TL;DR

Fresh produce from a farm is fantastic on pizza!

A Preface on Pizza in My House

Pizza is a sacrement in our house. After 20 years of refining my technique for flatbread style pizza…and screwing it up more times than I can count…I’d like to share it here. For less than $20, you can feed 4 people two meals.

Basic Ingredients

• Pizza dough (3 to 4 lbs)
• Fresh brassica (kale) and allums (chives, scallions) greens
• Pizza sauce (sweetened, thickened, seasoned tomato-base)
• Shredded cheeses, at least 3 different kinds
• A lipid: oil, butter, chicken or duck fat, beef tallow, etc.
• Semolina flower

Basic Tools

• A pizza stone, steel preferred but ceramic does okay too
• A pizza peel
• A pastry brush
• 3-4 baking sheets with cooling racks
• A cutting board bigger or same size as the pizza stone
• A pizza cutter or big chef’s knife

Basic Pizza Sauce

I often opt to make my own pizza sauce rather than settling for something bought in a store, even if it takes longer and costs a little more. I like my pizza sauce a little on the sweet side and chunky. No one makes this.

In a wide, heavy pot, the process goes:

1. Sweat a diced large white onion and about a cup of shredded carrots
2. Add a few cloves of garlic, diced
3. Add 1/2 lbs sausage, cooked and broken up into crispy crumbles
4. Spices: 1 teaspoon each of oregano, thyme, basil, and granulated sugar
5. Take the pot off the heat and add a large (64oz) can of whole peeled tomatoes in sauce, then mix around a bit
6. Add a splash or two of 80+ proof dry alcohol (vodka, gin, tequilla) which will unlock some of the amazing flavors in tomato due to phenolic compounds
7. With your hands, carefully squish each tomato until your desired consistency (for me, no piece is bigger than my thumbnail or so)
8. Cover and cook on low for 2 hours, stirring occasionally to make sure it’s not burning on the bottom, then let cool down to room temperature before using

Though this takes a bit longer, it makes enough to put in the freezer for the next pizza night, and the flavors are well worth the effort.

Pizza-making Prep

1. Set aside a cup of semolina flour for dusting the doughs
2. Prepare a sheet pan by dusting plenty of semolina flour on it
3. If starting with cold dough, then at least 2 hours before cooking, open up the portions of dough until they are about 1 inch height and let them come to room temperature on the dusted sheet pan
4. If starting with relaxed dough (such as freshly home made), thouroughly coat each portion with semolina
5. Prepare ALL pizza toppings before hand (good to do while waiting for the dough to soften up)
6. Crank the oven to 500°F / 260°C and let come to that temp before using

Cheese Mix

1. In a big bowl, mix all the grated cheeses together
2. Low-moisture cheeses are preferred, and nothing too funky either
3. The more variety of cheeses, the better, such as Parmasean, Mozzarella, cheddar, queso, Gruyere, Gouda
4. Only use high-moisture cheeses sparingly as toppings, such as ricotta, feta, and brie

1st (Blind) Bake

1. Sprinkle the cutting board with some flour then flatten the doughs out on the cutting board evenly, pulling it mostly to the edges without tearing
2. Using the peel, bring the pizza stone out of the oven onto a heat-safe surface such as the stove top and brush some oil on it
3. Transfer the flattened dough to the hot stone; if you work quickly, you can fold it on itself like you would do a pie crust, then unfold and adjust it on the stone
4. Put the whole stone back in the oven and cook until the top swells up but before it gets brown (apploximately 2-3 minutes)
5. With just the peel, remove par-baked crust onto a sheet pan
6. Brush the top side with lipid of choice all the way to the edges then flip over so that stone side is now ingredient side
7. Repeat for each portion of dough, resulting in par-baked crusts ready for sauce and ingredients

Pizza Toppings

Remember, the crust will be thin so we don’t want to overload it with lots of toppings. Keep it light, not too much cheese, and limit high-moisture elements. Some favorite toppings in my house are:

• Veggies
  • Sauteed mushrooms, onions, broccoli, zucchini
  • Pre-cooked breaded and fried eggplant slices
  • Diced onions, chopped scallions, thin sliced fennel, carrot peelings
  • Greens: anything not too wet like lettuce or stalky, like kale or arugula
  • Raw garlic and shallots: thin-sliced or diced, sprinkled around
• Fruits
  • thin slices of apple or pear
  • small chunks of dried pineapple or dates
  • Nuts: chopped up walnuts, pecans, or cashews
• Proteins
  • Cooked italian sausage bits, ham chunks, proscuto slices, Pepperoni (not for me)
  • Par-cooked shrimp, crab, clams, or other shellfish
  • Prepared meats: BBQ pulled pork, small slices of grilled chicken breast or steak, generally not fish except for high-quality anchovies
  • Tofu (flavored and grilled in advance is better than raw)
  • Egg, cracked with broken yolk and spread out slightly (cooks to medium)

Pizza ‘Decoration’

1. With a par-baked crust, oil the crust border areas and pinch a little salt all the way around on them
2. Glob on sauce and spread with the bottom of a spoon, leaving about 1 inch unsauced at edges
3. Sprinkle handfuls of cheese starting in the middle and working outwards all the way to the edges (yes, including the crust borders)
4. Add toppings (NOT TOO MUCH!!!), at most 4 different kinds but usually fewer
5. Sprinkle a tiny bit more cheese on the top of leafy greens if used

Note: if you want to try different combinations, do half of the pizza with one topping (or combo), half with another, then rotate 90° and do a third topping across one half of both other toppings. You’ll end up with two quarters that just have the first two options, and two similar ones that also have the third option mixed in. An example:

• Choice 1: Apple and ham
• Choice 2: Grilled chicken

• Choice 3: Fennel and walnut

• Quarter 1: Apple and ham
• Quarter 2: Grilled chicken
• Quarter 3: Apple, ham, fennel and walnut
• Quarter 3: Grilled chicken, fennel and walnut

2nd (Final) Bake

1. Using the peel, move the decorated pizza back in to the oven for about 5-7 minutes
2. When the crust is Golden Brown and Delicious (GBnD) and the toppings look cooked in, take it out with the peel and let it cool on one of the racks for a minute or two
3. Before it cools too much, cut it into thin slices about 2 inches wide and 6 inches long

On cutting: usually this is about 5 cuts vertically in landscape mode and one long horizontal cut down the middle the other way; this is how Flatbread Company in New England cuts their round pizzs and it’s a terrific format to eat family style.

Garnishes

A pizza doesn’t need garnishes that weren’t part of the bake already, such as basil chiffonade, fresh thyme or oregano leaves, maybe cilantro bits if it fits with the other toppings. Dry herbs should always go in the cheese blend and get baked in. Though you can also garnish before baking, the freshness of the herbs gets lost or worse burns in the oven.

Topping Sauces

You can always drizzle some sauce on top if you want to, but between the sauce, cheese blend, and toppings…sauce is only needed when it’s counted as a topping, IMO. A classic example is chicken-bacon-ranch. Some creamy garlic is nice from time to time too. And if you have a high-quality, fruity olive oil, a small drizzle here and there is great.

Got some suggestions?

If you have ideas or suggestions to add to the above, connect with me and I would love to try them out!