Preparing Pizza!

A ten year-old was coming over for dinner. When asked, his Mom said, “He loves to eat pizza & pasta.”

So I made both. The pasta was a linguine with Rao’s marinara sauce & Gardein meatballs, so good some carnivores don’t believe they’re vegan.

Here’s the pizza I made!

Ingredients:

1 cup + 1 tablespoon of 00, bread or all-purpose unbleached flour 

1 cup plus 1 tablespoon and 2 teaspoons all-purpose flour 

1 teaspoon fine sea salt 

3/4 teaspoon active dry yeast 

1 teaspoon extra-virgin olive oil 

Directions:

In a large mixing bowl, combine flours and salt.

In a small mixing bowl, stir together a little less than 1 cup of lukewarm tap water, the yeast and the olive oil, then pour it into flour mixture. Knead with your hands until well combined, approximately 3 minutes, then let the mixture rest for 15 minutes.

Knead rested dough for 3 minutes. Cut into 2 equal pieces and shape each into a ball. Place on a heavily floured surface, cover with dampened cloth, and let rest and rise for 3 to 4 hours at room temperature or for 8 to 24 hours in the refrigerator in a ziplock bag. If you refrigerate the dough, remove it 30 to 45 minutes before you begin to shape it for pizza.

On a heavily floured surface, use your fingers to stretch the dough.

For the pizza, I baked it in a cast iron skillet. Preheat your oven to 500 degrees. Warm the skillet in there for about 10 minutes. Remove, press down the dough (don’t burn your precious fingers!), & add the toppings.

I coated the dough’s surface with Rao’s marinara sauce, dropped dollops of Miyoko’s mozzerella cheese and sprinkled on some salt & pepper. In the 500 degree oven, bake for 10-15 minutes.

ALL Miyoko’s products are divine, especially their butter!