Pizza Thursdays

A new take on rustic pizza.

Potatoes are good on pizza.  This is something we’re learning.  Done correctly, potatoes aren’t mushy, dry, filling blobs of tasteless carbohydrates.  Instead, when sliced very thinly, brined in a salty lemon juice bath, and broiled until the tops brown, they’re great.  Really great.  They turn into something decidedly non-potatoey – crisp, light, flavorful – and even very pretty.

We were fortunate this week to stumble upon some gorgeous red-skinned new potatoes, as well as a recipe in the latest Martha Stewart Living recipe.  We decided to bend it a little to fit our taste and technique, and it worked in our favor.

 As far as cheese-tasting notes go… we got the best blue cheese I’ve ever tasted for this pizza.  It’s called a buttermilk blue cheese, and is made from raw (unpasteurized) milk.  It’s got no disgusting gray rind like some blue cheeses out there, and though slightly on the pricey side, you’re getting all cheese, no rind.  And it is delicious.

Toppings: Sliced redskin new potatoes, crumbled buttermilk blue cheese, crispy shallots

Sauce: Rosemary Infused Olive Oil

Dough:   Trader Joe’s

Technique:

Remove your crust from the fridge 2-3 hours prior to baking.  Place it on a well-floured surface covered with plastic wrap.

Thinly slice your potatoes (we used about 4-5 ounces, but adjust to your preference) and place them in a bowl.  Cover with the juice of two lemons and a pinch of salt.  Let them sit for an hour and a half.

Meanwhile, preheat your oven to 550 with the pizza stone in top third.  For about an hour.  It will warm your house.  Bonus?

Peel and thinly slice 4-5 shallots.  Place them in a skillet with a bit of olive oil over medium-low heat for about 10 minutes; add a pinch of salt, and continue cooking for another 20-30 minutes, until they’re slightly crispy.

Infuse your olive oil: place 2-3 sprigs of rosemary in a small saucepan with about 1/3 cup of olive oil.  Heat over low heat for about 15 minutes.  Turn off the heat and let it cool.  Remove the rosemary just before using the oil.

Crumble your blue cheese; taste it to test how salty it is.  Remember this for later.  Drain your potatoes.

Stretch your dough to size and plop it onto a peel sprinkled with semolina.  Brush on the rosemary oil; scatter the (well-drained) potatoes across the top.  Add the blue cheese crumbles and shallots.  Slide the pizza into the oven carefully.

Turn off the oven and flip on the broiler (the high setting worked well for us).  Wait.

When it looks like the top is browned and the crust is crispy, remove from the oven.  Top with coarse sea salt if needed.

Laurynn: This pizza falls solidly into our top 3 all-time best homemade pizzas.  The potatoes were perfect, the brand of blue cheese is a new favorite (for me), and rosemary is pretty much a safe bet always.  I’m feeling inspired to do more in the category of rustic pizza – maybe less sauce and more oil; less cured meats and more vegetables.  Less cheese?  Let’s not go overboard.

In which we admit that we take our inspiration from Barefoot Contessa sometimes…

Happy New Year!  We’ve just re-upped our web space, so Nikc and I are gearing up for another year of pizza.  We’re also gearing up for many more exciting things this year, like our wedding in September.  That means it’s time to get healthy and fit so when we look at wedding pictures, we don’t cringe. But not this week!  Because this week we rang the New Year in right with a slightly indulgent white pizza with clams, a white wine reduction, and fresh parmesan.  We based this pizza on a recipe featured on Barefoot Contessa, which is adapted from the Brooklyn pizza spot “Franny’s.” (For the recipe we followed go here.) Our version makes one pizza (instead of 4 to 6), and uses store-bought dough (don’t hate).  Check out the specs below.

Toppings: 1 lb. clams (littleneck or any variety), scrubbed clean; shaved parmesan, fresh parsley Sauce: Clam white wine reduction Dough:   Trader Joe’s Technique:

Remove your crust from the fridge 2-3 hours prior to baking.  Place it on a well-floured surface covered with plastic wrap.

