Pizza Three Ways

Who doesn't love pizza?  We have plenty of love for pizza in this house.  And I really enjoy making our own pizzas.  That dates back to my first "real" job, back in my senior year of high school, at the local Rochester pizza shop Nubiano's.  I had so much fun working there and one of my favorite parts was actually making the pizzas, just so I could play with the dough!

When we make pizza fresh at home, I do sometimes try to make dough from scratch.  And although I'm a decent baker I usually don't have the patience to plan far enough ahead for pizza dough and any "quick" recipe I've tried just doesn't taste that great or have good texture.  So, instead of making dough we try to buy fresh raw dough balls either from a pizza shop or the grocery store--quick and easy.  (We're going to try Sam's next--we can get a case of dough balls and put them in the deep freezer)

I have been collecting pizza recipes for several months on Pinterest (you can check that out HERE).  Last week we decided it was finally time to try some!

First things first, I got the dough out of the fridge to get the chill off and let it rest some. If you don't let the dough sit and rest some, it'll be too elastic and nearly impossible to work with. I also then put our pizza stone in the oven and preheated to 500 degrees for one half hour--this is so important!  A hot hot pizza stone ensures the bottom of your crust gets nice and crispy.

Working the dough:  I use a combo of hand stretching and then rolling the dough.  I learned a few tricks at Nubiano's but am nowhere near talented enough to hand stretch the entire thing (although I was better by my third pizza).  Here's my method:  lightly cornmeal a pizza peel.  Flatten the dough into a disc and then working from the middle, flatten it some more by pushing out toward the edges.  Then, I pick it up and stretch the edges, gently, by turning the dough in a circle, vertically so gravity helps the stretching.  Then I'll gently stetch the dough on my knuckles to make a larger disc.  By now the dough is fairly thin.  But, to get it to the perfect thickness, I then place it back on the peel and use a rolling pin.  Then it's time for toppings!  I assemble the pizza while on the pizza peel, and when finished, slide the dough onto the hot pizza stone in the oven--this is why the cornmeal step is SO important.  Without adequate cornmeal, the pizza will stick and you'll get a folded mess, probably on your oven floor.  I sometimes use a pancake turner to get the movement started.  Each pizza I bake for 11 minutes--it's the perfect amount of time for our oven.  I use the pizza peel to get the baked pizza off the pizza stone--I leave the stone in the oven to cool down completely before removing.

Onto the actual pizzas!

The first pizza I made sounds crazy:  Strawberry Balsamic Bacon Pizza by ANNIE'S EATS.  What's that, you say?  Strawberry and balsamic vinegar on a pizza? Yessir.  And a few other ingredients.

Siracha, Strawberry Preserves, and Balsamic Vinegar: crazy, right?!
Ignore our ugly wall--we get tile tomorrow!

So those three ingredients make up the sauce.  It ended up tasted somewhat similar to a bbq sauce, sweet and a touch of heat.  For this pizza, the toppings were cooked chicken (we got a roasted grocery store chicken), diced bacon, sliced onion, mozzarella cheese, and diced strawberries.  OMG.  It was seriously amazing.

The first bite was scary, but I couldn't wait to get my second bite!

This one gets a big thumbs up (with a mouthful!)!  Eliza chaperoned.

The second pizza I made (the same night) was also from Annie's Eats and she calls it SPINOCCOLI PIZZA, inspired by a Bloomington pizzeria.  It started with a cream-based cheese sauce.  Super rich and delicious.  Gary and I love broccoli on pizza, so we knew this would be right up our alley.  Add in spinach, mozzarella, and cheddar cheese, and you have yourself an amazing pizza.

Hello, cheese.

We ate it so fast I almost didn't get a picture!

Finally, tonight we tried a Greek pizza recipe.  Greek pizza sounds pretty simple, and it is.  But THIS RECIPE has a special something called "crazy feta" that made this pizza truly special.  In short, crazy feta is a feta cheese dip made with roasted garlic and jalapeno, lemon juice, and olive oil.  The crazy feta, plus mozzarella, onions, artichoke hearts, roasted red peppers, more garlic, and kalamata olives (for Gary's half) made for a hearty pizza.  We left off the tomatoes in the recipe, and instead added some tomato sauce for the base.  Great addition and I strongly recommend it!  We all really liked this pizza, but after a couple slices the jalapeno was burning my mouth a bit!  Still, a great dinner and with our Greek salad, it was fantastic.  OH, don't pay attention to the recipes instruction to preheat to 375 and bake for 30-35 min.  Get yourself a pizza stone, crank it to 500 and preheat for 30 min, bake for 11 minutes and you'll have a perfect pizza.

On our well-used pizza stone

Can't wait to dig in!

I hope this inspires you to create your own pizzas at home!