Incredible Pizza Dough, Roasted Tomato and Artichoke Pizza

Celebratory Birthday Pizza

Pizza is one of my favorite foods – me and everyone else on the planet.  We often make it at home, but have struggled to find the perfect crust.  Bland crust really ruins the pizza experience…but last night, I struck pizza crust gold.  This stuff was awesome!  Probably because, for once I threw caution to the wind and didn’t attempt to make it healthier by substituting ingredients, reducing the amount of oil (which, really is minimal), or using whole wheat flour.  And talk about easy. ..

Pizza Dough (the only trick – you need to start this a few hours before you plan to eat…or you can make this on a weekend and pre-back the crust, freeze, and haul them out for a weeknight easy dinner.  I have one in the freezer right now!)

1/2 T olive oil, plus more for brushing

1/2 T sugar

1/2 T sea salt, plus more for brushing

1 packet (about 1/2 T) active dry yeast

1 cup warm (about 115 Degrees) water

2 cups unbleached flour

Mix oil, sugar, salt, yeast, and water in a large bowl (or the bowl of your stand mixer) and let sit till foamy, 10-12 minutes.  Add in flour and knead till a smooth dough forms, 8-10 minutes (or, turn your stand mixer on medium and let it do all the work).

Cut dough ball in half, form into a ball, and place on two floured baking sheets. Cover with plastic wrap and let stand in a warm place till tripled in size, 2-3 hours.

Preheat oven to 475.  Form dough into a roughly 10-inch circle (mine was more rectangle.), and brush with a olive oil/sea salt mixture, liberally on the crusts.  (I probably used 1 T oil and 1/2 t salt).  Pre-bake the crusts till slightly browned on the bottom and firm, 10 minutes.

Top with topping of your choice!

This would have been great as a traditional pizza (my favorite is roasted red peppers, mushrooms, and pineapple..) but I wasn’t feeling traditional.

Roasted Tomato and Artichoke Pizza

1 can artichokes, quartered

1 pint grape tomatoes

1 t olive oil

1/2 t salt

parmesan cheese, for sprinkling

pesto – optional

Turn your oven to broil.  Toss artichokes and tomatoes with olive oil and salt, and broil for 5-7 minutes, stirring often, till blackened slightly.  Preheat oven to 450.

Brush pesto (if you’re using it) on pizza crust (we went 1/2 and half).  Top with tomatoes and artichokes, and sprinkle with parmesan.

Bake for 5-10 minutes until cheese is melty and you can’t wait to eat it any more.

Serve with wine

A side note – pesto in a jar is expensive, and growing basil is cheap. In September, when my Basil plants are huge and a frost is looming, I harvest it all, make giant batches of pesto (minus the Parmesan cheese – I don’t know how it would freeze with the cheese) and freeze in ice-cube trays.  Then I transfer to plastic baggies and when I want a pesto hit, I just defrost one of my cubes and go to town – adding the parmesan if I remember.  It doesn’t look great – it kind of oxidizes and turns a bit brown, but it tastes great, I promise.

(don’t judge by looks, I swear it tasted good…)