Thursday, November 27, 2008

Pizza and Pavement




Sort of. Actually it was pizza and music a la Stephen Malkmus. We wanted everything to be made from scratch. All the fun is in kneading the dough, mixing up the sauce, and selecting choice toppings for yourself. So we made an easy dough recipe  and then created a simple sauce with a special twist. We decided on having two pizzas with separate themes. The first pizza was covered in salami, mushrooms, and orange bell peppers. The second pizza donned pancetta (an Italian bacon), red onions,  pineapple, and orange bell peppers. The toppings are of course left up to the tastes and mood of the creator. To finish off the meal we toasted some delicious bread baked with fresh garlic cloves inside.



Because the dough takes a little time to prepare, allow about two hours preparation time so you aren't starving by the time its ready.


The dough recipe is for two large pizzas.


1 packet active dry yeast (If you want a more doughy crust use two packets of yeast.)

2 cups warm water

2 teaspoons salt

1 teaspoon sugar

5 teaspoons olive oil

1 egg

5 1/2 cups flour (I used half white and have wheat flour)


Mix yeast with 2 cups warm water in large mixing bowl. Let sit for about 10 minutes.

Mix in salt, sugar, olive oil, and egg. Slowly mix in flour.

Knead dough for a couple minutes. If you are doing this in a kitchen aid stand mixer use the dough hook. When the dough clings to the hook and the sides of the bowl are clean it is ready.

Put dough in a greased bowl and turn over until the top of the dough is greased. Cover dough and leave in a warm dry place for an hour.

After dough has sat for an hour punch down.

Roll dough out and put on pizza pan or cookie sheet.

Cover with toppings and bake at 400 for about 20 minutes.



The sauce was simple.


1 can of tomato paste

4 tablespoons olive oil

salt to taste

pepper to taste

2 cloves pressed chopping garlic

2 pinches of oregano

2 pinches of mint


Mix all ingredients together and spread away!