Want to read Slashdot from your mobile device? Point it at m.slashdot.org and keep reading!

 


Forgot your password?
Close
typodupeerror
User Journal

Journal bethanie's Journal: Mangia, Baby!! 18

Journal by bethanie
(No, not "Mangia Baby." Don't go there with me right now, OK?)

OK, so most of you might remember that I'm pregnant. About halfway through now, actually. Had the ultrasound last week and everything's whole and healthy, as far as we can tell.

Many of you are also parents or at least partakers of popular culture, so you will be familiar with the ubiquitous food cravings experienced by pregnant women. I am not an exception, but my cravings tend not to be too weird, at least not in substance -- no pickles & ice cream for me. No, mine are a bit more extreme based on the *degree* to which I get the craving.

No, what I have been craving for a good month now (food-wise) is pizza. But regular, pizzeria pizza gives me indigestion while I'm pregnant -- something in the sauce, I think. Luckily, I have a wonderful recipes for the whole works -- the crust, the sauce, and of course, my favorite toppings -- that pretty much top any pizza I can get locally (which consists of Domino's, Pizza, Hut, and a couple local chains).

Also essential to the success of this endeavor (i.e., to make as-good-as-pizzeria pizza in the comfort of your own home) is having the right tools for the job, so I'll get into that first thing:
  • Pizza stone. I have a big square one. I've seen round ones with handles on the sides, but I think that those handles would get in the way. The pizza stone basically never leaves the oven during this process, so there's really no need to have handles on it. One of the things that is *essential* about using your pizza stone is to put it in the oven and turn the oven up to 450 F for a good 30 minutes before you put the pizza in. This can make the timing kinda tricky if you're trying to make this recipe all in one go and have just one oven, as the dough recipe below is supposed to be allowed to rise in a warm oven. If this is the case, then it's better to leave yourself 90 minutes rather than using a pizza stone that isn't hot enough. The hot stone is what cooks the crust from underneath and gives it that really "authentic" texture.
  • Peel. This is one of those big paddle things that you use to take the pizza in and out of the oven. For my money, it's irreplaceable because the peel is what you actually assemble the pizza *on*, and then slide it into the oven. Which brings up to our next tool...
  • Semolina flour. Yes, this sounds more like an ingredient, and in one version of my recipe, it is. But with this application, it qualifies as a tool. You sprinkle a bit (less than one teaspoon) of semolina on your peel before putting down the crust and assembling the pizza. It acts as ball bearings, and makes the process of unloading and loading go much more smoothly. Yes, cornmeal will work in a pinch, but really, it's too gritty and imparts too much flavor. If you don't mind that rustic, homemade touch, then fine. But remember, I'm trying to achieve *as good as* pizzeria pizza, so treat yourself to some semolina. Trust me.
  • Food processor. In my mind, this is just a foregone conclusion. It just seems like you can't be any kind of a serious cook without this appliance in your culinary arsenal. It's one of the single most useful appliances you can have, provided that you also invest in the various discs and blades, and maybe even an extra workbowl and cover (a choice I'll never regret!). My model is a Cuisinart Pro Custom 11, and it does just fine for everything I need it for. Some day I might upgrade to a larger model, but this really suits me just fine for now. Anyway, get a food processor. Not only do you use it for mixing the dough for the crust, but you'll also use it to shred cheese and slice toppings (mushrooms, onions, peppers, etc.). It's a HUGE time saver for pizza.
  • Pizza slicer. (optional) OK, you don't *need* a pizza slicer (one of those round blades with a handle on it). But it sure makes the job of cutting one of these things a heck of a lot easier. They're useful for other stuff, too. But if you don't have one and won't get one, then just use a big chef's knife. Same basic results.

And now for the recipes. (George, I will be happy to re-submit this to your site -- I just wanted to put the elaborate, highly editorialized version here for posterity.) Oh, and these recipes are all taken from The Best Recipe (TBR) by the editors of Cook's Illustrated Magazine, which is my absolute *favorite* cookbook (and makes a great gift**!!)

First the sauce. If you want pizza for supper (in about an hour after you arrive home), I recommend taking a couple (literally) minutes to mix this up in the morning before leaving for work and letting it sit all day -- the flavors get a better chance to infuse, and it won't go bad sitting out for just a day. Refrigerate it after that, though.

No-Cook Tomato Sauce for Pizza
Makes about 3 cups

Ingredients

1 28-ounce can crushed tomatoes (TBR recommends Progresso brand Crushed Tomatoes with Puree)
2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
2 large garlic cloves, minced (Ed. Note: I used minced garlic in a jar, and I use three heaping spoons full. I found that using less leaves it with very little flavor.)
Salt and ground black pepper

Instructions

Combine tomatoes, oil, garlic, and salt and pepper to taste in medium bowl. Set aside at room temperature for up to several hours. (Sauce may be refrigerated in airtight container for 3 days. Ed Note: I have found that it lasts even longer than that -- at least a week.)

And next for the dough. I like using this "fast" recipe because the rising time is minimal, and you really can have pizza in an hour using it.

