Pizza, Pizza

I don't think there's a better way to ring in the New Year than homemade pizza.

It's seriously not hard. Recipe from Pioneer Woman, so you KNOW it's good.

Pizza - selfie. 

Ingredients:
1 teaspoon Instant or Active Dry Yeast
1 1/2 cup of warm water (warm, not lukewarm)
1 teaspoon Kosher Salt
1/3 cup olive oil
4 cups all-purpose flour

Instructions:
Sprinkle yeast over 1 1/2 cups warm water. Let stand for a few minutes.
In a stand mixer* with a paddle attachment, combine flour and salt. With the mixer running on low, drizzle in olive oil until combined with flour.
Pour in yeast/ water and mix until combined -- the dough will come together into a sticky mass.

Coat a separate mixing bowl with a light drizzle of olive oil, and make the dough into a ball. Toss to coat in olive oil, then cover the bowl tightly with plastic wrap and set aside for 1-2 hours.

PW Note: it’s best to make the dough at least 24 hours in advance, and 3 or 4 days is even better.

When you are ready to make the pizza, grab HALF the pizza dough (recipe makes 2 crusts) and squeeze the dough toward the bottom to form a nice, tight, pulled ball. You can roll out the pizza with a rolling pin if you’d like, but sometimes it’s just as easy to throw it around and pull and stretch till it feels right. And when the crust is nice and thin, lay it on an oiled baking sheet or pizza pan. Drizzle a little olive oil on the dough and spread it with your fingers. Very lightly sprinkle some salt on the crust.

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Top your crust with your toppings of choice. Then bake for 15 to 17 minutes, or until crust is golden brown and toppings are bubbly.

I found mushrooms, mozzarella  Boar's Head Pepperonis and some pre-made pizza sauce. It was to die for. And so easy! 

*Before I got married and had kitchen presents galore, I tried to make this with a $8 hand-mixer. I do not recommend this strategy. The dough is still up in that motor, may it rest in peace. 

Bon appétit and Happy New Year! \o/ 

Cuban chicken pizza

I've rediscovered an old college meal that used to be a treat (it was so fancy!), and have re-purposed it into my easy, go-to delicious weeknight treat (I now consider treats things like when I don't have much to clean up after dinner).

Cuban chicken pizza is 1. Delicious. 2. Fairly healthy. 3. Easy. 4. Adaptable.

Everyone needs a break during the week, and when I don't feel like really cooking, this is a lifesaver. It's a great way to use up leftover chicken (or any other kind of meat), and you can clean up your (little) mess while these babies cook. Win-win.

For 4 pizzas, you'll need:

4 10in tortillas

1 can black beans, rinsed and drained

1-2 ears of corn, off the cob 

4 tsp cumin seed (1 tsp per tortilla)

1 1/2 cup shredded cheese of your liking

1 lb chicken, cooked and diced (1 whole breast, or leftover meat)

Cilantro, chopped

Sriracha (optional)

Preheat your oven to 400 degrees.

Place flour tortillas flat on a rectangular baking sheet (you'll probably need two), so they're not overlapping. Sprinkle each tortilla with the cumin seed. Pop those suckers in the oven for 5-10 minutes to toast up (you can omit the cumin seed if you want, but you'll be sorry). You don't want them to brown, just start to puff up. Take them out once you can see them starting to puff and you can smell the cumin. 

Top tortillas with diced chicken, black beans and corn. Sprinkle with cheese as desired. Bake again in 400 degree oven until cheese is melted and tortillas have started to brown and get crispy- less than 10 minutes. 

Let the pizzas cool for just a minute, then sprinkle with cilantro and drizzle with sriracha, if you dare. The cumin + cilantro + sriracha combo is out of this world.

Viola! Easy weeknight meal. On to the next thing, Eaters.

Until next time,

Spicy pizza with bacon and arugula

To use up the last of the arugula, leftover from my baked sweet potato and salad dinners earlier in the week, I decided to make a salad-topped pizza. I also had leftover bacon. So of course that was going on it too.

When it comes to homemade pizza, I keep it simple, stupid. I don't want to make dough and then make a pizza. I want to make a pizza. So, no shame, I buy dough from the bakery at my favorite Publix.

Spicy pizza with bacon and arugula

1 lb pizza dough
4 slices of bacon
1/2 tsp red pepper flakes
1/2 cup pizza sauce
a whole bunch of mozzarella cheese, shredded
couple handfuls of arugula, (VERY) lightly dressed (I used the leftover champagne vinaigrette)

Preheat oven according to pizza dough instructions (usually 400ish).

Let your dough sit out in a covered bowl (lightly greased with cooking spray) while you're makin bacon. Doesn't matter how you choose to cook your bacon, but I did mine in the pan until crispy.

