Party.... Pizza Party!

Oh hi friends! The Golden Globes were last weekend, and nothing says Golden Globe fanciness like a pizza party! Johnny found a great recipe in a magazine for home made dough (recipe courtesy of Pizza A Casa), so I went for it, even though baking freaks me out. I hate measuring! Stop telling me what to do, recipe! Oh wait, that's kind of what I'm trying to do here. Ah hypocrisy.

Four delectable pizzas were made: Spicy turkey sausage and provolone, pepperoni and fresh mozzarella, pancetta with shredded jack/cheddar, and black olive, asparagus, and carmelized onions. Yup. Delicious-town. All pizzas pictured here - not sure why I didn't take a picture of the veggie pizza after it was baked, but oh wells. You get the idea, right?

Start with the dough first, because you need to give it time to rise. In a large bowl mix 3 1/2 cups all purpose flour (don't sift), 1 1/2 cups water, 1 packet active dry yeast, 1 tablespoon EVOO, and one teaspoon sea salt. Combine with a wooden spoon or flour covered hands. Once the dough comes together, turn it out onto a floured surface and knead into

a ball. Place the ball into a clean bowl, cover with saran wrap, and let rise for at least an hour in a warm corner of your kitchen. Plenty of time to prepare your toppings!

Since we are going all homemade - all the way here, you gots to make your own sauce! Or at least fancy up some tomato sauce that you may already have in your pantry. I used a 15 ounce can of tomato puree, so go with that or whatever you have on hand. Add a little red wine, onion and garlic powder, red pepper flakes (a pinch!), dried oregano (couple pinches), and S & P. Simmer the sauce over low heat whilst you prepare your other ingredients and be sure to keep tasting for seasonings.

For the spicy turkey sausage and provolone: Cook three spicy italian turkey sausages in a pan over medium heat. I find that the outside cooks faster (and burns) than the inside, so after the sausages begin to brown, add a few tablespoons of water to the pan. This will steam your snausages to help cook the insides. The water will evaporate and then they will continue to brown. Remove from the pan, let cool a bit, then slice into bite sized slices. I used sandwich slices of provolone and just ripped them up, but if you find shredded provolone, use that. Set aside until you're ready to assemble.

For the veggie pizza: slice one yellow or red onion. Drop a few tablespoons of butter and a one count of EVOO into a frying pan and caramelize those onions over low heat. Add some wine after they begin to color, the sugars in the wine will help your caramelization and add deliciousness. Set onions aside in a bowl to cool. Chop your bunch of asparagus into bite sized pieces (I used the tips only), then add a touch more EVOO to your onion pan, some red pepper flake, and the asparagus pieces. S&P those suckers and cook for 2-3 minutes ONLY. They will get bright green, then immediately remove them from the heat. You want them to still have bite, even after you've baked the pizza. No one likes mushy asparagus. NO ONE. For the olives I used canned (drained) black olives, but you could slice up kalamata olives if you prefer. Set these ingredients aside until you're ready to assemble.

Which is now! Everything else goes on to the pizzas in raw/uncooked form. Go get your dough and rolling pin! Flour the rolling pin and board/counter top well. Turn the dough out onto the surface and divide it into four even pieces using a knife....or the OXO pastry scraper, pictured below! OXO doesn't pay me, but they should ;) Seriously, go buy one right now, they are fantastic for cutting dough/pastry evenly, and I use mine nightly to transfer chopped vegetables from the board to the pan. Do it! Oh and preheat the oven to 400 degrees.

Roll each piece of dough out to circle size, approximately 12-14 inches. As you can see, mine are more oval-ish. As long as you get them into pizza shape you're good. Place your rolled out dough on a pizza baking sheet or a cookie sheet (I had to bake these two at a time). Okay time to assemble!

For the spicy turkey sausage and provolone: drop a few spoonfuls of your sauce onto the dough and spread evenly. Spread the provolone around the sauce, then top with your spicy turkey sausage. Sprinkle a small handful of grated parmesan and that guy is ready for the oven!

Veggie pizza: ladle out some sauce onto your rolled out dough and spread evenly. Evenly place some of your black olives and asparagus, then top everything with the caramelized onions. I made this pizza mostly cheese free at the request of the mister (he does not tolerate lactose), so the crust and the top of the pizza was lightly dusted with grated parmesan. Drizzle the top with EVOO and you're ready to go!

Pepperoni and fresh mozz: I got thinly sliced Boar's Head pepperoni from the deli counter and I think you should too. The mozzarella comes in water, so drain it and tear or slice the cheese up. After you've sauced your dough, place the pepperoni slices on the sauce and dot the mozzarella pieces all around. The mozz will melt really well, so don't put too much on or your pizza will be mushy and wet. Hit the crust with some parm and boosh. Ready.

Pancetta and cheddar/jack: I also got the pancetta at the deli counter, thinly sliced. For those of you who live under a culinary rock, pancetta is "Italian bacon": it is pork belly that is cured (not smoked like American bacon), usually with peppercorns. So again, start with your sauce, then evenly distribute your shredded cheese on top of the sauce. Lay your slices of pancetta around on top of the cheese: you want the pancetta to crisp up, so it's super important that it's on top of the cheese. Sprinkle the parm around the crust and your final 'za is ready for baking!

Like I said, I could only bake two pizzas at a time, and I switched them around on the racks halfway through to cook evenly. They took around ten minutes each, so set your timer for eight minutes and keep a weather eye out for burnage. When the pizzas are done, let them rest and cool down a bit before cutting. Tear some fresh basil and add to the sausage pizza and the pancetta pizza (or any of them really). Serve with a lovely salad and some wine and you're golden! Let me know how the dough works for you and if you have any other topping ideas.

Smoochies,

D