Fastest Pizza Dough
Makes 2 large, 4 Medium, or 6-8 Individual pizzas

Ingredients

1 1/2 cups warm water, at about 105 degrees F
1 envelope (2 1/4 teaspoons) rapid-rise dry yeast (TBR recommends Fleischman's Rapid-Rise for flavor & results)
1 tablespoon sugar
2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
4 cups bread or all-purpose flour, plus extra for dusting hands and work surfaces ( Ed. Note: I have only used bread flour for this recipe, so I can't vouch for how it comes out using All-Purpose)
1 1/2 teaspoon salt
Vegetable oil or spray for oiling bowl

Instructions

  1. Set oven to 200 degrees for 10 minutes, then turn oven off.
  2. Meanwhile, pour water into workbowl of large food processor (fitted with metal blade). Sprinkle yeast and sugar over water and pulse twice. Add oil, flour, and salt, and process until mixture forms cohesive mass. ( Ed. Note: I add in the flour & process it a cup at a time, so the liquid doesn't leak out under the blade.) Dough should be soft and just a bit tacky. (If it is very sticky, add 2 tablespoons of flour and pulse briefly. If it is stiff and tight, add 1 tablespoon water and pulse briefly.) Process another 30 seconds. ( Ed. Note: Gee... sticky, stiff, tight, pulsing... What I could do with this recipe in someone else's journal!!)
  3. Dough will be a bit tacky, so use rubber spatula to turn out dough onto lightly floured work surface; knead by hand with a few strokes to form smooth, round ball.
  4. Put dough into deep, lightly oiled bowl and cover with plastic wrap. Place in warm oven. Let rise for 40 minutes or until doubled. Remove from oven, punch dough down, and turn out onto lightly floured work surface. Divide and shape as follows.

Note: This is the part where you decide how many pizzas you want to make/what size you want to make. I have been making individual sized pizzas and making them for lunches, so I cut the dough into 6 pieces and wrap them loosely but airtight in oiled plastic wrap, and keep them in the fridge until about 2 hours before I plan to cook the pizza.

If you're making the whole recipe all in one go, this is also the point (when you take the risen dough out of the oven) when you'll need to crank the oven up to 450 F to start getting the pizza stone good and hot.

Shaping Pizzas

  1. Use a chef's knife or dough scraper to divide the risen and punched-down dough into two, four, or eight pieces. A single recipe will make two 14-inch pizzas, four 12-inch pizzas, or eight 8-inch pies. ( Ed. Note: These measurements are optimistic. I stretch the dough pretty thin, but my pizzas don't come out this size. Therefore, I cut a batch into sixths and get 8-inch pizzas out of them.
  2. Form each piece of dough into a smooth, round ball and cover it will a damp cloth. ( Ed. Note: This is the part where you can wrap them up and stick them in the fridge or freezer -- I have found that this dough can take a *lot* of abuse, as long as it's given enough time to come up to room temperature before you work it.) Let the dough relax for at least 5 minutes but more more than 30 minutes.
  3. Working with one ball of dough at a time and keepng the others covered, flatten the dough ball into a disk using the palms of your hands.
  4. Starting at the center of the disk and working outward, use your fingertips to press the dough to about 1/2 inch thick.
  5. Holding center of dough in place, stretch dough outward. Rotate dough a quarter of a turn and stretch again. Repeat until dough will not stretch any further. Let dough relax for 5 minutes, then continue stretching until it reaches correct diameter.
  6. Use your palms to press down and flatten the thick outer edge of the dough.
  7. Carefully life the dough round and transfer it to a peel dusted with semolina or corn meal. If the dough loses its round shape, adjust it on the peel to return it to the original shape.
  8. Brush the entire dough round with a little olive oil. Add the toppings. To make it easier to hold pizza slices when eating, leave a 1/2 inch border around the edges of the dough uncovered.
  9. Use a quick jerking action to slide the topped dough off the peel and onto the hot pizza stone. Make sure that the pizza lands far enough back so that the front edge does not hang off the stone. ( Ed. Note: With smaller pizzas, which lack the mass to be able to slide off easily, I "cheat" and use a spatula to help push them off the peel.)

And voila -- you will have a delicious, as-good-as-pizzeria pizza, made much more cheaply (after recouping the expense of the tools, of course!) and possibly more quickly (if you've made & warmed the dough ahead of time) in the comfort of your own home!

**Here's an idea for you guys with sweethearts but no clue -- you could quite possibly provide your darling with any/all of the tools listed above (along with a wed, wed wose -- for womance, of couwse!) and then prepare this recipe for her for your Valentine's Day dinner. Maybe not very highbrow, but tasty and thoughtful. And I'll let you take all the credit. I promise. :-)

This discussion has been archived. No new comments can be posted.

Mangia, Baby!! More

Mangia, Baby!!

Comments Filter:
  • Ed. Note: These measurements are optimistic.

