Pizza

If you ask anyone in my family, they'll tell you my favorite food in the whole world is pizza. They're mostly correct so that's what we're gonna talk about this week.

To be more specific it's pepperoni and it's something I want to learn how to make at some point but that's another story for another day. My first memory of pizza night has to be in pre-k my mom taught me a trick to be able to eat it, so I didn't burn my mouth. She told me to pick the toppings off and eat the crust after a visit my grandparents’ house we went for pizza and I did the same trick and they definitely thought I lost my marbles so I learned to be more patient with it. That's the same way you must be when you're making pizza dough.

When working at Mercato making pizza dough every day trying to figure out why my pizza were coming out looking like Nan bread, Pete reminded me of the same thing. He reminded me that with patients and soft hands the dough is molded into not only pizza but any number of yummy treats. You can take to any aspect of your life. Pete taught us all many life lessons trying to teach us how to properly treat the ingredients were given.

Now obviously I can’t give you the Mercato pizza dough recipe because that’s just not right, but I will give you a good recipe and tell you how to make my favorite pizza on the menu. You’re going to need 2 cups of water at approximately 105 degrees, 2 tablespoons active dry yeast, 5 ½ cups bread flour, 1 teaspoon salt. Mix the yeast with the warm water and let the yeast bloom. Mix in flour and then the salt, and mix until it comes together on a floured counter knead dough until its smooth and elastic which normally takes about 10 minutes. Put in a oiled bowl to proof for about 1 ½ to 2 hours. Once the dough doubled in size you’re going to split dough into 6 oz balls. It should make 3 to 4 pizzas.

Once you have your doughs ready, here’s a pizza you should try. Start with slicing prosciutto thinly and pull into pieces and scatter on the bottom then add goat cheese chunks next we roasted cipollini onions cut them and scatter in the extra crevasse that have nothing in them. This is gonna cook in a regular oven at 450 for 10 to 15 minutes depending on how crispy you want your crust. When it comes out, we used olive oil around the edge arugula on top drizzle balsamic glaze and finishing salt. It’s by far the most decadent pizza I’ve ever tried.

As always if you have any questions, comments or concerns, please don’t hesitate to email me or comment below. Be Blessed!!