pizza for project 365

I'm easing into the New Year with some photos of last night's dinner. I've been making pizza for over 15 years, and there's always room to learn a few new tricks. While I live right across the street from the infamous Lucali's, I haven't dined there in about two years. Why pay $24 for a pie when I can come pretty darn close to recreating the results in my own kitchen?

I used this recipe but nixed the food processor and decided to mix the dough, using 2 cups of the flour, in a bowl with a wooden spoon. I kneaded in the remaining flour, and what a wonderful way to relax it proved to be. I know no-knead dough is all the craze right now, but frankly, I loved connecting with my meal in such a primal way.

The other change I made was using parchment paper to transfer the pie onto my preheated pizza stones. My pizza peel broke a few months back and I haven't had the chance to replace it. A few more things that elevated our pizza and Looney Tunes night: a 500º oven, instead of the usual 425º, fresh mozzarella and a sprinkle of kosher salt over the topping. I also couldn't resist taking more than one picture for Project 365.

Pizza365

Happy New Year folks. Here's to a delicious 2010.

23 Comments

  • Selfish Mom

    Oh yum. That looks amazing. Heading over to Amazon to look at pizza stones!
    BTW, I totally know what you mean about kneading dough. I’ve never owned a food processor, but even if I had one I think I’d still want to do it by hand. That’s how my mom got her muscular arms!

  • radish

    Yay, i am going to do 365 too (try to anyhow). But since i Just got back, i’m behind. Oops. I’m going to try to anyway. I need to get a pizza stone.

  • Nadia

    Wow….if you hadn’t told us, I would have thought that came from a NYC pizza joint! Ooey, gooey, and bubbly! Delicious!

  • Jennifer

    So glad to hear many of you enjoy making dough by hand too. And, yes, go get those pizza stones—I’ll browse Amazon and see if they have some good ones to add to the store.
    Olga, I bought my old ones at A Cook’s Companion. Not to far for you to go!
    Alice, I decided project 365 would be a nice way to carve out some “me” time. I have so many photos but never print them. Hoping this will give me incentive to print more than just the one I choose a day for the scrapbook.

  • Demian

    The pizza looks great!
    I have one question though…
    Why do you pre-bake the crust for 5 minutes instead of just loading the raw dough with the sauce and cheese (as in a pizza joint)?
    Thanks!

  • Jennifer

    Demian – very good question. When using a pizza peel, I used to prebake the crust mainly because I found it easier to transfer the crust with toppings onto the stone from the peel. By all means, go for it if you’ve got the master pizza maker move!
    Using the parchment paper method, above though, you can skip the prebake step since the dough is in much closer to the stone. Enjoy!

  • Tamar@StarvingofftheLand

    Jen — We’re pizza-heads in our house, too. If you’re ever in the mood to experiment (who, you?), give it a try with high-protein flour. It gives the crust a nice elasticity and chew. We’ve got a 50-pound bag of King Arthur Sir Lancelot (14% protein) if you need some!

  • Lissa

    Looks great!
    for those of you looking for pizza stones, there’s a much cheaper alternative to what you’ll find on Amazon or other sites. Just go to your local home improvement store, and get an unglazed tile – quarry or other clay, but not ceramic! Make sure it’s not glazed. You can usually get one for less than a dollar.