Preheat your oven (500 this week) and pizza stone for about an hour.

After scrubbing your clams, you want to add a tablespoon of oil and a chopped onion, let it saute a bit. Add a few cloves of whole peeled garlic , a bay leaf, and some hot pepper flakes and cook that on low for about 5 more minutes.  Add about a cup of white wine, bring it to a simmer and then add your clams. Cook on low, but cover and wait for them to open up. If it's your first time cooking clams, just wait until they really open up. You'll know when they're done ( it should take about 5 minutes for all of them.)

Once you remove your cooked clams, take them out of the pan and place in a bowl. Ask someone politely to take the meat out of the shells while you finish the sauce. Reduce the hell out of the left over the liquid until its really just a syrupy glaze. At that point add a half cup or so of heavy cream, just enough to make it saucy. Reduce some more, you really want this stuff thick because it's not going to be good runny. After about 10 minutes of that, you're just about done. Take the sauce off the stove and run through a fine mesh strainer to get out the chunks.

Stretch your dough to size and plop it onto a peel sprinkled with semolina.  Spread on the white wine reduction (it should be pretty thick) and toss the clams on top.  Sprinkle with freshly grated parmesan.  Slide the pizza into the oven carefully.

Watch for the cheese to begin to brown and the crust to get as crisp as you like it (broil the top as necessary).  We did, and ended up with ginormous legit bubblage!

Remove from the oven.  Top with fresh parsley and crushed red pepper flakes and a squeeze of lemon.

Laurynn: For me, NOTHING gets more exciting than an irregular, asymmetrical, slightly charred scattering of bubbles across the top of a pizza crust, so this was an exciting week for me.  Our crust this week was near perfection – we’re back to our old tried and true method for making crusts that are awesome.  Sometimes we take a break and focus on the ingredients.  I didn’t realize our skills were down until this crust turned out so damn good.  Anyway, that said, the clams and sauce were pretty good… they were good… ok, they were a bit bland.  A little garlic would have made this spring to life, I think.  There wasn’t a whole lot of sauce on this pizza, and I kinda thought it needed a little something.    

Italian farm-to-table; an interesting and delicious pairing. 

Pasta, pizza… it’s all the same, really. Right? I would say 99% of the time, a pasta craving can be sated by pizza, and vice-versa.  I mean, they’re both carbs covered in delicious toppings.  I even wonder whether the same holds true for salad, because a salad is just lettuce smothered in delicious toppings. But we'll save that for another week, because this week we decided to turn a classic Italian pasta combination into a pizza: thus, our puttanesca pizza was born. Just like the pasta version, the formula is pretty simple: just add fresh tomatoes (we prefer whole San Marzanos, which we then tear apart by hand, marinate in olive oil, and then drain); coarsely chopped Spanish olives; thinly sliced garlic; diced anchovies (I leave the selection to the anchovy master, Nikc, who prefers the ones in the jar rather than a tin); and fresh basil at the end.  And then, becauase really, what’s a pizza without cheese – we added grated fresh mozzarella. Toppings: Spanish olives, anchovies, fresh mozzarella, basil Sauce: Hand-torn San Marzanos, drained with EVOO, salt, and pepper Dough:   Trader Joe’s Technique:

Preheat your oven (425 this week).  Place your pre-baked crust onto a lightly-oiled pizza pan.

Add your tomatoes first; smother with olives, mozzarella, and anchovies (or, if you’re like me, tread lightly with these)

Pop the pizza into the oven.  Watch for the cheese to begin to brown and the crust to get as crisp as you like it (broil the top as necessary)

Remove from the oven.  Top with fresh basil.  Slice.  Eat!  