Roll out your dough to desired thickness--about 12in circle in the end. Spread your sauce evenly over it, top with bacon and red pepper flakes for a spicy kick. Cover with cheese and bake according to dough instructions (usually 12-15mins) or until crust is golden. Let cool for a sec on a cutting board while you get your arugula ready.

Toss your arugula in a teeeeeeny bit of dressing, and place lightly on top of pizza. Slice and enjoy!

Reheat: if you reheat your pizza in the oven the next day, remove the arugula until the pizza is heated through so it doesn't get wilted.


Bon app!

    

[Adventures] Pizza Pizza!

[Peroni, an Italian beer.]

Last week, Amanda, Katie and I had our first official outing as the 3 Happy Eaters! Amanda had found a Scoutmob Hand-Picked Deal (get it here!) for a night of pizza making at Piola in Midtown and we snatched it up. None of us had ever been to Piola before and we weren’t quite sure what to expect. When two Italian chefs who spoke little-to-no English came out, we knew we were in for a treat! Especially after we learned that Chef Salvatore is a world-famous pizzaiolo from Naples who has won world titles for his Napolitan-style pies, and for “pizza arobatics” as well!

[Our Italian instructor, giving us the lowdown.]

After being served a Peroni each, the instruction part of the evening began. Gathered around the pizza oven in a corner of the restaurant, we were given an in-depth look at what makes pizza napoletana unique. We learned that there are three main things in the composition of the pizza that set it apart:

1.]  The dough. The flour used for the dough is type 0 or 00, a “pure” flour with no added gluten. Most American flours have gluten added in processing because it makes the flour easier to work with. This has most likely contributed to an increase in cases of gluten sensitivity. We're still researching, but you can buy this flour online in bulk.

The second unique part of the dough is the rising of the yeast. The dough for an authentic Napolitan-style pizza has risen and rested for 48 hours before being used. This allows the yeast time for complete maturation, making the dough extremely moist when baked, and keeping it from giving you that stuffed, uncomfortable feeling that you sometimes get after eating pizza crust.

2.]  The sauce. Our instructor informed us that authentic Napolitan-style pizza has sauce made from hand-crushed tomatoes—never pureed in a processor. The hand crushing keeps the sauce slightly chunky, adding to the moistness of the final product. Along with the tomatoes, the sauce has a bit of olive oil, basil, and other seasonings. 

3.]  The cheese. The mozzarella used for pizza napoletana consists of 60% milk. This is a higher percentage than most mozzarellas, and it makes the cheese very creamy when melted.

[Chef Salvatore demonstrating how to form the crust.]

After the lesson, it was time to make our pizzas! We were given aprons and stepped behind the counter with Chef Salvatore to our individual balls of dough. He wordlessly instructed us to watch him demonstrate first, then we’d try it for ourselves. Starting at the top of the ball and using his fingertips, he gently pressed the dough into a flat disc. He flipped it over and did it again to the other side, working in a counterclockwise circle around the disc. Then, with his hands palm-down on the disc, he stretched the dough by moving his hands apart, and turning the disc 45 degrees as he did so. He did this three times, until the disc was circular and about 12 inches in diameter.

[Amanda with a proud Chef Salvatore.]

Then it was our turn! After receiving nods of affirmation as we followed what we had just observed, it was time to add the sauce, mozzarella and fresh basil. These toppings provide the basic canvas for a Napolitan-style pizza. Then we were invited to add additional ingredients—everything from anchovies to broccoli to Italian sausage (none of that ground stuff you get at Pizza Hut). 

 [So many delicious toppings to choose from.]

I went with some sopressata, a spicy Italian salami, and some colorful sautéed peppers. Amanda added sopressata, sautéed onions, and capers for a salty kick. Katie kept hers classic, with just a bit of olive oil drizzled on top.

[Katie's pizza about to go into the oven!]

 [A peek at our pizzas in the oven.]

They popped them in the pizza oven, which we learned is about 10 degress warmer with each inch in height. So this particular oven was 400 degrees at the bottom, and about 600 at the top. Our pizzas spent a couple minutes at 400 then finished off at the top of the oven to seal in the moisture of the dough.

 [My delicious pizza. Nom.]

And boy were they deliziosa. The sauce was so flavorful and the cheese so creamy and the ingredients so rich. It was well-worth the fun effort. We finished up with a sweet treat baked from the same dough with a mascarpone and avocado spread topped with fresh strawberries. It was a fun, delicious, and educational culinary adventure! 

What's your favorite thing to put on a pizza? Have you ever made pizza napoletana? Share your pizza adventures with us!