Tuesday, April 28, 2009

Pizza A La Fridge Clean Out

Ah, the forgiving pizza crust. Add whatever to it, cover it in cheese, bake, and you've got dinner! Tonight's crust is another generous recipe from Sydni. It has been my favorite homemade recipe yet and it was so very quick and easy. Truly, I made this pizza faster than it could have been delivered. And the best part? I used a bunch of leftovers for toppings. Half a grilled chicken breast, chopped tomatoes, leftover basil, red onion, capers, a bit of olive salad, fresh spinich from today's LPO box. It was good. And don't worry if you don't have spaghetti sauce. Just brush the entire crust with olive oil and chopped garlic instead.

INGREDIENTS:
2 cups flour ( I use one c. fresh ground whole wheat, one c. unbleached white)
3/4 cup warm water
1 T. yeast
1 t. sugar
1 T. olive oil
1/2 t. salt
1 T. parmesan cheese

DIRECTIONS:
In large mixing bowl fitted with dough hook, dissolve the yeast and sugar in 1/4 c. of warm water. Let the mixture sit 5 minutes until yeast has expanded and is bubbly. Add flour, oil, salt, and cheese to the mixture. Turn on the mixer and mix and knead the ingredients adding the remaining water until the dough scrapes the sides of the bowl and you have a smooth and elastic ball of dough. (You may need to add water 1 T. at at time until dough cleans the sides of the bowl.) Place dough ball on greased baking sheet turning over once to grease the top of the dough. Cover with a towel or plastic wrap and let the dough rest 10 minutes. Preheat the oven to 425 degrees. After dough has rested, shape into desired pizza shape. Add toppings, brush crust with olive oil and bake for 18 minutes.

3 comments:

Sydni said...

Brush it with olive oil huh? Good tip, I'll have to try that! ~Sydni

Susan said...

We make pizza every Sunday. Miah's fave is bbq chicken. Kinda weird, but he loves it. Carmelized onions, chicken, half bbq sauce half pizza sauce and lots of cheese.
We also started adding cheese into the crust. (Like a stuffed crust pizza.) Just to add a few more calories :)
Sometimes I add herbs to the pizza dough, too. Mm, mmm, good!!

Sarah said...

Susan~That does sound good! Might have to try that one tonight. This week hasn't afforded me the time to grocery shop and I'm playing clean the cabinets out again :) Good thing I have almost always have flour and chicken! I should make you as a contributer on this blog and you could add your recipes. It'd be like a little recipe co-op.