A match made in heaven. We’re back to being fancy this week.  Well, if you can call sauerkraut “fancy,” that is. When I took my pizza trip around Iowa a few months ago, I saw my first sauerkraut-topped pizza at Harris’, and was blown away.  Lately, all of this cold weather has put me in a German food kinda mood, and I had sauerkraut on the brain (kinda like this guy).  We needed to go there, immediately! I had this vision in my mind of a huge mountain of sauerkraut, and determined that we needed a strong crust to be able to sustain it.  We went with a huge (16”) pre-baked crust from Wegman’s, the kind they always display by the soup bar/area for the lazy cooks to shop from.  I went with a bag of sauerkraut from a refrigerator case, and to counter the salty tang, grabbed a block of swiss cheese.  I briefly considered doing some sort of German knockwurst, but in the end decided the smoky kick of speck would do the trick.  Bonus: you can dump it right on top before popping it in the oven. Toppings: Sauerkraut, Speck, grated Swiss Sauce: None Dough:   Wegman’s pre-baked crust Technique:

Preheat your oven (425° this week, kids).  Place your pre-baked crust onto a pizza pan.

Drain your sauerkraut.  I mean, really drain it.  Squeeze all of the excess liquid out, too.

Top the pizza crust with the sauerkraut.  Pile on the grated swiss.  Sprinkle on the speck crumbles, and pop the whole thing into the oven

In about 15-20 minutes, the sauerkraut should be starting to get brown and crispy around the edges; take it out, slice, and enjoy.  We enjoyed ours with hot sauce on top.

Oh, nostaligia. Nikc and I recently decided it would be fun to revisit the pizzas of our childhood, to get a better understanding of what helped form our ideas about what pizza should be. This week, we started with my mom’s recipe.  She always used a bread machine for the dough; since I recently was gifted with her ol’ machine (thanks, Mom!), I was able to replicate her pizza pretty accurately.  And we never used pizza sauce; it was always spaghetti sauce from a jar.  We opted for Wegman’s Chunky Marinara this week, and it worked like a charm. Some important notes: It is absolutely imperative that you bake this pizza at 350 degrees.  It is also imperative that you serve it with every seasoning you have ever enjoyed on a pizza; for us, this includes oregano, parmesan (the powdery kind in a can), salt and pepper, hot sauce, garlic powder, and red pepper flakes.  Try them in every combination; you can’t go wrong. Toppings: Mozzarella and Pepperoni Sauce: Wegman’s Chunky Marinara Dough:  Bread machine dough Technique:

For the crust (makes 2)--Into the bread machine, add (in this order): 2 teaspoons of dry yeast, 2 1/2 cups of bread flour, a teaspoon of salt, half teaspoon of sugar, 1 1/2 tbsp of olive oil, 1 cup of water. Press the 'Dough' setting. Our machine (a 1993 Welbilt bread/time machine) makes dough in an hour and twenty minutes.

When the dough is ready, carefully remove it from the bread machine and place it onto a floured work area.  Sprinkle with a little flour, and roll out the dough to size with a floured rolling pin.

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.  Lightly grease a pizza pan.  Place your dough on top of it.

Spoon on most of the jar of sauce (eat the rest, immediately).  Add on grated mozzarella.  Top with pepperoni and pop into the oven for 20 minutes or so.

When the cheese is melted, and the pepperonis are just starting to get crisp around the edges, pull the pizza from the oven.

Slice, serve, grab a fork and knife, and pile on the seasonings!

We recreate the Taco Bell original.  With half of the calories.

There’s less than one year left until Nikc and I get married, and you know what that means: Weight Watchers. Yes, we’re on a diet at Pizza Thursdays.  You may see less frequent posts from us, but we’ll never give up pizza.  So we just have to get more creative around here. Like this week’s pizza, which takes that awesome Taco Bell staple – the one that weighs in at 540 calories and 31 grams of fat – and lightens it up.  I can’t say it’s better (come on, you can’t top the original) – but is more filling, and better for you.  How much better? Ours has 260 calories and 9 grams of fat. If you’re on Weight Watchers, that’s 8 PointsPlus. We had ours with a ton of shredded lettuce and a dollop of every salsa we had in the fridge. Toppings:  refried black beans, diced tomatoes, cheddar, scallions Sauce: None Dough:   2 corn tortillas Technique:

Preheat the oven to 375.

