Last Saturday I tried making pizza for the first time. I used this dough recipe and was pleasantly surprised at how easy the whole dough making process was, especially with a good stand mixer. My main problem with the dough was the consistency. Upon its initial mixing, I had to add a lot more flour than was in the recipe. This is minor issue, of course, because once the proper amount of flour was added all was fine. I am not keen on following directions/recipes, but in this instance I think it is necessary at least for the first few times making dough. Another slight problem I had was partitioning the dough into equal pieces (I should have used my scale – hind sight). The recipe calls for 6 pieces – I ended up with 8. I imagine a dough cutter would’ve been useful, too.
Oddly, the impetus for my pizza making was Rachael Ray. I was watching an episode of 30 Minute Meals and was intrigued by her “Mega Meatball Pizza” but I had also been wanting to make my own dough. I’m usually not inspired by Mrs. Ray, but there’s a first time for everything. I did make the meatball pizza (right) and it was pretty decent.
The problem with this pizza, though, was the number of ingredients in the ground beef mixture. I made this pizza first and was not prepared for the heaviness of the toppings, which tore through the first pie. Sure, it was my fault, but nonetheless the meatball topping was heavy.
My second pizza (left) was a classic American style pie with tomato sauce, aged Margherita pepperoni, and shredded mozzarella cheese. I was much happier with this one. The sauce is crushed tomatoes, dried oregano and basil, sugar, & cracked pepper. The lighter ingredients really allowed the crust to form. The crispness of the crust, the sweet acidity of the sauce, and the melted cheese were a perfect match along with the spiciness of the pepperoni, which I sliced by hand.
I made a third pizza: bacon, blue cheese, and fresh sage. This was extremely rich and did not look as appetizing as it tasted. Also, I used way too much sage, which worked to overpower the already strong blue cheese flavor.
Finally, I tried my hand at a piadina. Tomatoes Apizza, a local pizza joint, used to make this dessert pizza, but they no longer do. It is quite simply pizza dough and Nutella. I used two pieces of dough. Spread a good amount of Nutella on the bottom piece and used another piece to cover – making sure to seal the pieces properly avoiding any melted
chocolate in the oven. I baked it at 500 degrees for about 8 minutes (same as the pizzas). I cannot describe adequately how wonderful this concoction is. The chocolate/hazelnut couple with the crusty, chewy dough is tremendous.
With this experiment an all out success, I plan on making pizza again in the near future – next time with more guests and beer pairings! The only beer I had this time around was a Michigan wheat beer called Zoomer from New Holland Brewing. A decent wheat, I guess, but nothing worth seeking out and not something that added any depth to the pizza.
