Homemade Pizza Pie

 This is a pizza mountain when there are a lot of goodies in season from the garden. Fresh heirloom tomatoes, eggplant, peppers and summer spinach. Fresh herbs, onions and garlic. And in fall I love using kale. I just pre cook it a bit before I add it to the pizza. Makes two pizza crusts.

Pizza Dough

1 1/2 cups warm tap water
2 tbsp. extra virgin olive oil
5 cups organic unbleached flour
2 eggs
2 tbsp. active dry yeast
Pinch of sea salt
2 tbsp of honey or sugar
1 tsp. garlic powder
3 sprigs of fresh Basil flowers (Cinnamon is my favorite)
3 sprigs of fresh Oregano ( chopped)
1 tbsp. grated Parmesan Cheese


Directions
Place water, yeast and sugar in bowl and whisk gently while you prepare your other ingredients. This makes a nice dough starter and you will notice it begin to foam or bubble a bit when it is ready.
Place all the rest of the ingredients in your mixing bowl. Add your dough starter and mix with hook until the dough begins to pull away from the sides of the bowl.
Place dough in a lightly oiled bowl and cover with plastic wrap and the place a towel on top to cover for extra warmth. Let rise until double in bulk.
I use two 12" round pizza pans. First I prepare my pans by lightly oiling them with extra virgin olive oil. Then I sprinkle a little corn meal on them. Roll out the dough as close to the size of the pan you are using as possible. After I slide the dough onto the pan I shape the edges a bit. It doesn't have to be perfect because it is homemade!! Lay a towel over the whole thing and put it in a warm place to rise. You should let it get double in size. It usually takes about an hour.. After it has risen, preheat your oven to 400. Your going to pre-bake the crust for about 10 minutes in a hot oven. I always pre-bake the crust before I place toppings on it. This will ensure your dough will be completely baked when it's all finished. Just don't over bake it at the pre-baking stage.
After they are pre-baked you can begin adding your toppings. I like to go ahead and freeze one of the crusts for later, unless we have company and need two pizzas.



My sauce and toppings are seasonal to what is growing in the garden. When I have plenty of tomatoes I will cook them down for the sauce, but that is not always the case.

Pizza Sauce
1 small can of tomato paste
add water, maybe 1/2 the paste can size or to the desired thickness
salt to taste, but at least 1 tsp.
about 1 1/2 tsp. of brown sugar (regular sugar is fine)
a good dash of garlic powder
fresh herbs, Basils, Oregano, Fennel Seed

Take all the ingredients and stir it in a bowl. Cover your bowl and place it in the refrigerator. No need to pre-cook it. It will marinade in the refrigerator if you prepare it ahead of time. I usually make mine in the morning.

Toppings

When your ready to put your pizza together you will first add the sauce and then place pepperoni's on top.

I like to saute an onion (finely chopped) with 2 or 3 minced garlic cloves. If spinach is available in the garden I will add a ton of it and saute it with the onions. Sprinkle a little salt if your using spinach.

Other toppings I have used from the garden include grated Japanese Eggplant, sliced tomatoes, all kinds of peppers (mainly sweet varieties) mushrooms (from the store) and black or green olives.

Then it's time for the cheese. I love to use Monterey Jack Cheese. Yummy and you will need to grate at least 1 lbs to finish topping off your pizza.

Bake in preheated oven at 400 just until the cheese is barely turning brown.

 

Happy Gardening!

Pammy