Spray a baking sheet with a little cooking spray, and place a corn tortilla on top.  Spread ¼ cup of refried black beans on top.  Top with another tortilla.

Top with tomatoes and grated cheddar.  We used canned tomatoes and Cabot Extra Light sharp cheddar.  It wasn’t bad!

Pop into the oven for 10-15 minutes, or until cheese is melted and beans are warmed through.  Top with chopped scallions.

Cut into fourths, and tear it up like you’re on a diet and Taco Bell is sitting in front of you.

Turning a great apple/cheese combination into an even better pizza. Last fall, I went crazy with the apple selection at Wegman’s.  I’m not a fruit person, but those apples just looked so damn good that I had to try them; all of them.  I determined that honeycrisp apples are where it’s at, and I’d eat one every single day for lunch.  Until one day, when I decided I had to answer an e-mail in the middle of chomping on one, and got caught looking like a luau pig by a few people passing by my office. So Nikc and I started looking for ways to eat apples at home, for dinner.  Sometimes on Fridays we like to do happy hour for dinner, where we eat veggies and cheese and whatever else we’ve got laying around, but we put it on a fancy platter like we’re not eating a bunch of junk food for dinner out somewhere.  Honeycrisp apples and beemster cheese is a favorite during apple season.  Earlier in the week, we tried a recipe for sausage and apples sautéed in a beer glaze, with green beans.  It was amazing, and we decided we wanted more savory apples in our life. So, while perusing the aisles during a weekly grocery run, and we remembered we needed pizza toppings (oops), this week’s combo just fell in place: apples, onions, beemster.  And because we’re extravagant, we added pecans (also, because I like saying PEEKINS). Toppings: Apples, onion, beemster cheese, and pecan halves Sauce: None Dough:  Whole Foods’ 1-lb. ball o’dough ($2.99) Technique:

Defrost your dough: we used dough from the freezer this week.  You can take it out the morning you want to make pizza and let it sit at room temperature all day.  About an hour before bake-time, remove it from its container, sprinkle both sides generously with flour, and let it sit on the counter, draped loosely with plastic wrap.

Preheat your oven to 500°.

Meanwhile, slice two apples into 16 wedges each, removing the core as you go.  Slice up two onions (however you want, go crazy).

Melt 2 TB of butter in a large skillet over medium-high heat.  Add in the apples and onions, sautéing until the apples are tender and the onions are translucent and turning golden.  Dump the mixture into a strainer and allow it to drain.

Shape your dough using a rolling pin.  I rolled mine out until it was about 1” wider all around than our pizza pan.  I sprayed the pan with olive oil, then placed the dough on top, folding over the edges into a rim.  Spray the top lightly with olive oil and pre-bake for 2-3 minutes.

Prepare your Beemster, removing the wax rind if necessary.  Taste the inner rind to determine whether you want to use it on your pizza (ours was a little bitter, so we used some of it, then ate the rest).  Grate up the cheese (we used about ¾ cup on our pizza).

In a small bowl, toss a handful of pecans halves with a little olive oil (to prevent them from burning in the oven).

Remove the crust from the oven and pile on your onion/apple sauté.  Cover it with the cheese, then toss on the pecans before sliding it into the oven.

Bake until the cheese melts, then broil on high until the cheese takes on a little color.  Remove, slice and enjoy.

