Monday, November 5, 2007

Rosie Makes Pizza.



My next door neighbor brought me some leftover spaghetti sauce from the local Volunteer Fire Department's spaghetti dinner. I decided to doctor it up and use it for pizza sauce.

First, I made the dough. I proofed one package of yeast in about 3/4 cup of water with sugar sprinkled in. Then I added an egg, some olive oil and bread flour and wheat flour. Kneaded the dough and set it aside to rise.




While the dough was rising, I sauteed some onions, garlic, and fennel seeds in a bit of olive oil along with some of the chopped up meatballs from the spaghetti dinner. (Mr. H. had stopped by the fire department the night before and picked up a couple of the dinners.) Then I added my neighbor's spaghetti sauce, some thyme, some oregano, and some salt and let it simmer happily away.













Meanwhile, back at the ranch, I sliced and sauteed portabella mushrooms. I nuked some sliced pepperonis to get a lot of the oil out of them, instead of letting all that grease seep INto my pizza.




Oh lookey, lookey. My dough has risen.

Here's a tip for fast-rising dough: First wrap plastic wrap over your dough. Then take a wet dishtowel, nuke it for about 60 seconds, then wrap around your dough bowl and leave it in the microwave.








I only used about 1/2 of the dough for the pizza crust. The rest I put in a small Corning Ware bowl for a boule.

Take your time spreading out the dough for the crust. It needs time to relax. Spread a bit from the center out, stop and let dough rest, then come back and spread some more.








I decided to put a little surprise in my crust: CHEESE!














Roll dough over the cheese and leave it to rise.













Wallah! It's ready to slightly brown.



















Brown the dough, just a tad, then add your toppings. I had the sauce, pepperonis, shrooms, sliced black olives, and green peppers from my garden. Top with plenty of cheeses. I used Swiss, Mozzarella, Monteray Jack, and Parmesan.

Pop INto a 450-500 degree oven until nice and bubbly.








And here's the finished product.










Bon appetit!

2 comments:

  1. that looks deF'inglicious. hahahahaha back at the ranch. dayum mama you da best pizza maker fo sho.

    ReplyDelete
  2. lane, dear, mama here, please drop the gangsta talk. just sayin'

    ReplyDelete