Pizza - gewilli style

Content format shamelessly picked up from ErikV.

The Dough
I’ve made my own dough in the past. Suds helped make two or three dozen pizza’s worth of it one morning prior to a big party. It certainly is worth knowing how to do it but is the most time consuming part of the process.

And we’ve found a kick ass source locally for 1# bags of pizza dough for two bucks. So we pick up a couple bags once a week to satisfy the pizza joneses in the house.

Prep’n the Dough
When it comes time to make the pizza, I take the dough out of the fridge before doing anything else. It is important (it seems) to let the dough come to room temp before manipulating it into a pizza shape. 1 pound of dough makes a pizza the size of my square stone, so I usually make two pizza’s a night. Usually it is enough for dinner and left over lunch for the grown ups in the house that go to work.

Once the sauce is made, the cheese is grated, the toppings are sliced/diced/cleaned/prep’d. Then it is time to work the dough. I’ve used corn meal in the past, but lately I use whole wheat flour. Just enough marbles to make it roll, and it serves a double purpose. Coating the sticky mess from the bag. I use a liberal amount of flour when gently working the dough. I do all my shaping by hand. No roller. The pizza usually winds up in an oblong shape but shape is less important than taste in my book. Some times I’ll do the whole twirl in the air and catch it bit.

Since this pizza gets cooked on a stone, no screen, no pan. I make it on one of those flat aluminum sheets pans, the ones with edges only on the short side. It is my peel.

Size
Usually 1# of the dough will make 1 12-16” pizza. But then if you have different appetites in the house or some super star vegan bike racers staying with you, making a bunch of ½ pound pies is the way to go.

The Pan
You can use a pan, a stone, or whatever. I use a stone, because it enables me to cook the pizza really hot. You can use a stone and cook for about 10 minutes at 500 degrees. Bread tastes better when cooked on hot earthen ware/stone/brick/what not, and from what I've seen, that also applies to pizza crusts.

The Sauce
This is without a doubt one of the most important parts of the pizza. The link from bread to toppings. The glue that binds the whole experience together. That said there isn’t a right way or a wrong way. I LOVE using just pesto as a sauce. But generally I fall back on a modified version of a sauce I made buckets of when working at a Tavern making wicked good food. It is a simple sauce. And yes. Why not share? Right? Well here it is. 12 oz tomatoe paste. Organic is better, just don’t get the stuff with extra additives. Ingredient list is important. It should read: Tomatoes. Nothing else. Finely chop up some sweet onions. Crush a couple cloves of garlic. Add some dried basil, oregano, fresh ground black pepper, dash of hot sauce (take the edge off the tomatoes and add some complexity – not enough to make it spicy), a bit of balsalmic vinegar and some wine (red or white to preference). The water to paste ratio is pretty critical, but ultimately it comes down to how you like your sauce. I prefer the slightly thicker flavor packed type that doesn’t turn the pizza into a runny mess. The ideal ratio is 3:1 (paste:liquid). You can just make up three cans of paste and one can of water/wine/vinegar. That works but gets you more sauce than you’ll need for one batch. The wine is important to help release some of the flavors in the tomatoes (okay the alcohol in the wine is). White wine can make for a more mellow sauce. And it is possible to make a pretty good sauce replacing the wine with water. Mix this all up just after pulling the dough from the fridge. The longer it has a chance to rest and mellow the better it gets.

To put it on the pizza I use a big spoon and plunk a big dollop in the middle and move it around with the back, covering all the way to the edge as much as practically possible, just don’t let it get on the dough-peel interface or you’ll have a pizza insertion malfunction. Total pain in the ass.

The Cheese
Next comes the cheese. Yes. Once you’ve made the sauce, time to grate the cheese. Critically important to use fresh grated stuff. The pre-shredded packaged stuff is coated with cellulose and other stuff to keep it from sticking together. I’m from the school of pizza that requires a minimum of 50:50 Provolone:Mozzarella. Departure from that ratio shouldn’t ever be beyond a 60:40 in either cheese’s favor. Adding some shredded Parm to the mix is always a good way to go.

The first layer of any pizza (unless you’re going with a vegan one) generally is a thin covering of cheese. This first layer holds it all together. The glue that holds the toppings to the sauce. Then you put the toppings on, fastest cooking on the bottom, longest and wettest on top. Either cover all with cheese again or well it does depend on the toppings. No real wrong way to do it.

The Toppings
Next comes the toppings. Anything that needs to cook more should be on top. Anything delicate (e.g. spinach or basil leaves) should go on first, so other toppings can protect them from getting burned. Top everything off with a small sprinkling of a more pungent cheese (e.g. parmesan) and it's ready for the oven. –I’m gonna leave this as ErikV’s words are pretty solid.

Cooking
ErikV is lucky to have a convection oven and so am I. But I don’t use mine.. I fire it up to 500 and let the oven and stone come to temp for at least 20 minutes after the pre-heated ding sounds. If the pizza is a thin lightly cheesed pie I will leave the temp at 500 and cook only for about 7-10 minutes. The thicker the layer of toppings the lower the heat needs to be. Always start off with a 500 degree stone though. Generally I find dropping the temp down to 475 after I put the pizza in will get me a perfectly cooked pizza in about 12 minutes. I do one at a time. Never EVER ever undercook a pizza. It is always better to overcook than undercook. Don’t burn it but don’t under cook it. Too hot and too thick will = soggy undercooked middle. Practice is about the only way to perfect it. And heck this is about the most rewarding practice you can have. I’ve been doing this whole making pizza at home thing for 15+ years? Maybe more? Ya don’t get to be an in demand pizza chef over night.

Serving
I let the pizza cool on a rack. For a handful of minutes (while I’m making pizza #2 usually). Let the cheese set up before cutting and everything kinda settle together. I set a rack ontop of a cookie sheet and keep it by the heat vent on the oven. The pizza stays pretty hot but unlike letting it rest on a solid pan or something the crust doesn’t get soggy.

Enjoy
And yes. Enjoy. Pizza making is fun. Use the best ingredients you can. Don’t cut corners. The flavors will pay you back. And, the toppings are only limited by your imagination. Raspberry and chocolate pizza? Oh yeah. Fresh basil, olive oil, feta cheese, pitted crushed kalamata olives? Doesn’t get better than that…

My favorite topping combination is best enjoyed with a pitcher of Black Butte Porter to wash it down:

Whole wheat crust (or at least 50% whole wheat dough content), pesto sauce, shredded parmesean cheese, spicy ground sausage, mushrooms, olives, more parm cheese.