Recipe: Organic Pizza

Today, I baked a delicious pizza. The recipe creates a thin crust and, to top it off, I’ve decided to stuff the crust with cheese.

Note: My crust recipe is from “Essentials of Classic Italian Cooking” by Marcella Hazan. I did, however, add other ingredients to it to make it my own.

Organic crust pizza:

1 1/2 teaspoons active dry yeast

1 cup lukewarm water

3 1/4 cups unbleached flour (I use organic flour)

Extra Virgin Olive Oil,

1 tablespoon for the dough, 1 teaspoon for the bowl

1/2 tablespoon salt

Cornmeal

**The book asked for other things that I didn’t use.

–I melted 2 teaspoons and brushed it on the top of the crust to brown.

–I added a quarter size amount of Garlic, Parsley salt with a sprinkle of romano regeano cheese onto the crust.

4 String Cheese sticks for the crust if you want it to be stuffed crust.

Toppings:

1) Lots and lots of cheese. We don’t measure the amount of cheese, we just add it until we feel it is enough. If needed, 2 cups of mozzarella cheese.

2) Any toppings you want.

1) Dissolve the yeast in a bowl, preferably large, with a 1/4 cup of lukewarm water.

2) Add 1 cup of flour to the bowl and mix with a spoon, preferably wooden.

3)Add 1 tablespoon olive oil, 1/2 tablespoon salt, 1/4 cup of lukewarm water and 1 cup more of flour, mix with hand, I added seasonings I listed above I prefer.

If the flour is too dry while mixing, add more water, if it is too sticky, a little more flour. Mix, mix, mix roughly, knead and roll it into a ball.

4) The recipe asks to sit for 3 hours to allow it to double in size. I left it over night on the counter covered with a towel so it doesn’t dry.

5) The next day, I cut it in half.

6)I cover the board with corn meal and begin squashing it down with the palm of my hand. I then began rolling it out with a rolling-pin, my hand, pin, hand. . . until I form a big round crust.

7)I put corn meal on the bottom of my tray and placed the pizza on my, gasp–dollar tree purchase–pizza tray.

8)I did the same with the other half of the pizza dough. (If you want to add cheese on the crust, make sure to separate the cheese stick into long slices. I used two per pizza crust. I placed it on the edge crust and rolled the crust inward and closed it in. Seal the mozzarella inside of the top of the crust like if you are sealing an envelope, but facing forward.) Brush butter on the crust.