This blog is a bit of a vegetable cop out. If I were on "Chopped," I'd be kicked off for not transforming the ingredient. But my full, happy stomach does not care.
In my last vegetable shipment, I got a bunch of loose arugula, roots still on. I thought for a while about making an arugula pesto, but then I watched an episode of "Good Eats," by Alton Brown, and I caught the pizza making bug.
I actually taught a pizza making class a few years back. Am I a perfect pizza maker? No. I think nearly everyone who becomes obsessed with making the perfect pizza crust is in for a life-long struggle to compete with some unattainable pizza they once had. For me, it was when my family visited New York one summer, sometime before September 11. I will never know the name of this pizza place, and I suspect it no longer exists, because it was very close to where Ground Zero would eventually be.
My favorite pizza that I can recall is Maruca's in Seaside, New Jersey. My grandparents deemed this pizza their favorite two generations ago, and me and my family still agree. I'm a family-oriented person, and I like seeing thoughts and ideas pass on from generation to generation. I recently told my dad that I preferred Bosc pears, and he said his grandfather, who he called Papa, also liked them best. I'd like to think that all things in life are a little bit like that: That we're all just carrying on small pieces of everyone who came before us without knowing it.
Anyhow, this recipe is just a small step forward in my endless quest for pizza perfection. What you'll need:
Crust:
2 cups bread flour
1 packet of Fleischmann's pizza dough yeast (I found it at a Harris Teeter)
1 tablespoon kosher salt
1 cup warm to hot water
Sauce:
2 tablespoons olive oil
2 tablespoons flour
milk
onion powder
garlic powder
dried parsley
Toppings:
shrimp
arugula, washed and stemmed
mozzarella cheese
feta cheese
Romano cheese
oregano
finishing olive oil
Preheat your oven to 475 degrees.
I made the sauce first so it would be ready when the crust was. I put the olive oil and flour (I used regular all-purpose) in a pan on medium heat and whisked them together until they made a roux.
Then I turned the heat up a touch and added milk. As you keep whisking, the milk will thicken and make an alfredo-like sauce, called a bechamel. I'm not sure it's a true bechamel, since it typically is made with butter instead of oil, but I think that sounds more Italian than French anyway. Plus, it's healthier for you.
I added a good amount of garlic, onion and parsley, but this is all really to taste. Measure it out how you want. Then I turned the heat off and went onto make my dough.
Alton Brown had me obsessed with trying bread flour instead of all-purpose for the crust, and that man was right. If you want a more Neapolitan style pizza, you can buy 00 flour from Whole Foods. But if you like a more New York style pizza, which I do, this is the flour. He recommended even getting bread flour for a bread machine, if you can find it.
He also sent me in search of a different yeast. Sadly, I didn't find what I was looking for, but I did find this Fleischmann's packet of pizza yeast that lets you cook instantly.
I assure you, this is CRAZY. In my mind, pizza takes 24 hours. I typically make a one-hour pizza dough, because when I want pizza, I want it now! But I was pretty happy with how this packet turned out, so when I'm in a pinch, I think I'll use this as a backup option.
Another crazy thing about this yeast: You do not need to temper it with warm water before using it. Typically, you need to mix warm water and yeast in a measuring cup for about five minutes, until foamy, to activate it. But this stuff you just dump right into a mix.
So I put all the crust ingredients in a bowl and mixed them for about three minutes with a fork. Then I took my rings off and switched to my hands. I probably kneaded for another 10 minutes at this point. Think of kneading like endlessly folding over the sleeves of a shirt. Just take half of the dough and fold it on top of itself in alternating directions.
This crust recipe makes two pizzas, so I cut the dough in half and put the other half in a plastic bag sprayed with olive oil. This can keep for about 5 days. I'm interested to try cooking with this other half of the dough to see if the yeast is better yet after being able to slow rise in the fridge for a day.
Then I gently punched the dough out into a small circle. If you cannot toss a pizza, simply pass it back and forth from hand to hand and then, with the dough on a floured countertop, gently tug out the edges of the dough evenly on all sides. You want to ensure a thin middle crust but a thicker outer edge so it forms a crust.
See-through dough, like I ended up with, is fine. Don't worry about it. Just try to make it fairly even.
Once that was done, I sprayed my favorite pizza pan (I hate my pizza stone) and put the dough on top. It wasn't a perfect circle, but I made it pretty close, so it worked out.
Then I went back to the sauce, turning the heat back on for a second just to loosen it back up. Then I spooned the mix and spread it around the crust.
Then I added a small amount of feta cheese, followed by a larger amount of mozzarella to fill out the crust. I had some leftover shrimp in my fridge I had to use, so I chopped it up and put it on top.
I like putting some nice, finishing olive oil in a spiral on top of my pizzas. It doesn't make them greasy. Just imparts a ton of flavor.
Then I put the pizza in a 475 degree oven for 10 minutes. Yes, my oversensitive smoke detectors went off. I suppose that's what happens when you have two in a 600-square-foot apartment...
While in the oven, I washed and stemmed the arugula, patting it dry with paper towels so it wouldn't be soggy.
Ten minutes was perfect. I took it out of the oven and let it sit for about five minutes. I put the arugula all over the top and shredded the Romano on top. I then sprinkled it with some oregano.
This pizza was amazing. I was beyond happy with the bread crust, and I couldn't detect any weird texture, smell or taste from the super-instant yeast. I will try this recipe again! And again, and again, and again.
