Pizza Expedition

This weekend my boyfriend and I decided to finally have our pizza-making night in-- a much-anticipated event. What a night it was! I made a thinner crust dough that turned out well. The best part is that no rise is required. I didn't push it out in the pan due to lack of space so it still had a slightly chewy texture. If you want the crispy crunch of a typical thin crust pizza I'd form it into a bigger pizza. I don't have a big cookie tray so I used two pie pans to make two pizzas about 8 inches in diameter-- around the size of an individual pizza from California Pizza Kitchen.

After an expedition together to Whole Foods to assemble the necessary ingredients, we put together a tasty array of toppings: fontina, andouille sausage, button mushrooms, and roma tomatoes. He made a fantastic sous-chef by preparing all of the mise en place while I kneeded the dough. I spiced up Whole Foods pizza sauce (Hey, I made the dough. What more do you want?!) with garlic, italian herbs, and red pepper flakes. The fontina cheese is still a great melting cheese with a slightly sharper flavor than mozzarella. For an even sharper flavor I grated pecorino romano on top of the fontina. A chiffonade of basil on both pizzas and diced fresh jalapeno on his pie completed the dish.

The mise en place and actual cooking took around 40 minutes start to finish-- proof that you can make a home-cooked pizza in about the same amount of time it takes to sign onto Papa Johns, select and order a pizza, and await it's arrival. You're in charge of the ingredients so you can be sure there are no surprises.