Or, how to use up a bunch of peppers before the season ends. Every spring my dad seems to go crazy; he buys a ton of pepper plants for his garden.  This year he saw a sign for “tasty poblano peppers,” and was pretty much sold.  I’m not sure exactly how many plants he bought, but I know I saw at least 8.  That translates to a ton of tasty poblanos, especially at this time of year. So this week we pulled from our giant bag of peppers (yes, we take garden donations) a few of the shiny dark green ones, and naturally we paired them with chorizo sausage and Monterey jack cheese.  Instead of sauce, we spread on a few handfuls of caramelized onions, and for crust, we found a great recipe calling for masa. Toppings: Chorizo, Monterey Jack cheese, caramelized onions, poblano peppers Sauce: None Dough:  Corn Masa Dough Technique:

For the crust (makes 2): In the bowl of a stand mixer, combine ½ TB yeast, ¾ TB salt, ½ TB sugar, 3 TB grapeseed oil (or other neutral tasting oil) with 1 ½ cups of lukewarm water.  Add in ¾ cup of corn masa flour and 2 ½ cups of all purpose flour.  Mix it with a paddle or dough hook attachment (You can also mix the dough in a food processor, or by hand).  Cover the dough loosely and allow it to rest for about 2 hours.  You can use it now, or refrigerate it for up to 10 days.

Caramelize some onions: heat 1 TB each of butter and olive oil over medium high heat until the butter melts.  Add 3-4 thinly sliced onions and sprinkle with 1 tsp of salt.  Stirring constantly, cook for 15 minutes.  Reduce the heat to low and stir occasionally, cooking for another 30-40 minutes.

Preheat your oven and pizza stone to 550°.  If your dough has been in the fridge, take it out and let it come to room temperature (sprinkle it with flour so it doesn’t stick).

Depending on the type of chorizo you buy, you may want to remove the skin.  We did, and we were glad, because biting into the skin will make your toppings pull off your slice.  Ew yo.  Slice the chorizo into coins.

Grate your Monterey Jack cheese.  Dice up your poblanos (adjust the amount based on how spicy your peppers are – ours were really spicy, so spicy that Nikc’s lips turned red like Macaulay Culkin’s, so we only used 1).

Stretch your dough by hand a bit.  Ours was very stretchy in a way that didn’t spring back annoyingly.  Sprinkle with a little flour and roll out the dough to size (or stretch it with your hands, carefully).

Throw on the toppings, slide it onto your pizza stone, and turn off the oven before turning the broiler on high.

Broil until the cheese melts and the crust begins to turn brown.

We review Alice Waters’ recipe for squash on a pizza.

There’s a chill in the air.  For us, that means it’s time to start thinking about sage, roasted veggies, potatoes, slow-cooked roasts, and chili.  For our dog, it means sleeping in our 40 degree living room because his owners are cray-cray.  For the record, he sleeps in an overstuffed armchair.  And he eats homemade liver chewies.  So don’t go feeling sorry for him. This week, we tested out a recipe from Alice Waters’ Chez Panisse Vegetables cookbook, which was so fall-like in its list of ingredients I decided it was time to eat a giant bowl of applesauce, throw another blanket on the bed, and wear wool pants to work the next day. (helpful hint: it is still 80 degrees during the day.  Wool pants + sweat = wet wool smell.  If you’ve never smelled it, consider yourself lucky). This one’s got roasted butternut squash, sage, and gruyere cheese.  Despite our instincts to never leave well enough alone, we stuck with the recipe for an honest review.  Here goes. Toppings: Butternut squash, mozzarella and gruyere cheese, fried sage, parsley, lemon juice Sauce: Garlic olive oil Dough:   Whole Foods’ 1-lb. ball o’dough ($2.99) Technique:

Peel, de-stem, and remove the seeds from one medium butternut squash.  Slice it in half lengthwise then into ¼” half-moon slices.  Brush with olive oil and sprinkle with salt and pepper.  Bake at 400 degrees for 30-60 minutes, or until slightly browned and tender.

While the squash is baking, finely chop 2 cloves of garlic and immerse them in about a quarter cup of olive oil.

When the squash is out of the oven, pop in a pizza stone and up the temperature to 500 degrees.  Meanwhile, grate ¼ cup each of mozzarella and gruyere cheese.

