Pizza

When my boyo was growing up, every Friday was pizza and movie night for his family. We used to carry on this tradition in the early part of our relationship, until I decided that pizza every week probably wasn't the healthiest idea! But every once in a while, when Friday rolls around, he'll glance over at me with a puppy dog sort of expression and ask hopefully, "Pizza tonight?" Usually I can give him a firm no, but after he left for work yesterday afternoon I decided to surprise him with a homemade pie. He's been such a good sport about my health kick, after all.

Homemade pizza dough is one of those things I've never really been totally satisfied with. It always seems to turn out too puffy, too tough or just not that tasty. Yesterday I half followed a recipe from a Tapas cook book we have kicking around. Halfway into making it I looked down at the book and realized that it was actually a flat bread recipe, not one for pizza dough. I was already committed at that point, so I decided to just roll with it. And funnily enough, it actually turned out extremely well. The resulting crust was chewy but not tough, with a really nice, simple flavor. I sort of haphazardly threw whatever ingredients looked good onto the pizza, and although it was a bit chaotic, they worked really nicely together, although I probably won't bother with the spinach next time, because it got kind of lost in the mix.




Pizza
serves 2-4 (eight slices)

Dough
1 1/2 cups of white flour
1 cup whole wheat flour
1 envelope of active yeast
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp sugar
1 tbs olive oil
1 cup of warm water

1. Mix water, yeast and sugar into a small bowl and let it sit for five to ten minutes. Meanwhile, in a larger bowl, mix the flour and salt.

2. Add the yeast mixture and the olive oil to the flour. Mix the liquid into the flour until it is mostly incorporated, then turn the dough out onto a floured board and knead for five minutes.

3. Place the dough into a large, oiled bowl and turn once to coat the outside of the dough with oil. Cover the bowl with a warm, damp towel and put in a warm spot (I usually turn on the oven for 60 seconds and then off again, and put my dough in there). Let the dough double in size, about one hour.

4. When your dough is ready, punch it down and knead it for a minute or two, then let it rest for ten minutes.

5. Preheat your oven to 450 degrees. While the dough is resting and the oven is heating up, you can get your toppings ready. I used pesto (instead of regular pizza sauce) crimini mushrooms, fresh spinach, cherry tomatoes, red onion, feta cheese and smoked salmon (I put the smoked salmon on after the pizza came out of the oven, since I didn't want that to cook).

5. Roll out your dough onto a baking sheet and place your sauce and toppings onto the pizza. Put a piece of aluminum foil loosely over the top of the pizza. Bake for 20 to 25 minutes.