More than anything, I miss pizza, and it's not a food that I feel I can cook better than a pizzeria or even assemble better than my favorite take 'n bake pizza shop. Desperate times call for desperate measures. And so this weekend, my project was to make pizza.
Even if there were yeast available and no flour shortages in the grocery store, I would still resort to buying packaged pizza dough. One skill at a time when tackling New York style pizza. And on the advice of a neighbor as well as a YouTube video, I carefully removed the dough from the plastic bag (i.e., pulling the bag from the dough as opposed to pulling the dough out of the bag in order not to disrupt the bubbles or gases inside the dough). Once you've un-bagged, you can fold the dough in half and pinch at the bottom in order to form the dough into a ball that will rise evenly and NOT disrupt its bubbles.
I moved the pizza dough from my fridge and placed it into a bowl and covered it with cling wrap and set it on my kitchen counter at noon. Then I set out to my favorite Grocery Outlet, but this time in Pacifica instead of Redwood City, to suss out possible places to hike outdoors and to buy a bag of pepperoni. Umm no. All the parking lots to the parks and beaches were closed though people were still out and about to enjoy sand and surf and sunny weather. I noticed that all the surfers were parking in the lot to Grocery Outlet and then walking with their boards to the waves. I also did not want to buy 2 pounds of pepperoni and nixed that idea and resigned myself to what ingredients I had on hand for pizza making. I then tried to get back on the Cabrillo Highway after grocery shopping, took a wrong turn and ended up in the steep and meandering hills of Pacifica. The views from above were stunning, and so I didn't mind getting lost and then slowly returning to the grocery store to get on the freeway.
I was too intimidated to break the law and get out of my car, so I returned home the scenic long route via Highway 1 and 92. Once home, I watched more YouTube videos. Below is one key tip, and luckily I had bought a Lodge cast iron round steel pan for just the purpose of baking pizzeria style pizza. Great advice even if all the residual carbon in my oven overheated my house and filled it with smoke. A lot of the videos recommend crushed tomatoes and using an immersion blender and then adding copious amounts of olive oil and dried oregano to achieve that New York pizza taste. No thank you. I had already bought prepared pizza sauce in a jar, and I'm sticking to it because it was delicious. But I've committed the sin of cooking pizza sauce in the past, and now I know it's a no no.
5 o'clock, and so it was time to stick that cast iron pizza steel in an oven as hot as I could get it for at least an hour. I also took out my cast iron frying pan to precook the Italian sausage.
Lo and behold, my pizza dough had risen and doubled in size in the hours after I had set it out. I was giddy with excitement over a pizza dough with lots of bubbles and the possibility of a crispy crust with a puffy and soft interior.
Here's mistake one. I hate to waste. And so I sliced the mushrooms that were still in my fridge and took out leftover sliced black olives with the intention of using ALL of these ingredients in the pizza. The key to a good pizza is to not overfill the pie, and only a Chicago style pizza pie would require such an abundance of toppings. I also took out what was left of an open container of grated Parmesan cheese--which was okay to use ALL as it imparts so much flavor.
I also precooked the mild Italian sausage (the store was out of spicy) and hence added red pepper flakes.
The highest temperature I could set on my oven was 480 degrees, and not the 500 degrees I wanted. HOWEVER, I think the pizza steel and dialing my oven dial on to roast and convection for at least an HOUR would make the oven super hot enough to ensure a crispy crust.
I kept nibbling the salty deliciousness of the Italian sausage, which is something I buy all the time. I love Italian sausage more than pepperoni because I adore that licorice flavor of fennel seeds.
One pizza making video recommended whole milk, low moisture mozzarella. I discovered my ball of mozzarella was partial skim. That's okay. Too much grease can be ruinous to a pizza for me. The box grater for cheese shredding is one of my invaluable tools in a kitchen.
Sigh. Here's where I need to refine my pizza making skills. I should have thrown down flour on the board and not just polenta. Also this round cutting board is just too darn small to form a pie, and I didn't care about diameter so much as thinness of the dough. I saw one pizza maker use her counter and gravity to stretch her dough. I gently pulled the dough and then tried to pinch holes close, which I think will be my future technique. Another future goal is to stretch that dough so thin that you can read a newspaper through it.
I had to use two spatulas to ease the overloaded (mistake #1) pizza from a not floured, too small surface (major mistake #2)on to the pizza steel. I had a bit of an emotional meltdown to the dismay of my husband. It was just pizza for fuck's sake and not a big deal, but in this time of Covid-29 and condo fever, a botched pizza became a big deal. Irrational, I know. Put it in perspective. This too will pass. Moving on. For the second pizza which was gonna be my favorite Margherita, I floured the back of a baking sheet to use instead as a pizza peel. I'll also know for next time to spoon the sauce right up to the edges. Again I was unable to slide the pizza onto the steel and told myself, fuck it, and I left the pizza on the baking sheet and put the baking sheet on top of the pizza steel.
The pizza was golden brown on top, but not as crispy as it should have been on the bottom plus there was raw flour. Oh well. Next time I will flour my hands and press it into the dough, so that it will slide off much easier. Also I have a round pizza pan with holes. Duh! I should have used that to slide the pie on the steel or to even just place the whole pizza on the holey pan onto the steel. I also saw a video where one pizza maker used parchment paper to slide the pizza, paper and all onto the oven rack. Stay tuned.
My husband's Italian sausage, mushroom and olive pizza on the other hand looked disastrous, but he was a trooper and ate a quarter of it.
My Margherita was delicious even if it wasn't the extreme of delectable. I love the flavor of fresh basil leaves atop hot, bubbling cheese to kind of soften it, and I ended up eating the whole pie. Therefore, I'm not giving up on making pizza. I will make pizza again. I will keep making a better pizza.
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