Pizza

Homemade of course. It's a yeasted dough that makes a great crust. It's from the Silver Palate Cookbook: Semolina bread.



2 cups warm water (110-115 F) [ 45 C] 1 Tbsp. dry yeast Dissolve the yeast in the water, let sit for 10 minutes. Add: 3 cups semolina (pasta flour) 2 1/2 - 3 cups white flour or enough so the dough is manageable



Clean bowl, oil it generously with olive oil. (Let dough rest while you do this.) Knead until smooth and elastic, 5-10 minutes. Put dough in bowl, turn once to coat dough with oil. Cover with tea towel and let rise until tripled. Punch down.



Meanwhile make sauce (from my head, no recipe): sauté 3-4 cloves of garlic (chop them coarsely) in olive oil. Add crushed tomatoes (large can), basil, oregano, fennel seeds, anything else that tickles your fancy. Simmer for a while.



Prepare toppings: grate cheese(mozerella), slice vegies (mushrooms, bell peppers--aka capsicum, onions, etc), slice meats (pepperoni, Canadian bacon, etc).



Preheat oven as high as it will go (500 F [260 C] is good). Use a cast iron skillet or a cookie sheet. (Actually you need 3 of them.) Oil the pans then sprinkle with corn meal. Press the dough into the skillet (10 inch skillet, use 1/3 of the dough) leaving a thick rim around the edge. Bake on the lowest rack (or on the bottome) of the oven. (You may need to rotate the pans so all of them spend some time on the bottom, but not all of it.) Bake for about 10 minutes or until the top is dried a little. Pull pan out, cover with sauce (use less than you think you need), then toppings, cheese on the very top, we piled ours high. Return to oven and bake until cheese is melted and bubbly and everything looks done. Let cool for 5 minutes. Slide onto a cutting and slice. Eat.



VR: Caithelin