza which led to usually half the pizza being covered with pineapples and Canadian Bacon. My step-mom and Dad were fond of trying new and unusual toppings which I have always found strange, but often loved. We went from common toppings like peppers and tomatoes to broccoli and one particularly bare pantryed evening garbanzo beans. Garbanzo beans crossed the line for all of us and remain persona non grata on my pizzas.

This was my first solo attempt. I decided to begin with the standard mozzarella with tomatoes, green olives, and basil. Making my own dough was somewhat daunting, but using a standing mixer it turned out to be fairly simple. I put in my flour, yeast, water, and salt. The dough became sticky and balled up. I then took it out worked it by hand with a little olive oil and let it rise. I decided I would make my own pasta sauce and Bittman didn't fail me. His simple tomato sauce which is just a can of tomotoes chopped and sautéed with onions in olive oil was easy and delicious. It is really worth making your own instead of turning to canned sauce. The homemade sauce took no more than 20 min and created greater depth of flavor in each pizza bit. Once my bread had risen over 2hrs, I punched it down, sprinkled it with flour and let it rise briefly. Then I spread it on my greased pizza sheet, added sauce and toppings, and set it to bake in a super hot oven.

It turned out ok, but while I cooked it for far longer than the recipe stated, it was still somewhat doughy upon service. My wonderfully kind girlfriend continues to maintain she likes doughy pizza, but I'm convinced she is sparing my feelings in the hopes my next effort will be better. I will try again, but it gives me a new found appreciation for pizza joints.