Pizza – BLB Style
If you have the chance to stop by our bakery, you can purchase one of our pizza dough balls. They come frozen, and are perfect for making a large pizza or two small pizzas.
The night before you plan on making your pizza, remove the ball from the freezer (do not take it out of the plastic bag) and place it in the refrigerator. The next day, place the defrosted ball on the counter for several hours, until the dough reaches room temperature and completely fills the plastic bag. It is now ready for use. Stretch out the dough to make one large pizza or cut it in half to form two 12″ pizzas. Be sure to follow the recipe below (the cheese shouldn’t be put on right away)!
On Friday evenings, I usually don’t have much energy to cook anything for dinner, but this recipe is really easy, and we can usually have homemade pizza on the table in half an hour. It sure beats Tombstone!
Note: Once you have made the sauce and toppings, you can prepare the pizza dough.
SIMPLE TOMATO SAUCE (Makes 1.5 cups)
1 lg. garlic clove, minced 1 Tbsp. olive oil 1 14 oz. can crushed tomatoes or whole tomatoes, chopped coarse Salt and ground black pepper
Heat oil in saucepan and add garlic. As soon as it begins to sizzle, add the tomatoes. Simmer, uncovered, about 15 minutes, or until sauce is thick enough to mound on a spoon. Season with salt and pepper.
PIZZA WITH CARAMELIZED ONIONS WITH OIL-CURED OLIVES AND PARMESAN (Serves 4-6 as a main course or 8 as an appetizer)
2 Tbsp. olive oil 1 lb. yellow onions, halved and sliced thin 1 tsp. fresh thyme leaves Salt and ground black pepper 1 ½ cups Simple Tomato Sauce ¼ cup oil-cured olives, pitted and quartered ¼ cup grated Parmesan cheese
Place the oven rack at the lowest position in the oven. If you have a pizza stone, place it on the rack.
Pre-heat oven to 500°F.
Heat oil over medium-high heat in a large skillet. Add onions and sauté, stirring often until they are softened and somewhat caramelized, about 10 minutes. Stir in thyme and season to taste with salt and pepper.
Top prepared pizza dough with a portion of the tomato sauce. If you are making two pizzas, use half of the onions and scatter them over the sauce. Sprinkle with half the olives and anchovies (if using them). Save the rest of the sauce and onion mixture for the second pizza. If you have a pizza peel, coat it with cornmeal, place the pizza on the peel, and immediately slide the dough onto heated pizza tile. You can also prepare the dough directly on a sheet pan and place it on the lowest rack of the oven. See below for baking times, and add the cheese at the appropriate time.
Note: All pizzas need to be baked an additional two or three minutes after adding cheese, or until cheese is completely melted.
THIN CRUST
14-inch pizzas – 7 to 8 minutes 12-inch pizzas – 5 minutes 8-inch pizza – 3 minutes
MEDIUM-THICK CRUST
12-inch pizzas – 9 to 10 minutes 8-inch pizzas – 5 minutes 6-inch pizzas – 4 minutes
We tailored this recipe from Cook’s Illustrated. I have 100 or-so of these magazines in my kitchen, so I never tire of their recipes!