Stretch out your dough into a disc.  Place it on a well-semolinaed pizza peel and shake it around to ensure it will slide off easily.  If not, add more semolina to the sticky spots.

Top the dough with the garlic and olive oil, then the cheeses.  Add the butternut squash and slide it onto the pizza stone, carefully.  Let it bake for 10 minutes.

While the pizza is baking, chop the leaves of 12 sprigs of parsley.  Fry 20 sage in leaves in hot olive oil briefly, and allow them to drain on a paper towel.

When the pizza is ready, remove it from the oven.  Top with the parsley, sage, and squeeze a lemon over the top.

Wood-fired pizza and great beer. We took a trip over the weekend to Rehoboth Beach.  In our opinion, a trip to the beach without a visit to Dogfish Head is like pizza without the toppins, and since a visit to Dogfish at dinner time often involves a 2 hour wait, we stopped in just as it opened, at noon.  We grabbed a seat at the bar and ordered our first round: a Punkin Ale for me, and for Nikc, a Hot Thoup!.  What’s a Hot Thoup!?

A quick and easy way to use up leftovers and farmer’s market finds.

  This entire summer, we’ve had so, so many vegetables lying around.  Heirloom tomatoes at the peak of juiciness, tiny new potatoes, those long, unidentifiable slightly spicy peppers that everyone seems to be growing in their yard, green beans, beets, butternut squash… we don’t even know how we accumulate all of these things.  The good news, though, is that we always find a way to use them up. This week, we went with what we had: vegetables, cheeses, and some pre-made items from the fridge.  And just because it’s hot out, we grilled everything on top of those naan flatbreads. We used leftovers from a salad from Yotam Ottolenghi’s book Plenty, and those Gwyneth Paltrow slow roasted tomatoes. First up, Nikc’s creation: Toppings:  Marinated buffalo mozzarella and tomato salad, grilled peppers Sauce: None Next, my flatbread: Toppings:  Mascarpone, blue cheese crumbles, slow roasted tomatoes, grilled peppers Sauce: None Technique:

Preheat your grill and clean the grates.  Toss on your peppers and grill them to perfection.  Toss on anything else you have that you think would be better grilled – eggplant, onions, peaches… all good choices.

Assemble your flatbreads and slide them directly onto your grill grates.  Cover and cook until the cheese is melted.

Remove the flatbreads from the grill.  Slice them up, and chomp them down.

Is a pizza without cheese still a pizza?

Well, is it? I don’t know.  This week’s offering is definitely more flatbread-like than pizza-esque.  But that’s ok.  See, we’ve been using this Couch to 5K app to get some exercise in, and since we started week 2 today, we decided to keep it easy and light in terms of pizza.  You know, because during those 30 minutes, we felt like we wanted to die.  Also, I saw my shadow.  Kind of a rude awakening. Last summer we were all about grilled pizza.  We made a version similar to this, and were amazed.  Here is this overwhelmingly Hawaiian combo of ham and pineapple, but with the simple addition of sage it turns into something completely different.  Sage tricks you into thinking you’re eating something hearty and bad for you, like sausage or rich creamy pasta.  But really, all you’re eating is a handful of leaves you’ve scavenged from your back yard.  I call that a win. Toppings:  Sliced pineapple, black pepper ham, fresh sage Sauce: None, unless you want to count olive oil Dough:   Jim Lahey’s No-Knead Dough Technique:

Remove the dough from the fridge 3 hours before you want to bake.  This is crucial to getting great results.

Preheat your grill and clean the grates.

Drain a can of sliced pineapple.  Directly into your mouth.  Rip ham slices into bite-sized pieces.  Separate your sage into individual leaves.

Stretch your dough to size/shape.  Drizzle with olive oil and place it oiled-side down directly onto your grill grates.  Quickly throw your pineapple slices onto the grates as well to sear it; flip to sear both sides.

