Pizza!

This article was so mouth-watering and has so many good pizza tips and ideas that I am putting the link right here, so we'll always have it.

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/04/09/dining/a-little-pizza-homework.html?emc=eta1&_r=0

And one more pizza dough that is everything they say it is:

http://www.foodgal.com/2011/09/pure-pizza-dough-heaven-the-recipe-from-pizzeria-mozza/

For links to a whole lot of unusual pizzas, see my Pinterest page for Pizza and Flatbreads.

Chicken, Corn and Hearts-of-Palm Pizza

In January 2001, I stood in a parking lot in Carbondale, Illinois and flipped a coin. It landed on heads. I would travel west... The following adventure included an ice storm, a car accident, a train ride through the Rocky Mountains, a visit with my step-brother's family, and a miserable short-lived attempt to move to Los Angeles. It ended with me hanging out in Berkeley, California with Auntie Bucksnort, who was house-bound with a back injury. Over the next few weeks, we bonded, watched movies, ordered take-out and laughed a lot. A local pizza joint often delivered us a delicious pizza, which I have approximated here (using the dough from mom's recent pizza recipe). This is a recipe in progress! UNTESTED!! Auntie? Any amendments? (Makes 2 Pizzas)

--1 pound Chicken Breast, cut into small pieces
--Juice of 2 Limes
--2-3 tbsp Olive Oil
--2-3 Garlic Cloves, peeled and chopped fine
--Kosher Salt
--Fresh-Ground Black Pepper
--1 small can of Sweet Corn, drained
--1 small can of Hearts of Palm, drained
--Shredded Mozzarella Cheese

--1 tbsp Dry Yeast
--Tiny, tiny pinch of Sugar
--1/4 cup Warm Water

--1 cup Warm Water
--2 tbsp Olive Oil
--1 tbsp Sugar
--1 tsp Salt
--3 cups Flour

Place the chicken strips, 4 tablespoons olive oil, lime juice and garlic in a bowl to marinate. Add salt and pepper. Stir well and set aside while you prepare the dough.

Dissolve the yeast and the tiny pinch of sugar in the 1/4 cup of water. Set aside.

Mix the cup of warm water with the 2 tablespoon olive oil, 1 tablespoon sugar, salt, and about half the flour in the bowl of your stand mixer. Add the yeast mixture. Beat well for a couple of minutes. Slowly add the remaining flour with the mixer on slow speed, using the dough hook. Turn the dough out onto a floured surface and knead until smooth. Divide in half, roll out, and stretch each piece to fit a round pizza pan. Brush each with a little oil. Preheat oven to 450˚ Fahrenheit with the racks in the center or a little above center.

Saute the marinated chicken until all pink is gone (perhaps with a chopped sweet onion?). Don't overcook the chicken as it will have some time in a hot oven to finish cooking. Spread cooked chicken over both pizza dough rounds. Divide corn and hearts-of-palm over each as well. Sprinkle shredded mozzarella cheese over the top.

Bake at 450˚ for 18-20 minutes.

Chicken Fajita Pizza

We're all about Southwestern style these days...

Long ago in New Hampshire, we drove through a small town one evening during lilac time. Both sides of the little main street were lined with huge lilac bushes and the scent at dusk was almost unbelievably delicious. We stopped to wander around a bit and found a little pizza place where I had my first chicken fajita pizza. I have been trying to reproduce the experience ever since.

Although we now live far away from New Hampshire, I've got my lilac planted out by the deck, waiting for it to bloom some spring. But the pizza part has been getting closer to the original over the years, although it has acquired a bit of southwest flavor along the way. We had this slightly New Mexican-style version for supper last night and I think it might have been the best pizza I have ever made.

1 whole uncooked skinless chicken breast, cut into thin strips

4 tbl. lime juice

4 tbl. olive oil

2 garlic cloves, peeled and chopped fine

1 tsp. chile powder

1 sweet onion (Vidalia-type), thinly sliced

2 bell peppers--green, red, yellow, orange, or a combination; thinly sliced

Salsa (your choice of style and heat)

Grated cheese (Monterey Jack is really good on this pizza)

1 tbl. dry yeast

Tiny, tiny pinch of sugar

1/4 cup warm water

1 cup warm water

2 tbl. olive oil

1 tbl. sugar

1 tsp. salt

3 cups flour

Place the chicken strips, 4 tbl. olive oil, lime juice, garlic, and chile powder in a bowl to marinate. Stir well and set aside while you prepare the dough.

Dissolve the yeast and the tiny pinch of sugar in the 1/4 cup of water.

Mix the cup of warm water with the 2 tbl. olive oil, 1 tbl. sugar, salt, and about half the flour in the bowl of your stand mixer. Add the yeast mixture (this is in bold print because I have been known to forget this step). Beat well for a couple of minutes. Slowly add the remaining flour with the mixer on slow speed, using the dough hook.