In my last vegetable shipment, I got a bunch of loose arugula, roots still on. I thought for a while about making an arugula pesto, but then I watched an episode of "Good Eats," by Alton Brown, and I caught the pizza making bug.
I actually taught a pizza making class a few years back. Am I a perfect pizza maker? No. I think nearly everyone who becomes obsessed with making the perfect pizza crust is in for a life-long struggle to compete with some unattainable pizza they once had. For me, it was when my family visited New York one summer, sometime before September 11. I will never know the name of this pizza place, and I suspect it no longer exists, because it was very close to where Ground Zero would eventually be.
My favorite pizza that I can recall is Maruca's in Seaside, New Jersey. My grandparents deemed this pizza their favorite two generations ago, and me and my family still agree. I'm a family-oriented person, and I like seeing thoughts and ideas pass on from generation to generation. I recently told my dad that I preferred Bosc pears, and he said his grandfather, who he called Papa, also liked them best. I'd like to think that all things in life are a little bit like that: That we're all just carrying on small pieces of everyone who came before us without knowing it.
Anyhow, this recipe is just a small step forward in my endless quest for pizza perfection. What you'll need:
Crust:
2 cups bread flour
1 packet of Fleischmann's pizza dough yeast (I found it at a Harris Teeter)
1 tablespoon kosher salt
1 cup warm to hot water
Sauce:
2 tablespoons olive oil
2 tablespoons flour
milk
onion powder
garlic powder
dried parsley
Toppings:
shrimp
arugula, washed and stemmed
mozzarella cheese
feta cheese
Romano cheese
oregano
finishing olive oil
Preheat your oven to 475 degrees.
I made the sauce first so it would be ready when the crust was. I put the olive oil and flour (I used regular all-purpose) in a pan on medium heat and whisked them together until they made a roux.
Then I turned the heat up a touch and added milk. As you keep whisking, the milk will thicken and make an alfredo-like sauce, called a bechamel. I'm not sure it's a true bechamel, since it typically is made with butter instead of oil, but I think that sounds more Italian than French anyway. Plus, it's healthier for you.
I added a good amount of garlic, onion and parsley, but this is all really to taste. Measure it out how you want. Then I turned the heat off and went onto make my dough.
Alton Brown had me obsessed with trying bread flour instead of all-purpose for the crust, and that man was right. If you want a more Neapolitan style pizza, you can buy 00 flour from Whole Foods. But if you like a more New York style pizza, which I do, this is the flour. He recommended even getting bread flour for a bread machine, if you can find it.
He also sent me in search of a different yeast. Sadly, I didn't find what I was looking for, but I did find this Fleischmann's packet of pizza yeast that lets you cook instantly.
I assure you, this is CRAZY. In my mind, pizza takes 24 hours. I typically make a one-hour pizza dough, because when I want pizza, I want it now! But I was pretty happy with how this packet turned out, so when I'm in a pinch, I think I'll use this as a backup option.
Another crazy thing about this yeast: You do not need to temper it with warm water before using it. Typically, you need to mix warm water and yeast in a measuring cup for about five minutes, until foamy, to activate it. But this stuff you just dump right into a mix.
So I put all the crust ingredients in a bowl and mixed them for about three minutes with a fork. Then I took my rings off and switched to my hands. I probably kneaded for another 10 minutes at this point. Think of kneading like endlessly folding over the sleeves of a shirt. Just take half of the dough and fold it on top of itself in alternating directions.
This crust recipe makes two pizzas, so I cut the dough in half and put the other half in a plastic bag sprayed with olive oil. This can keep for about 5 days. I'm interested to try cooking with this other half of the dough to see if the yeast is better yet after being able to slow rise in the fridge for a day.
Then I gently punched the dough out into a small circle. If you cannot toss a pizza, simply pass it back and forth from hand to hand and then, with the dough on a floured countertop, gently tug out the edges of the dough evenly on all sides. You want to ensure a thin middle crust but a thicker outer edge so it forms a crust.
See-through dough, like I ended up with, is fine. Don't worry about it. Just try to make it fairly even.
Once that was done, I sprayed my favorite pizza pan (I hate my pizza stone) and put the dough on top. It wasn't a perfect circle, but I made it pretty close, so it worked out.
Then I went back to the sauce, turning the heat back on for a second just to loosen it back up. Then I spooned the mix and spread it around the crust.
Then I added a small amount of feta cheese, followed by a larger amount of mozzarella to fill out the crust. I had some leftover shrimp in my fridge I had to use, so I chopped it up and put it on top.
I like putting some nice, finishing olive oil in a spiral on top of my pizzas. It doesn't make them greasy. Just imparts a ton of flavor.
Then I put the pizza in a 475 degree oven for 10 minutes. Yes, my oversensitive smoke detectors went off. I suppose that's what happens when you have two in a 600-square-foot apartment...
While in the oven, I washed and stemmed the arugula, patting it dry with paper towels so it wouldn't be soggy.
Ten minutes was perfect. I took it out of the oven and let it sit for about five minutes. I put the arugula all over the top and shredded the Romano on top. I then sprinkled it with some oregano.
This pizza was amazing. I was beyond happy with the bread crust, and I couldn't detect any weird texture, smell or taste from the super-instant yeast. I will try this recipe again! And again, and again, and again.
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