Wednesday, April 20, 2011

When the Moon Hits Your Eye Like a Big Pizza Pie... Your Friends Are Terrible People

I love pizza.
But then, perhaps you already gathered that.
When I was pregnant, I wanted pizza all the time  All.The.Time.  I think I may now know how junkies feel, as I was never able to feel like I got enough of it, and my poor husband only too willingly said, "OK" each time I suggested pizza for dinner.  Or lunch.  Or brunch.  Or...
Well, I still love pizza; nothing really has changed there.
So of course, it was time to start making it myself.  And by "making it myself," you will know by now that I don't mean go purchase a Boboli® crust and throw toppings on it (actually, I think Boboli® is pretty gross).
No, I needed to make my own crust and then throw my toppings of choice on it.



The internet didn't fail me.  I found this recipe for a whole wheat pizza dough that is made in the food processor - healthier AND easy!  Wait - it's fast, too?  Woo hoo!!!!! Oh, AND you can pronounce all the ingredients.  All 7 of them (counting the AP and WW flours separately).
My first attempt was last week, and that incident was really when I came to the understanding that my oven needs some calibrating; the end result was rather, uh, crispy (you can see a picture of the "well done" pizza on my Facebook page).
This week, though, I was determined to try again.  Scott had another soccer game (his league has Wednesday night games), so I needed something fast.  What should I make?  PIZZA!
So, while the dough was rising (10 minutes!), I broiled some baby bellas that were an impulse buy, washed and drained the rest of the arugula (no longer a simple and fun task, considering Dizzy, my salad spinner, met his maker the other night), cut up half of a yellow onion, and crumbled feta (my second favorite only to chèvre).

Into the oven - for 10 and not 14 minutes this time.



Ding!
Pay no attention to the mess behind that pizza pan!
The end result - much better than last week.  I know that it was in part due to the lack of the black carcinogenic "glaze" of last weeks, but perhaps it's also due to the greater amount of dough in the first place; last week, you see, I made the 12-ounce version, but this week I upped it to the ratios for one pound.  Being the math whiz that I am, I thought "12 ounces" sounded like a LOT less than "a pound," even though in reality the addition of 4 ounces didn't create the giant ball of dough that would take over my kitchen counter, which is what I somehow envisioned.
One aspect of making my own pizza from the ground up is that it's almost second nature to add whatever the heck I feel like for toppings.  I don't feel constrained to having a red sauce, or really any sauce at all; I brushed a little olive oil over this one before I topped it, but the only "binder" was the feta on top.  Mushrooms are particular favorite pizza topping of mine, which I always think is a little funny, as I was terrified of them in any form as a child.
So... what toppings should I have next week?

No comments:

Post a Comment