Pizza - the Rest of the Story

While enjoying the smoked salmon pizza, we stretched out the other 3 disks of dough into less regular shapes than the first. We wanted to get away from a store-bought look.

The first choice was simple: pesto. Spread on the basil from the jar we made last summer, add chopped garlic, season with salt and pepper then top with shredded cheese. A drizzle of olive oil made it just right.

The second pizza was very traditional too. Seasoned tomato sauce spread on then topped with pitted oil-cured olives. Then came some crushed red pepper flakes and topped with cheese. Olive oil was added all around the edge.

Now was the last one. This time a touch of olive oil was spread on the dough and then came the cheese – a nice firm layer. Then it was seasoned with salt and red pepper flakes. Slices of the Campari tomatoes had been salted and drained already. That removes extra moisture. They were laid on top and fennel seeds sprinkled on. Then came the olive oil.

Now it was time to bake these fellows so that feast could begin. A pizza peel comes in handy at a time like this. Toss a little corn meal on the thin wooden paddle, add one pizza and slide it on the hot stone. Then proceed to numbers 2 and 3.

Bake until bubbling and beginning to color. Then you use the peel to remove each pizza and place them on a cutting board to settle. You want to let the ingredients get together before cutting.

OK the now it was time for the Foodtasmic test. Get a slice of each on a plate and how our creations stacked up. Do they look tempting? Does the smell make you hungry? What about when you take that first bite?

Ours passed all those tests. Looked great. Smelled just as good. And the taste of each was outstanding. The variety made for an even better experience. It was much better than putting all those things on one larger pizza.

Try something like this a try sometime. Maybe plan ahead better than we did and check the fridge sooner. Decide on a few toppings and make a variety of smaller pizzas. You can even make a party around it and the guests can make their own and share around. Get the bases ready for them and go for it. Don’t forget you will need to time it for oven space.

Give a pizza festival a fling. You will have lots of fun and good eats. Foodtasmic sure did.

Pizza Sooner

While at work on our pizza festival at Foodtasmic, we wanted a little something to tide us over. So we decided to make one of the planned four pizzas first and have it while constructing the remainder.

We stretched one disk into about an 8 inch round. You can roll them out too but stretching gets a thinner result and a nice edge. Since they are small, it’s easy to do.

Smoked salmon, cream cheese and capers sounded good. But that would take careful attention to bake without ruining the salmon. Solution: partially cook the dough before adding the toppings.

What we did was spread a touch of olive oil on the surface and cooked the disk in a sauté pan until just browning on both sides. We let it cool a couple of minutes and spread on the cream cheese. The warm dough made that easy. Topped it with slices of the salmon and sprinkled on a few capers.

The pizza went into the oven for 2 minutes. That’s all it took to firm the bottom and heat the toppings. The result was 4 slices of lusciousness. What a great snack to tide us over while working on the other ones.

Pizza Fun

All of us get an “inspiration” every now and then – especially when it comes to food. That light bulb starts to flicker then it glows. When it gets bright enough, we have to get cooking.

That’s exactly what happened to us at Foodtasmic recently. The idea was pizza. It was time to make pizza – not just have it.

Pizza from scratch is a pretty simple process. If you take making the dough out of the equation, it’s really easy. Even better is that it is fun.

Let’s talk about dough. Pizza dough is easy enough. It’s flour, water, salt and yeast. Maybe there is olive oil and an herb or two. If you have a food processor, making the dough is a snap.

But let’s skip that part. We did. We used a pizza dough ball. You can buy them frozen or fresh (probably defrosted) in some markets. They are superior to the already formed and cooked bottoms and more versatile.

Here’s what we did together to take care of our pizza fix and do it the way we wanted to.

The thawed dough ball was cut into quarters, formed into disks and allowed to rest for a few minutes. This lets the gluten relax so you can stretch them out easier. They won’t spring back on you. Make sure to cover or the surface of the dough will harden.

Next task: pre-heat the oven. If you have a pizza stone, now’s the time to put it to use. Put it on the bottom rack of your oven. Ours stays there all the time. It provides a protective barrier from the direct heat from the coils in the bottom. It also gives you a hot surface to use.

Go for the highest your oven will produce. For me that’s 550. If you have a convection or convection-style oven, use that one. Pre-heat for at least 30 minutes. Your goal is hot, hot, hot.

Now we were ready to raid the fridge and larder to see what toppings we on hand. Soon we will tell you exactly what we found and how we used them to make for Foodtasmic Pizza Fun.