    Same could be said for many playmates.
  • From me....that is VERY similar to my recipes for when I make pizza. Mmmmmm, time to make homemade pizza again. LOTSA gahlic (Emeril pronunciation). Thanks for the hints though, I might refine mine based on yours and see how I like it!
  • My Kitchenaid food processor. Dough kneeded in 2 minutes. My holy god.

  • This can make the timing kinda tricky if you're trying to make this recipe all in one go and have just one oven

    So does that mean you yourself have more than one oven? If so, wow, I don't even use the one I have... (-:

    Pixie
    • Nicely done!!

      But to answer your question literally, yes, I have two ovens. When we built the house, we knew we would be having big holiday dinners here, and I tend to do a lot of cooking, anyway, so two ovens were essential. The design of the kitchen didn't allow for a good place for them, so we went ahead and got a 48" dual-fuel range with 6 burners, a griddle/grill, and two ovens (one electric, one gas). It's pretty fancy shmancy, but I've been doing my best to put it to good use. :-)

      But truth told, w
      • 48" dual-fuel range with 6 burners, a griddle/grill, and two ovens (one electric, one gas
        Wow,

        That is the most technical cooking implement I've ever heard of. You are truly a geek, and I mean that in the highest possible sense of the word (-:

        hugs,

        Pixie
  • Forget that repeated kneading. I toss all the ingredients in the bread machine, hit the 'dough' button, and come back in a couple hours. Has teflon sides, so it's even easy to remove from the machine.

    I'd have to throw in some garlic... Oh, just about everywhere. Not much, just a hint. And oregano. I can't have any tomato based product without tomato.

    I'll get to work on the bug in recipants that gives you an error upon recipe insert in a few days. I'm a bit caught up in my other project (titlestrip creator
    • I second the bread machine. Gives me an hour to get everything else together.
      Don't use a peel or stone or semolina...just some cornmeal and some pans (with some nonstick spray).
      Personal fav is a cornmeal parmesan dough.
      We make a pie up every Sunday.
      Started with those Chef Boyardee $3 boxes when we were dating.
      At this point, we just use tomato sauce and mozzarella.

      But nothing is as good as Cacia's [caciabakery.com]. Best tomato pie ever. (It does not need or want cheese, thankyouverymuch)
    • All what kneading? You dump the dough out of the food processor and just shape it into a ball, put it in an oiled bowl, and let it rise. When it's done, cut it into pieces and roll them into littler balls. No kneading at all with this recipe.

      Hubby has talked about getting me a bread machine, but I think I'm gonna take a pass. It's easy enough to make it "by hand" using the machines I already have -- I prefer to keep appliances to a minimum.

      ....Bethanie....

      • Hmmm...I've always kneaded by hand. Besides being easier, is a food processor better or worse or the same?

        When I was a teenager, my mom always claimed the neighbors loved my bread, but I never saw these alleged neighbors. ;-) Maybe she was just eating it all herself. ;-) Though I could never get pizza dough right. It just didn't taste as good...eventually I gave up and used the premade cresent roll dough (Pilsbury, I think). I'm no good at making homemade sauce either. The sauce would come from either a

        • Cresent roll dough? Oh, man, if all you've been used to eating is the canned stuff, then you are *really* missing out!! FYI, let me say that I used to use the canned stuff, too, and was OK with it. But there's no chance that you'd *ever* get it confused with "real" pizza.

          This recipe really *does* taste like real pizza, and possibly even better, if you play with the sauce to make it just how you like in the exact proportions, etc. Key element, above all else, is to use a pizza stone and to get it thoroughl

          • Cresent roll dough? Oh, man, if all you've been used to eating is the canned stuff, then you are *really* missing out!!

            Well, I don't do that any more. If I "cook" at home these days, it's usually frozen pizza or something-in-a-can.

            Meh...unfortunately doing any cooking in the kitchen would involve hanging out with my psycho roommates. I can't even get away from my junkie roommate's smoke, which makes me sick. Like tonight. I went downstairs to patrol for any toxic events--which apparently requires hourly

    • I can't have any tomato based product without tomato.

      Well, naturally that would be true. ;-)
  • You have earned a link in my "Recipes" folder!
    • You're welcome!! I really encourage you to try it. You might need a little practice, but it comes out great.

      For another /. tested recipe (banana bread), see this JE [slashdot.org] from a while back. :-)

      ....Bethanie....
      • Now I'm going to have to dig my kitchen out from under the junk so I can bake.
        • Yeah, I did that a couple of weeks ago -- I had crapped up my "baker's counter" trying to some unpacking before the holidays (around October), and then found out I was pregnant and BAM! started feeling it. So everything got left there for *months*. The kitchen is huge -- about 3x as much counter space as you'd really need to be minimally functional, so it wasn't a huge problem, but it was a bothersome mess.

          I finally started feeling perky again a couple weeks ago and had some friends over, so that was all
          • That's easily my favorite kind of cooking!
            I don't know about that... from what Hubby told me, you seem to enjoy "cooking" in the bedroom quite a bit. ;-)

Slashdot Top Deals

The best defense against logic is ignorance.

Close