When you have a new baby , it's damn near impossible to brush your own teeth let alone go out for pizza or any other restaurant for that matter, which is one of Heidi and my favorite things to do.....but since i have to make dinner anyway, i'm gonna bring the watering-hole to the horse this time!
We have a fantastic italian take out in Whistler called Pasta Lupino, and since i didn't think ahead to make my own dough, i picked up some already pre-made that they sell. ssssshhhH!
It's not cheating when the dough is this good. (You still have to roll it out and get covered in flour to smooth this little cheat over.)
Pizza to me should be simple, don't over-complicate thing's with 10 different toppings. Less is definately more.
You want to roll your dough out fairly thin, about 1/2cm thick.
Tip: Ontop of a small sheet of parchment on your kitchen counter spread a small coating of flour out. If you don't have parchment, just flour on the countertop is fine. If your dough has been refridgerated, remove from the fridge 1 hour before you want to make pizza's. Cold dough is much harder to shape and get loose.
You don't need a rolling pin, just flatten it out first into a rough rectangular or circular shape, pick it up and hold it with the weight dropping downwards, letting gravity do all the work. Slowly rotate your hands on the outer edges in a circular motion and you will see the size of the dough slowly expand and get loose with each rotation as the dough hangs downwards.
When you can see the outline of your fingers underneath before it gets see-through your dough is ready for topping.
Pre-heat your oven to 475 degrees. Typically these pizza's are made in a wood -fire ovens with temps at 550 degrees and up and only take 6--8 min to cook! I just love watching them get made in those.
For this purpose this temp i feel is high enough at home and your base doesn't burn.
Once your dough is shaped, place on your pizza stone if you have one or an upside down cookie sheet does the trick too.
For this pizza i cheated again and spread over a generous layer of store bought pesto but not too thick (my own pesto recipe will be up on here at some point!), drizzle with extra olive oil afterwards so it goes further.
Then spread out a thin layer of shredded mozzarella, 6 green olives quartered, 1 cup crumbled feta cheese and oven roasted tomatoes (recipe below).
Place in the oven for 10 min, check the base is browned to your liking. the top will be nicely golden as shown in the photo's.
Take out and place on a cutting board. Let cool for 5 min, drizzle with extra virgin olive oil, cracked black pepper and fresh basil leaves. Don't put the basil on as soon as it comes out the oven as the leaves will wilt and bruise.
Admire, Cut, Demolish.....Your Welcome!
Oven Roasted Tom-Toms
12 medium sized farmers market tomatoes (you want tomatoes that taste like tomatoes should, the more colours the better)
Place on a baking tray, drizzle with extra virgin olive oil
1 tsp of rock sea salt, 1 tsp course black pepper, 1 tsp dried oregano. mix all around each tomato.
Place in oven at 400 degrees for 25 min until half the size they were, shrivelled but not completely shrivelled as they will still get baked again ontop of the pizza.
We have a fantastic italian take out in Whistler called Pasta Lupino, and since i didn't think ahead to make my own dough, i picked up some already pre-made that they sell. ssssshhhH!
It's not cheating when the dough is this good. (You still have to roll it out and get covered in flour to smooth this little cheat over.)
Pizza to me should be simple, don't over-complicate thing's with 10 different toppings. Less is definately more.
You want to roll your dough out fairly thin, about 1/2cm thick.
Tip: Ontop of a small sheet of parchment on your kitchen counter spread a small coating of flour out. If you don't have parchment, just flour on the countertop is fine. If your dough has been refridgerated, remove from the fridge 1 hour before you want to make pizza's. Cold dough is much harder to shape and get loose.
You don't need a rolling pin, just flatten it out first into a rough rectangular or circular shape, pick it up and hold it with the weight dropping downwards, letting gravity do all the work. Slowly rotate your hands on the outer edges in a circular motion and you will see the size of the dough slowly expand and get loose with each rotation as the dough hangs downwards.
When you can see the outline of your fingers underneath before it gets see-through your dough is ready for topping.
Pre-heat your oven to 475 degrees. Typically these pizza's are made in a wood -fire ovens with temps at 550 degrees and up and only take 6--8 min to cook! I just love watching them get made in those.
For this purpose this temp i feel is high enough at home and your base doesn't burn.
Once your dough is shaped, place on your pizza stone if you have one or an upside down cookie sheet does the trick too.
For this pizza i cheated again and spread over a generous layer of store bought pesto but not too thick (my own pesto recipe will be up on here at some point!), drizzle with extra olive oil afterwards so it goes further.
Then spread out a thin layer of shredded mozzarella, 6 green olives quartered, 1 cup crumbled feta cheese and oven roasted tomatoes (recipe below).
Place in the oven for 10 min, check the base is browned to your liking. the top will be nicely golden as shown in the photo's.
Take out and place on a cutting board. Let cool for 5 min, drizzle with extra virgin olive oil, cracked black pepper and fresh basil leaves. Don't put the basil on as soon as it comes out the oven as the leaves will wilt and bruise.
Admire, Cut, Demolish.....Your Welcome!
Oven Roasted Tom-Toms
12 medium sized farmers market tomatoes (you want tomatoes that taste like tomatoes should, the more colours the better)
Place on a baking tray, drizzle with extra virgin olive oil
1 tsp of rock sea salt, 1 tsp course black pepper, 1 tsp dried oregano. mix all around each tomato.
Place in oven at 400 degrees for 25 min until half the size they were, shrivelled but not completely shrivelled as they will still get baked again ontop of the pizza.