When the crust has a nice char on one side, oil the top and flip it over.  Top with ham and pineapple.  When the bottom is nearly finished, top with fresh sage leaves.

When the crust has cooked through, remove the pizza from the grill.  Top with fresh black pepper, salt, and a drizzle of olive oil.

It happened.

After last week’s cop-out recess (which we can only blame on the new dog), we’re back with a new pizza.  And it’s a good one.  A delicious, random, delicious, good one. I’m not generally a big fan of ordering deli meats in the grocery store; there’s something about stepping up to a crowded counter that really annoys me.  But I did it, just for you guys, I did it, and I happened to step up just after a man and his two sons.  They eat a lot of lunch meat.  And they also get a lot of samples.  And I did a lot of waiting, but you know what?  It was worth it, because not only did I get a free sample of bologna (you better believe I grabbed that free slice with my filthy cart-pushing hands), but it resulted in a really great pizza this week. We kind of winged the cheese, since I kind of forgot to buy it, but we had a good random selection in the fridge so we went with it. Oh!  And!  We have a new pizza tool.  As alluded to last week, we bought a new pizza stone.  After doing a little research, we ended up going the cost-effective route of Dough-Joe’s pizza tiles.  And, to make things even cheaper, we got a deal on some scratch-n-dent ones.  They’re not bad at all, and they make a damn good pizza. Toppings:  Pickled peppers, bologna, random cheese blend (Cracker Barrel aged reserve cheddar, smoked provolone, pecorino romano), chopped onions Sauce: Canned “tomato sauce.”  The cheapest Wegman’s had to offer. Dough:   Whole Foods’ 1-lb. ball o’dough ($2.99, or 3x the price of Trader Joe’s dough, but no regrets) Technique:

Remove the dough from the fridge 3 hours before you want to bake.  This is crucial to getting great results.

Preheat your oven and pizza stone at 550˚ for an hour.

Chop your onion and cook it a little in an oiled skillet until translucent.

Chop chop chop: your pickled pepper slices, and your bologna slices.

Grate your cheese(s) and mix ‘em together.

Stretch or roll out your dough to size, placing on top of a well semolina-ed pizza peel.  Top with the sauce (for God’s sake, not too much), bologna, onions, cheese, and peppers.  Slip it onto your pizza tiles and bake until the cheese looks amazing.

Laurynn:  Reasons I loved this pizza:

A substantial crust.  Maybe I’m getting burnt out by Mr. Lahey’s no-knead version (it’s skimpy and… wimpy).

BOLOGNA.  I am a damn bologna fool.

Pickled peppers.  We’ve done it wrong.  This time, we got it right! (Pro tip: chop em small).

Leftover test: this pizza not only allowed for leftovers, but the leftovers passed the test.  We reheated them in the toaster oven, and they were perfect.

The onions.  Nikc fought hard for onions on this pizza, and he was right.  They were amazing.

No post this week because this week we're still figuring out this:

But don't worry next week we'll be back with a new pizza that we cook on this:

Sometimes it doesn’t work out… Our pizza attempts don’t always turn out.  Shocker, I know.  But in the interest of full disclosure, we talk about those too on this blog.  There’s no Pizza Thursdays test kitchen.  Seriously, we don’t need another reason to eat more pizza. This week, we tested out another recipe from Jim Lahey’s My Pizza, and since we had a vegan friend over, we decided to modify it.  We also threw together a potato pizza using ingredients we had on hand. First up, the Spicy Eggplant: Toppings:  Broiled eggplant slices, spicy garden pepper, grated fresh ginger, chopped garlic clove, chopped fresh mint Sauce: Jim Lahey’s Tomato Sauce: it’s just hand-crushed San Marzanos, salt, pepper, and olive oil. Dough:   Jim Lahey’s No-Knead Dough Technique:

Remove the dough from the fridge 3 hours before you want to bake.  This seems to be crucial to getting great results.

