I wanted to reiterate what a great pizza I have been able to make using the Olive Oil Dough (recipe below) for the crust, and the Big Sur Bakery and Restaurant Pasta Sauce (Recipe Below) as the pizza sauce.
It is, if I do say so myself, a freaking awesome pizza.
I make my dough in the morning, let it rise, and collapse, in the mixing bowl with a towel over it, for about 2 hours. Once it is collapsed, I transfer it to a tupperware like container, and place it in the refrigerator.
In order to make a good pizza, you need to be prepared. A crispy crust requires a good pizza stone for your oven (like this: 15" Round Pizza Stone), a pizza peel make of wood (like this: Sur La Table Wood Pizza Peel), and some cornmeal, but more on that later.
Part of my preparation includes sauteing some of the vegetables that I want on my pizza. Using a small, non-stick saute pan (similar to this: Scanpan Pro IQ Nonstick Skillet, 8"), sprayed for about half a second with a canola oil spray, I sauteed a quarter of a thinly sliced red onion, with half of a thinly sliced red bell pepper, two sliced mushrooms, and a half of a medium zucchini, also thinly sliced, until the onion was translucent, and the peppers were soft. I then set his aside to cool, while I start to shape the dough.
Before starting to shape the pizza dough, however, it is important to remember to place your pizza stone in your oven, preferably on the middle rack, and preheat the oven to 450 degrees. The oven should be ready shortly before we finish preparing the pizza.
To begin shaping the Pizza, I first flour my work surface, generously. Then, I break off one quarter of my refrigerated dough (about 1 lb), form it into a grapefruit size ball, and place it in the middle of my floured work surface. After letting the dough rest for 5 minutes or so, I press it flat, with the palm of my hand. Then, I pick the dough up, redust the surface, and flip the dough over so that the unfloured portion is now in the flour. Now I'm ready to roll the dough out.
Everyone has their favorite rolling pin. Mine is a french tapered maple dowel (like this: J.K. Adams French Tapered (Dowel) Rolling Pin) - no moving parts, easy to clean, and it gets my big fingers out of the way.
When rolling out any dough, it is important to remember these steps. ALWAYS start from the middle and roll out - one direction at a time - this will keep your thickness even. So, what I do is this. I start with the pin in the middle of the dough, and roll up. I lift the pin, return to the middle of the dough and roll down. I then put the pin to the side, grab the dough and turn it 90 degrees, and roll again, from the middle up, then the middle down. Then, I flip the dough over, and repeat the whole process again. It takes about 3 complete turns of rolling the dough to get it to the size I need.
My peel is about 11" x 11". I like to roll the dough out to about 12.5" square.
At this time, I bring my peel close, sprinkle it generously with cornmeal, and then place the dough on top of the cornmealed peel, with about 1.5' overhanging the peel on all sides. The cornmeal does two things. It adds flavor to the bottom of the dough, and it helps the dough slide off of the peel when you but it on the pizza stone.
Next, I roll the edges in, onto themselves so that all the overhang is gone, a wall is formed around the edge, and the pizza shell just fits onto the peel. These edges will bake up crispy and pretty, and will stop any flow of sauce out to where you don't want it.
Then, I spread about a third of a cup of the Big Sur Bakery and Restaurant Pasta Sauce, acting as a very tasty pizza sauce, I follow that with the sauteed vegetables from earlier, a few slices black olives, about a third of a cup of shredded parmesan cheese, and about a cup of fresh spinach leaves.
At this time I place the pizza onto the pizza stone in my preheated oven, using the peel to ease it onto the stone. I set the timer for 15 minutes, and pour a glass of wine.
In fifteen Minutes, I pull the pizza out, using the peel, and let it rest for about 5 minutes before slicing.
See how lovely it looks, with the way the edges rose and crisped up? Yum!
This pizza was cut into four slices, but fed two people, with two slices each. Each slice is about 296 calories a piece, or 592 calories a serving.
I hope you try it and love it as much as I do.
Olive Oil Dough
From, Artisan Bread in 5 Minutes a Day, by Jeff Hertzberg & Zoe Francois
Makes four 1-pound loaves.
2 & 3/4 Cup Lukewarm Water
1 & 1/2 Tbs Fresh Yeast (1 & 1/2 packets)
1 & 1/2 Tbs Salt
1 Tbs Sugar
1/4 Cup Extra Virgin Olive Oil
6 & 1/2 Cups Unbleached All Purpose Flour
Mix the water, yeast, and sugar in a large bowl, and let sit for 5 minutes as the yeast begins to foam. Add the olive oil and salt, and stir to mix.
Add the flour and mix without kneading, with a spoon, until all the flour is incorporated. To get the last bits of flour, use your clean wet hands to mix.
It should look like the picture to the right.
Cover the bowl with a towel, and let sit at room temperature for about 2 hours. Dough should complete the rise and collapse cycle.
The dough can be used immediately, but is easier to handle when cold. Additionally, I believe the flavors are better after a night n the fridge.
To use as pizza dough, place a pizza stone in your oven, and preheat your oven to 500 degrees.
Take 1/4 of the dough, form it into a ball and let rest, covered, at room temperature, for 15-20 minutes.
Press down on the middle of the dough with the base of your hand. With a rolling pin, on a surface well dusted with flour, place the pin in the middle of the dough, and roll out. Place the pin in the middle again, and roll towards you. Flip, and turn the dough 90 degrees, the dough over, dusting damp dough spots as needed, and repeat the rolling process.
Repeat theses steps until the dough is as big as you want, but no larger than your pizza peel. Sprinkle corn meal on your peel and place the dough on the peel. Roll the edge in a couple of turns, to create a dam, and then add your sauce and toppings.
Using your peel, slide the pizza carefully onto your pizza stone, and bake for 15 minutes. Take it out and let it cool 5 minutes.
Slice, eat and enjoy!
Big Sur Bakery & Restaurant Pasta Sauce
From the Big Sur Bakery & Restaurant Cookbook.
3/4 cup Olive Oil
1 Large Onion, roughly chopped
2 Medium carrots, roughly chopped
2 celery Stalks, roughly chopped
1 Fennel Bulb, roughly chopped
10 Garlic Cloves
1 Serrano Chili, stem removed, and sliced
96 oz canned Whole Tomatoes
1 Tbs Kosher Salt
Prepare raw veggies, and place in a bowl.
Heat a large, 5 qt or larger, dutch oven, over medium high heat. Add olive oil. When olive oil is heated, add veggies all at once, stir, and reduce heat to medium low. Cook veggies, stirring every fem minutes, for about 20 minutes, or until they have caramelized.
At this point, add the canned tomatoes, with their juice, and the salt. Stir to mix. Increase heat until the sauce boils, then reduce heat and allow sauce to boil at a slow simmer for about 60 minutes.
Now, use an immersion blender (stick blender) if you have one, to puree the sauce in the pan. If an immersion blender is unavailable, carefully puree the hot sauce, in batches, in a standard blender, until sauce is completely smooth. I highly recommend an immersion blender though. They are reasonably priced, and are perfect for these types of projects.
Return the sauce to the medium low heat after the pureeing, and simmer for at least 30 more minutes.
You will be rewarded with a delicious pasta sauce that serves about 24. The serving size is a 1/2 cup and has 81 calories, each. The pasta sauce can be frozen in smaller batches for use later.
Here is the final product.
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