Thursday, August 21, 2008

Contessa Does Pizza

Ah, it's time for Barefoot Blogging--This week we are doing a grilled California pizza...a quick dough, plenty of toppings..and because I don't own a grill (must fix that), I decided to kind of par-bake them on a griddle and finish them in the oven. And yes, I get it that I could have done them entirely in the oven, but that just didn't seem quite in the spirit of things...

So--I picked fresh mozzarella, tomatoes, basil..goat cheese, chaume cheese (couldn't find Italian fontina) and, my fave, I cooked red onions down for my topping.

Once again, I was abandoned by my family (see clams post)...Bryn and I were here, though. Bryn enjoyed a straight up Margherita (with, I forgot, sundried tomatoes), and I did fresh mozz, tomatoes, goat cheese, red onions, and I finished with with fresh basil.

The dough rises quickly--you just have to give it 30 minutes. I rolled it out on parchment and flipped it onto the griddle--because I am beset by shrinkage. I roll dough out and it shrinks back the minute I move it...but here, leaving it to cook with the parchment backing, it held its shape better..I let it brown, then peeled back the paper, flipped it...cooled slightly, topped and baked.

With Gary at the hangar (don't ask), Ian gone, Sam...well, he's been gone a while..I had 8 pizzas and no one to serve 'em to...

So I baked off all the shells, didn't top them...and Bryn's getting homemade pizza for lunch tomorrow. Bet she's the only kid in school with that...

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

yours look really good. :) i just got around to making these tonight. great tip about the parchment on top, i had lots of dough issues... shrinkage being one of them, and that will help me out for next time.