Preheat your oven and pizza stone at 550˚ for an hour, making sure the grate/stone are in the upper third of the oven.  But if your pizza stone exploded, like ours, then you’re just preheating your oven and making your pizza on a pan.

Broil your eggplant slices for a few minutes, until they’re a little brown on top, and soft.

Stretch or roll out your dough to size, placing on top of a well cornmealed pizza peel (or pan, like us).  Top with the sauce, ginger, garlic, spicy pepper, chopped mint, and eggplant slices.  Drizzle with a little olive oil and broil it.

Next up, the potato pizza: Toppings:  Thinly sliced new potatoes (the little skin-on type), fresh chopped rosemary Sauce: A little leftover Jim Lahey béchamel sauce. Dough:   Jim Lahey’s No-Knead Dough Technique:

Remove the dough from the fridge 3 hours before you want to bake.  This seems to be crucial to getting great results.

Preheat your oven and pizza stone at 550˚ for an hour, making sure the grate/stone are in the upper third of the oven.  But if your pizza stone exploded, like ours, then you’re just preheating your oven and making your pizza on a pan.

Stretch or roll out your dough to size, placing on top of a well cornmealed pizza peel (or pan, like us).  Top with the sauce (on half, if your vegan friend is over – olive oil the other half), potatoes, and rosemary.  Bake (or broil) until the crust is browned.

We try out a few recipes from Jim Lahey’s new book, “My Pizza.” This Pizza Thursday, we made four pizzas.  We had two guests over, so if you do the math, that’s one pizza for each person.  There were no leftovers. I’d say the pizzas were good. We have been using Jim Lahey’s no-knead dough pretty religiously for Pizza Thursday, so when we saw that his new book, “My Pizza,” came out, we grabbed it.  We tried out his crust recipe from the book, which was slightly different from the version in Bon Appétit – it made four rather than seven pizzas – and we ended up having the greatest success in terms of crust yet.  It sat out at room temperature for about four hours, and it showed.  The dough developed lots of bubbles and was super pliable. We used the Lahey method – that is, preheat the oven and pizza stone for at least a half an hour at 500˚, then pop your pizza in, turn off the oven and kick on your broiler. First up was Lahey’s Margherita Pizza: Toppings:  mozzarella, parmagiano-reggiano, fresh oregano (switched in for basil, because we like it) Sauce: Jim Lahey’s Tomato Sauce: it’s just hand-crushed San Marzanos, salt, pepper, and olive oil. Dough:   Jim Lahey’s No-Knead Dough Technique:

Remove the dough from the fridge 3 hours before you want to bake.  This seems to be crucial to getting great results.

Preheat your oven and pizza stone at 550˚ for an hour, making sure the grate/stone are in the upper third of the oven.

To make your sauce, just hand-crush a 28-oz. can of whole San Marzano plum tomatoes and add a drizzle of olive oil, salt, and pepper.  Strain it before you put it on your pizza.

Stretch or roll out your dough to size, placing on top of a well-semolinaed pizza peel.  Top with the sauce and grated cheeses.  Place it on your stone and broil the top on high until the cheeses are browning.  Top with fresh oregano.

Next up was Lahey’s Ham and Peas pizza: Toppings:  mozzarella, a sprinkle of parmesan, fresh peas, prosciutto torn into strips, fresh mint chiffonade Sauce: Jim Lahey’s Bechamel Sauce: it’s a backwards version of the béchamel I’m used to – you heat the milk and butter, then add in the flour – but I’m sure any béchamel will do here. Dough:   Jim Lahey’s No-Knead Dough Technique:

Remove the dough from the fridge 3 hours before you want to bake.  This seems to be crucial to getting great results.

Preheat your oven and pizza stone at 550˚ for an hour, making sure the grate/stone are in the upper third of the oven.

Stretch or roll out your dough to size, placing on top of a well-semolinaed pizza peel.  Top with the sauce, prosciutto, and grated cheeses.  Place it on your stone and broil the top on high until the cheeses are browning.  Top with fresh mint.