Pizza Pizza!

Sausage and peppers pizza: see below for our recipe

Elizabeth has weird eating tastes.  She doesn't eat corn (really?) and she doesn't like pizza as much as most Americans do.  The problem isn't that she's not American (she is), but rather that a lot of pizza just isn't that good.  (We're looking at you, Pizza Hut and Domino's.)  Enter our completely homemade pizza.  Well, kinda - the sauce on our first pizza came from a jar, and the cheese and sausage on the 3rd pizza were store bought, but everything else, from scratch.  We promise!  And also, how could you expect us to package our own sausage?  We're still full-time students!  And we don't want to know how the sausage is made!

A little while ago, we bought one of those kits where you can make your own fresh mozzarella cheese.  It's a close call whether it ends up being cheaper to make it ourselves than to buy it from the store, but perhaps we had a stronger sense of ownership in the cheese, making it taste better (maybe the love made it better... wait, of course the love made it better).  For more on the labor theory of value and its applicability to the culinary arts, please see our forthcoming economics blog.

In any case, we decided to take our cheese and make some pizza. Our favorite pizza dough recipe actually makes enough dough for three pizzas, so we made three different pizzas (over the course of several days).

We started with a mushroom and roasted red pepper pizza:

Mushroom and Roasted Pepper Pizza

1/3 recipe basic pizza dough
Olive oil
1 red bell pepper
1 lb. mushrooms, sliced
Salt and pepper
1/2 - 1 cup tomato sauce (any basic marinara sauce will do here - season to your liking)
8 oz. fresh mozzarella cheese, sliced

1. (Note: this step will be the same for each pizza.)  After following the instructions for the basic pizza dough, preheat the oven to 500º F.  Roll the dough out into your desired shape (we just used a long rectangle), brush with olive oil, and place on a lightly oiled baking sheet.  Bake for 5-10 minutes - not done, but starting to get there.

2. Turn broiler on to high.  Place red bell pepper underneath the broiler and cook until the skin chars on all sides (you will have to turn the pepper every few minutes).  Keep the oven door open so that the broiler stays on.  When the pepper is charred, remove from the oven and place in a sealed plastic bag for about 15 minutes.  Remove the pepper, peel off the skin, remove the seeds and stem, and slice into strips.  Set aside.

3. In a pan over medium heat, add the olive oil and mushrooms.  Season with salt.  Sauté for about 10 minutes, or until tender.  Remove from heat.

4. Spread the tomato sauce evenly on the pizza dough, leaving about an inch of space for the border.  Add the mozzarella slices, followed by the mushrooms, followed by the bell pepper strips.

5. Place back in the oven for 10-15 minutes, or until the cheese is melted and bubbly.

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Next up, a margherita pizza:

Margherita Pizza

1/3 recipe basic pizza dough 
Olive oil
2-3 roma tomatoes, sliced
Fresh basil leaves

8 oz. fresh mozzarella cheese, sliced

1. (Note: this step will be the same for each pizza.)  After following the instructions for the basic pizza dough, preheat the oven to 500º F.  Roll the dough out into your desired shape (we just used a long rectangle), brush with olive oil, and place on a lightly oiled baking sheet.  Bake for 5-10 minutes - not done, but starting to get there.

2. Arrange the basil leaves around the pizza crust.  Then layer the tomatoes on top, and finally, layer the cheese.

3. Place back in the oven for 10-15 minutes, or until the cheese is melted and bubbly.

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Finally, we made a sausage and peppers pizza (this is the top picture).  The mozzarella kit only made 2 8-oz. cheese balls per batch, and since we used those for the first two pizzas, we used some Jarlsberg since it was on sale and is one of our favorites (also shown above).

Sausage and Peppers Pizza (hat tip: Mario Batali)

1/3 recipe basic pizza dough 

Olive oil

3 oz. Italian sausage (or any sausage you prefer), crumbled
1 garlic clove, chopped
1 tsp. capers, rinsed
1 tsp. balsamic vinegar
Salt
Red pepper flakes
3 medium piquillo peppers, drained and quartered
1/4 cup strained tomatoes or tomato sauce
1/2 - 3/4 cup Jarlsberg cheese, shredded

1. (Note: this step will be the same for each pizza.)  After following the instructions for the basic pizza dough, preheat the oven to 500º F.  Roll the dough out into your desired shape (we just used a long rectangle), brush with olive oil, and place on a lightly oiled baking sheet.  Bake for 5-10 minutes - not done, but starting to get there.

2. Heat a pan over medium heat.  Add the sausage and cook, stirring occasionally and breaking up the lumps, until the sausage is cooked.  Drain of excess oil and set aside.  Wipe the pan down of any excess oil.

3. Heat 1 tbsp. olive oil in the same pan and add the garlic.  Cook for maybe 1-2 minutes (or less), until the garlic is golden brown.  Set aside.

4. Combine the capers and balsamic vinegar in a small bowl.  Whisk in the garlic and oil combination.  Season with salt and red pepper flakes.  Add the piquillo peppers, stirring to coat.

5. Take the pizza crust and add the strained tomatoes to it, leaving a border.  Spread the sausage over the sauce, and arrange the piquillo peppers over the sausage.  Sprinkle the cheese on top of this.

6. Bake for 10-15 minutes, or until the cheese is melted and bubbly.

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That's it for the pizzas.  Each one had something special about it, but all three were delicious.

C & D