Pizza Delicioso

Dinner tonight was a success! I first got the idea for pizza-making on Saturday when I noticed a pizza special on the food network. And this got me thinking about my cast iron pan and how it would probably turn out a pretty tasty pizza so I googled "pizza recipe cast iron" and came across this Whole Foods recipe: Cast Iron Skillet Pizza. Full of enthusiasm, I assembled most of the necessary ingredients (minus corn flour and artichokes) and set to cooking last night while also keeping an eye on Under Siege on tv (best movie of all time). I can't really judge that recipe honorably b/c I had to substitute corn meal for the corn flour and I'm not entirely sure my skillet is 9 inches. It might be smaller, but it also might be 9 inches, I should probably go check. Anyway, it turned out rather dense and much too doughy and heavy. I cut out the crust and just ate the center portion (it was midnight by the time I finished and I was dying of hunger). Tonight however, I tried Bee's pizza dough recipe (Bee was the pizza maker back when we lived in Brooklyn; he had a special trick of incorporating red pepper flakes into the dough, so good) and used the same toppings. With a canny eye toward dough/topping ratio, I halved the amount of dough to go into the pan and well, it was just perfect.

Pizza dough
1 tbs yeast
3/4 c warm water
1/4 tsp sugar

Mix above and let sit 5-10 minutes. When mixture is foamy, add:

1 3/4 c flour
1/2 tsp salt

and knead for ~5 minutes. Form into a ball and pat with a bit of olive oil, cover with cloth and set in a warm place. Let rise for 45 minutes.

Divide the dough in two and form balls. Oil the cast iron pan with a bit of olive oil. Press dough out to fit pan (9 inches?). Add desired toppings (tonight I used chopped kalamata olives, thinly sliced roma tomatoes, slivers of garlic and mozarella cheese. I meant to scatter some basil on top at the end but I was so hungry I had eaten it all before I remembered). Bake on bottom rack for 15 minutes or until top is brown.

Next time, I think I will try to prebake it for 5 minutes before adding toppings. Also, I read somewhere that you can freeze the dough so that's what I'm doing with the other half of tonight's dough. We'll see if it is as good after freezing.

Pizza might be my new hobby.