Pizza Night

On a recent rainy Sunday, Xavier and I were in the midst of watching season one of “Damages,” the thriller-TV show starring Glenn Close, and I thought that I’d make us pizzas for dinner, since we couldn’t bear to leave the house.

Plus, I still had some of my fabulous chorizo in the fridge, and that seemed like a good way to use it all up.

Making pizza is really easier than what you might think, and it’s also much lighter and healthier than the stuff that you get out, or order in.

I use mostly whole-wheat flour in my pizza dough, and roll it out as thin as I can, because I like a cracker-thin crust. See? Less bread, which for me means less dough on my thighs.

Also, I use Bufula mozzarella, which is even yummier than the regular mozzarella that you can buy most anywhere here (I never used the shredded stuff, which to me, has no taste at all and melts like plastic). Sure, it’s a bit more expensive, but the cost of making pizza at home is so much cheaper than eating pizza out, I don’t mind spending the extra euro.

To make homemade pizza, you just need to plan ahead a little bit. I make my dough in the morning, and put it in the fridge to rest and rise in the afternoon. I also make the pizza sauce in the morning, let it cook for an hour, turn off the heat, and put it aside for later.

Pizza Dough
Adapted from Patricia Wells’ “Trattoria”

INGREDIENTS

1 teaspoon active dry yeast (I use one Fleischmann’s packet)
1 teaspoon honey
1 1/3 cups lukewarm water
1 tablespoons olive oil
1 teaspoon sea salt
3 cups wheat flour
¾ cup white flour

WHAT YOU DO

Put yeast, water, and honey in a bowl and stir a bit. Let rest for 5 minutes, until foamy.

Now, add everything else. Knead the dough a bit, and put it a bowl with a bit of olive oil (so it won’t stick), cover with plastic wrap, and put in the fridge for 6-8 hours (or overnight).

When you’re ready to make the pizzas, pull off a tennis ball size piece of dough (or golf ball-size if you’re making individual or appetizer-size pizzas), roll it out, and then – here’s the secret to a good crust – put it on a *grill pan. (When I saw a show with Joanne Killeen and George Germon of Al Forno in Providence, R.I. making pizzas on a grill, I decided to take the idea inside. I found that the pizzas still need to hit a hot oven to melt everything after the dough’s cooked, though.)

Watch the dough bubble and puff…

…then flip to the other side for just 10-15 seconds or so.

Don’t overcook the dough. It’ll finish up and get crispy in the oven later.

Keep rolling out dough and cooking the crusts until you have a nice little stack of pizza dough. (The cool part about this is you can freeze the cooked dough that you don’t use, and simply take them out, one by one, for pizzas later. Don’t you just love it?)

*By the way, if you don’t have a grill pan, you can do this with a cast-iron skillet. You just won’t get the grill marks.

Pizza Sauce
Adapted from a recipe by Stephanie Chambers in Dallas, a wildly creative, passionate cook as well as a dear friend.

INGREDIENTS

Large can of whole tomatoes
Small can of tomato paste
4 cloves garlic, minced
2 bay leaves
1 teaspoon dried basil
1 tablespoon dried oregano
1 teaspoon sea salt
1 tablespoon honey
olive oil

WHAT YOU DO

Drizzle a bit of olive oil in a heavy-bottom saucepan, add minced garlic, and turn heat on medium. Let cook for a few minutes.

Take the tomatoes one by one from the can and squish them with your hand and add to saucepan – this is not only a fun way to break up the tomatoes, but adds a rustic element to the sauce that I love.

Now, add the rest of the ingredients, give a stir, and let simmer on low heat for an hour, at least.

This sauce freezes well, by the way, so use what you want, and then just put the rest away for another pizza night.

TO MAKE THE PIZZAS:

Preheat oven to 450 F, or use the top/bottom heating element and turn to broil.

Take one of the precooked pizza doughs, add warmed sauce.