Pepperoni Pizza
Pepperoni Pizza
Cooking Light, September 2006
This was a comedy of errors, except I wasn’t really laughing. I didn’t made the pizza dough this recipe called for. I made the one posted on here from the July 2009 issue. That wasn’t the comedy part…
I must have been dreaming when I made the grocery list. I didn’t get the can of crushed tomatoes for the sauce, but I had a can of sauce. I think I had one recipe in mind and C&Pd the ingredients for one and the directions for the other. I should fix that in my recipe file.
I kept the sauce warm, per the directions. Yeah, don’t do that. Let it come to room temperature or something.
I have a stone that stays in the oven. It makes the world of difference when baking bread or pizza. I have a peel for the bread and pizza. I put the cornmeal on the peel, put the pizza dough on top and then put the sauce and toppings on the pizza. Well, the sauce was too warm, I guess, and started cooking the dough on the peel. I had EXTREME difficulty getting the pizza off the peel and onto the stone. I wound up having to lift the pizza with the toppings on it and put more cornmeal underneath the dough to get it to slide off the peel right. So, let the sauce come to room temperature.
I didn’t put enough sauce on the pizza. I thought I put A LOT of sauce on, but it wasn’t enough and made the crust a little on the dry side for my taste. I added mushrooms, red onions, and green bell peppers to the pizza, topped it with the mozzarella, parmesan and then some crushed red pepper.
I baked it at 450 for about 17 minutes. I like mine a little on the done side. I have experimented and sometimes the bottom crust is a little soggy if I don’t overcook just a bit. The bottom crust was nice and crispy! Didn’t fall apart at all when we were eating it. The crust on the edge was over done just slightly, but not too much to be inedible, but it wasn’t easy to eat because I didn’t put enough sauce on the pizza.
So, it was a comedy of errors, but I wasn’t really laughing. And I picked the hottest day we’ve had so far to make this experiment!! I only hope the calzones we’re having next week will be a better experience. I put the second crust in the freezer for Saturday’s dinner.
Measuring cups and spoons
Knife
Cutting board
Small saucepan
Baking sheet (or peel with a stone)
Pizza cutter