Pizza

Wait a second. The first paragraph in that last post was supposed to go with this post. I had made a healthy summertime pizza and was going to tell you about it to prove that I don’t only make sugary foods. But I got sidetracked. Apparently.

Anyway, here it is.

Summertime Pizza
I think it was Barbara Kingsolver who gave me the idea of putting the cheese down first on the pizza crust, so I should probably say this recipe is adapted from Animal, Vegetable, Miracle.

your favorite pizza crust recipe (mine follows)
one pound of mozzarella cheese, shredded
some shredded Parmesan cheese, if you wish
about five Roma tomatoes, sliced
several handfuls of fresh herbs, a variety of whatever is growing in your garden (basil, oregano, thyme, rosemary, marjoram, etc)
cornmeal for dusting
good olive oil

Preheat the oven to 400-450 degrees. Brush a large cookie sheet (preferably one with sides) with lots of olive oil and then sprinkle it with cornmeal. Place the pizza dough on the cookie sheet and flatten it out with your fingers, gently pressing it into the corners of the cookie sheet. Sprinkle the grated mozzarella cheese over the crust. Lay the tomato slices on top of the cheese. Roughly chop up your herbs (no need to wash them if you grew them yourself) and sprinkle them over the tomatoes. Top with some freshly grated Parmesan. Drizzle olive oil over the whole thing. Be generous, now!

Bake the pizza for ten minutes, or until the cheese is brown and bubbly and the bottom of the crust is a golden brown. Remove the pizza from the oven and brush more olive oil on the crusty edge—the oil softens the crust and makes it yummy. (I really like olive oil.)

This recipe makes one large pizza, and serves 4-8, depending on what else is for supper.

Pizza Crust
Adapted from the More-With-Less Cookbook.

1 tablespoon yeast
a pinch of sugar
1 cup warm water
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 ½ teaspoons salt
1 tablespoons sugar
About 3 cups of flour (part of which may be whole wheat), and then a bit more

In a small bowl, dissolve the yeast, with the pinch of sugar, in the cup of warm water.

In a larger bowl, measure in the oil, salt, sugar, and a cup of the flour. Add the dissolved yeast mixture and stir well. Add the rest of the flour. Knead the dough until it is soft and elastic. Let it rest for at least five minutes before shaping it into a pizza crust.

This recipe makes one thick crust, or two thin crusts.