Turn the dough out onto a floured surface and knead until smooth. Divide in half, roll out, and stretch each piece to fit a round pizza pan. Brush each with a little oil.

Saute the onions and peppers just until the onion is transparent and the peppers are glossy. Remove them from the pan and stir-fry the chicken mixture until all pink is gone. Don't overcook the chicken as it will have some time in a hot oven to finish cooking.

This would be a good point to turn on the oven. Preheat to 450˚ with the racks in the center or a little above center.

Spread each circle of dough with as much salsa as you like. I use about 4 tbl. per pizza. Divide the vegetables and spread those evenly on each pizza. Do the same with the chicken. Sprinkle all with your preferred amount of cheese.

Bake at 450˚ for 18 minutes.

Notes:

1) You can, of course, just buy prepared pizza dough and make a pretty good pizza out of it, but I won't have as much fun thinking of you making it that way.

2) I divide the dough in half, freeze one part of it, and make just one pizza at a time. As an empty-nester, it took me an awfully long time to learn to cut recipes this way.

Mexican Pizza

With a little organization, you can have this homemade pizza ready for the oven in just half an hour. Trust me.

There are three parts to the pizza: The sauce, the dough, and the toppings. Put a little music on and get ready to dance between the mixer, the rolling pin, and the stove. 

Step 1: Sauce

2 cloves of garlic, minced

1 tbl. olive oil

1 - 15 oz. can of Contadina tomato sauce

1/4 cup water

1/4 cup dry red wine

Oregano

Chile powder

Cumin

Freshly ground black pepper

Open the can of tomato sauce and have it close by. Brown the garlic in the olive oil, but not too much. Quick! Grab the tomato sauce and pour it in, then rinse out the can with the water and the wine, adding each to the sauce. Add oregano, chile powder, cumin, and pepper to taste. You can leave out the chile powder and cumin if you want, but you will no longer have Mexican Pizza. Cover the pan with a splatter guard, bring to a boil, reduce to a simmer. 

Step 2: The dough

While the sauce is simmering and reducing, make the dough. Please note that while this is a yeast dough, you don't really give it time to rise. Don't worry, it will turn out just fine. 

1 tbl. dry yeast

Tiny, tiny pinch of sugar

1/4 cup warm water

1 cup warm water

2 tbl. olive oil

1 tbl. sugar

1 tsp. salt

3 cups flour

Dissolve the yeast and the tiny pinch of sugar in the 1/4 cup of water. Set aside, but not too far from the action. (Once I set mine somewhere safe and forgot to add it to the dough. The resulting pizza had the texture of a giant cracker and we couldn't figure out what went wrong until I found the yeast mixture later when I was doing the dishes). 

Mix the cup of warm water with the olive oil, sugar, salt, and about half the flour in the bowl of your stand mixer. Add the yeast mixture. Beat well for a couple of minutes. Slowly add the remaining flour with the mixer on slow speed, using the dough hook. 

Turn the dough out onto a floured surface and knead until smooth. Cover with a clean towel and let the dough rest while you turn your attention to step 3. First, though, swing by the stove and give the sauce a stir. 

Step 3: The Toppings

I'm certainly not going to tell you what to put on your pizza; you are the best judge of that. I would highly recommend lots of Monterey Jack cheese for this particular pizza, but the choice is up to you. We have even used Cheddar when we had nothing else around and it was perfectly good. 

We often used browned and seasoned ground beef (seasoned with more chile powder, cumin, pepper, and a bit of salt), but sometimes we use anchovies instead, which is probably why you won't be taking my advice about toppings. 

Step 4: Assemble and Bake

By this time, your sauce has probably reduced by about one third. Divide the dough in half and roll each half out to fit your round pizza pans, which you have sprayed with non-stick cooking spray (Pam, or a generic equivalent). Before we had round pizza pans we used cookie sheets and no one minded that our pizzas were rectangular. 

Begin preheating the oven to 450. It should just about come up to temperature by the time you have the pizzas assembled.

Place the dough on each pan. Spread it with a bit of olive oil--just enough to give it a nice sheen. Spoon some of the sauce onto the dough and spread it around. Top with your choice of toppings, and then with grated cheese. 

Lately, we have taken to sprinkling our pizza with a pizza seasoning mixture that we make out of oregano, marjoram, basil, crushed red pepper, and garlic powder, all ground up together in a mortar and pestle and stored in a little shaker jar. Sprinkle this on just before the pizza goes into the oven.

Bake the pizzas at 450 for 18 minutes. Your oven may be different, so I would advise checking for doneness at around 15 minutes. The crust should be a little brown underneath and the pizza should be firm (not limp) when you lift the edge with a spatula.