Homemade Pizza

A Joke

An American businessman goes to Japan on a business trip, but he hates
Japanese food, so he asks the concierge at his hotel if there’s any place around
where he can get American food.

The concierge tells him he’s in luck; there’s a pizza place that just opened,
and they deliver. The concierge gives the businessman the phone number, and he
goes back to his room and orders a pizza.

Thirty minutes later, the delivery guy shows up to the door with the pizza.
The businessman takes the pizza, and starts sneezing uncontrollably.

He asks the delivery man, ”What the heck did you put on this pizza?”

The delivery man bows deeply and says, ”We put on the pizza what you ordered,
pepper only.”

The Recipe

Sauce

1 can (6 ounces) tomato paste

1 can (28-ounce) whole peeled San Marzano tomatoes, drained well

1 / 4 cup red wine

2 tbsp grated parmesan cheese

2 clove garlic

2 tsp salt

1/2 tsp sugar

1/4 tsp pepper

1 tbsp basil

1 tsp oregano

2 tbsp olive oil

1 / 2 tsp crushed red pepper

Combine all ingredients and pulse till smooth in the bowl of your food processor. Makes enough for two pizzas with enough extra to use for dipping.

Dough

1 pkg active dry yeast

1 1 / 4 cups filtered water

3 1 / 4 cups bread flour

1 tsp kosher salt

1 tbsp honey

1 tbsp olive oil

Add the honey to the water and heat till just warm. Bloom the yeast in the water honey mixture.

Wisk the flour and salt to combine. Add the water, yeast and honey to the flour. Mix until it just comes together. Turn the dough out onto your work surface and kneed till a smooth dough forms. About 5 minutes should do.

Place the dough back into the bowl and coat with the olive oil, cover with a towel. Let rise for one hour.

Heat your oven its hottest setting.

Cut the dough in half and form two balls. Cover with a towel and let rise for half an hour.

Press the dough into two equal size pizzas. Be sure to leave enough edge to hold the sauce and toppings. Cover and let rise for ten minutes.

Top your pizzas with sauce, cheese and toppings.

Bake directly on a pizza stone for 20 to 30 minutes.

My Thoughts

This dough makes enough for two decent size pizzas.

The pizza dough is even better if you make it the day before. Mature dough always is. Before your first rise, coat the dough with olive oil, cover with parchment paper, place it in a zip top bag and pop it in the refrigerator. Two hours before you are ready to bake your pizza, take it out and continue.

If you do not have a pizza stone, pick one up. It is the only way to get really great crusts. I bake all of my bread on one.

Crispy crust tip – Take a water bottle and spray the crust of the pizza (or any bread) at three, six and ten minutes of baking.

No matter how much sauce you like on your pizza, you will have some extra. This is perfect for crust dipping or bread sticks. That recipe will have to wait for another day.

How about another Joke

A college pizza delivery boy arrived at the house of Larry Johnson. He delivered the pizza to his trailer. After giving it to him, Larry asked: "What is the usual tip?"

"Well," replied the youth, "this is my first trip here, but the other guys say if I get a quarter out of you, I'll be doing great." "Is that so?" snorted Larry. "Well, just to show them how wrong they are, here's five dollars."

"Thanks," replied the youth, "I'll put this in my school fund."

"What are you studying in school?" asked Larry.

The lad smiled and said: "App lied psychology."