03 July 2012

Pizza - it's what's for dinner


I watch cooking shows, not so much the ones where chefs stir tons of cream and butter into their dishes, more the ones with dishes I can actually afford to eat. The ones that don't take a lot of time and effort, but still deliver delicious results.
For years, I've been trying to make edible pizza, and it's been edible, just not quite what I had in mind. Recently, I saw Kelsey Nixon make pizza ( http://www.cookingchanneltv.com/recipes/kelsey-nixon/simple-pizza-dough-recipe/index.html) and I tried her pizza dough recipe - it worked.
Oh, I should mention, too, that I'm after thin crust pizza, Neapolitan style or, I guess, New York style. That part took a while to get right. The secret here seems to be to handle the dough a little as possible. My first few attempts were pretty good, I used ready-made tomato sauce and mozzarella, added salami for L because he's more into meat than I am.
But it got really good when I tried to copy a pizza we recently had at at bakery in San Francisco: the toppings were different, obviously non-traditional. Pesto (I used Trader Joe's), fresh corn, red bell pepper, red onion and feta cheese. Delicious! The original used cilantro pesto, I used basil pesto, and it's good. I'm very happy with the outcome.
Next, I need to work on getting my pizzas round. And that's a bit harder than it would seem. Really!

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