Friday Night Is Pizza Night

Friday night at our house is pizza night, as it has been every week for a few years now. Sometimes with overly salty Safeway pizzas. Sometimes with Trader Joe's stone-oven-baked 3 cheese pizzas - amended with a variety of whatever we have in the 'fridge. Sometimes with Papa Murphy's take-and-bakes. Usually it's homemade. But the pizza on pizza night is never delivered...because no pizzerias will come this far out into the desert (though it's not really that far) to deliver a pizza - not even the dreaded Domino's. We've heard tell of a delicious mom-and-pop pizza place that is even further west than we are, somewhere out near the mythic place called Three Points; a mom-and-pop pizzeria that has once in a lifetime, to die for pizza -- but nobody seems to remember the name of it or where exactly it is located...kinda like Shangri-La (Shangri-La Pizza - now that almost has a nice ring to it). Maybe that will have to be a culinary road trip sometime in the near future...

We have tried a numerous pizza dough recipes, a variety of sauces, and untold combinations of toppings. There have been white pizzas, whole wheat pizzas, BBQ chicken pizzas (which was the last meal my mother ate, on a visit a few years ago, before being hospitalized for 10 days with a bowel obstruction...not, we were assured, due to the pizza), thick and thin crust pizzas, really good pizzas, and really really lousy pizzas.

We disagree, Nik and I, for the sake of disagreeing and variety, on pizza dough recipes. Nik favors a variation on Alton Brown's Pizza Pizza recipe- which requires 15 minutes of kneading in the mixer. One would think that I would lean in that direction, given my penchant for extreme procedures. I don't really have a favorite dough, though I find I am using a variation on Rose Levy Berenbaum's pizza dough recipe more often than any other (it requires no kneading and just a quick mix to incorporate the ingredients). Both are make-ahead recipes that benefit from an overnight fermentation in the 'fridge.

Here's the typical breakdown of duties:

The dough is up for grabs - if Nik feels like making it then he makes it, otherwise I make it.

I roll it/shape it, because unless it's pie dough, Nik is afraid to use a rolling pin.

Nik makes the sauce - it's his baby.

I top and bake it.

This is the recipe variation that he's come up with most recently.

Pizza Dough

Yields 2 12-inch rounds, or 1 half sheet pan
Sugar.....................................3 Tbl

Salt.......................................1 Tbl

Olive Oil.................................2 Tbl

Water....................................9 oz

AP Flour..................................2 cups

Whole Wheat Flour.....................1 cup

Instant Yeast.............................2 tsp

1. Place all the ingredients in the mixer bowl. Using the dough hook, knead on medium speed for 15 minutes.

2. Place in an oiled bowl, toss to lightly coat with the oil, cover and refrigerate for 18-24 hours.

3. Remove the dough from the 'fridge about 2 hours before baking. Let warm on the counter (in the bowl) for an hour, then roll/stretch/toss it to desired size and shape. Apparently making faces while tossing the dough is essential - though I did not know this until I saw these pictures.)

4. Spray lightly with oil, cover and let rise for an hour.

5. Preheat the oven to 475 degrees.

6. Top with sauce, cheese, toppings, etc. - bake for 12-15 minutes (half sheet will take longer).

(Check out Jack and Mr. Mayor in this picture - hoping I won't catch the flying disk of dough.)

I know, I know, I know - we have a thick, wonderful baking stone in the oven, we should just go for it and slide the pizza directly onto the stone - but we don't. We have a perforated pizza pan and it works quite well. Okay, having written this, having expressed this baking shortcut/sin in text, I feel I must atone, so I am now obligated to sliding the pizza onto the stone...next week. Stay tuned.

Nik's Pizza Sauce

Tomato Sauce........................15 oz

Tomato Paste.........................3 Tbl

Garlic..................................4 cloves, minced

Herbs...................................1 tsp each (oregano, rosemary, basil, etc)

Habanera Hot Sauce..................3 dashes (this is Nik's version of MSG)

Sugar...................................1 pinch

Stir it all together in a saucepan and let it simmer for 30 minutes.

(I grouse weekly about putting the still-steaming sauce on the pizza but we never seem to get it made ahead of time enough to let it cool some...and it never seems to matter - I just like to complain about something.)