Before and After Pizza

Ready for the oven

Ready to eat with a drizzle of extra virgin olive oil

Pizza night is a common theme at my house and the kids really like to pick out ingredients and design their own pie; they normally go for a cheese or maybe even a sausage pizza. I like to go all out and use ingredients such as basil pesto and thin sliced Parma ham. These small, personal pizzas only take about five minutes to cook in my 500 degree oven and the pizza stone helps gives it a great crispy crust too.

Pizza Night

It's been a while since I made pizza at home for my girls as it is a somewhat long process involving making the dough, the sauce and assembling all the topping ingredients. First, the kneaded dough has to then rest and proof for about a hour before being portioned and rolled out, during which time a fresh tomato sauce is made. So with a burst of energy I decided to go for it tonight.  My girls being non- adventurous teenagers wanted the classic pepperoni and cheese. For me, I use some of my favorite flavors including grilled eggplant, fresh tomato, olives, fresh mozzarella and arugula, also not forgetting the sprinkle of crushed chili peppers. The whole project turned out to be a easy and relaxing process which was aided by a mandatory glass of wine or two.  Dinner's ready kids - come and get it!

Tomato, Eggplant, Olive and Arugula Pizza

Dinosaur Kale & Tomato Pizza

I made a healthy vegetarian pizza today using wilted "Dinosaur" kale, oven roasted roma tomatoes and Fontina cheese. It was cooked on a oven baking stone with the heat cranked up to 500F (260c) It gave it a nice crispy crust and let all the flavors ooze and blend together. It turned out great and I didn't even miss not having any meat on it. Next time I will add feta cheese and olives for a more of a Greek style pizza.

Spring Time Asparagus Pizza with Fontina Cheese

I had this style of pizza at Cucina restaurant & Wine bar in San Anselmo, California and it was so good that I had to recreate it at home. Very simply made with just a good fresh pizza dough, fresh sliced asparagus and imported fontina cheese. My pizza was good and could only have been better if I used white truffle oil and had a wood burning oven like Cucina restaurant. Make it yourself or have the restaurant make it for you.

Duck Sausage & Chantrelle Mushroom Pizza

I had the idea of making pizza tonight after a long week of work, my game plan was to use some chantrelles I have at home. Pizza on a Friday night meant that I was going to have to stop at the local store for a bottle of wine to go with it. I didn't need anything from the meat department but I stopped and talked shop with the butchers, one of the guys has been experimenting with making different sausages to sell. He wanted my opinion and gave me a few to take home and try, one was made with duck meat and the other was a classic pork bratwurst. I poached the sausages and sliced them to go on top of the pizza along with shredded mozzarella cheese, chantrelles and caramelized onions. The pizza turned out great and the duck sausage was my favorite. It turned out to be the first rainy night of the upcoming winter and the sausage and mushrooms fit right in with the cool weather.

Quick & Easy Pizza

So you have two chefs making Thanksgiving dinner for themselves and its lunch time, what do you make to go along with the beers? Pizza of course! A quick whole wheat crust, fresh grated mozzarella cheese, sliced tomatoes and chopped Oregano from the garden. 30 minutes to prep and 15 minutes in a 450F oven.

Home made pizza

Making pizza from scratch is not as hard as it seems and everyone can have a lot of fun making there own. The kids chose cheese and Italian sausage, I went upscale with extra virgin olive oil, garlic, Sonoma goat cheese, sausage and fresh arugula. The dough has only a few ingredients and goes together very fast, a electric mixer with a dough hook is a huge plus because it does all the mixing and kneading If you want to make your own pizza and bread doughs then you will need one.

Basic pizza dough recipe

Ingredients:

1 cup quality flour

1 cup lukewarm water (98F)

1 package dry bread yeast

1 tablespoon kosher salt

1 teaspoon sugar

1/2 cup good quality olive oil

1.Add yeast and sugar to water, let sit 15 minutes till bubbly

2.Add yeast/water to rest of ingredients, put in electric mixer

3.Mix for about 5 minutes or knead by hand for 15 minutes

4.Divide in half and roll out, put on baking sheets dusted with corn meal

5.Add your favorite toppings and place in 500 degree preheated oven

6.Bake till golden brown, around 10 minutes, cut and serve

Yield=2 small pizzas