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.