Passionate About Pizza: Making Great Homemade Pizza (37 page)

Assembly
– Place the sliced (or shredded) Mozzarella cheese over the dough in a thin layer right up to the edge of the dough; be careful not to put pressure on the dough or you will make it dense. You can add one layer of toppings right on the cheese; this works best if you want to keep the toppings from burning during the long baking time. Pour the sauce over top of the cheese (and any toppings that you placed there). Add a layer of toppings on top of the sauce, if you want. This location works especially well if you want the toppings to cook and brown. Sprinkle with a small amount of herbs and Romano cheese, if desired. Do not place uncooked meat on this pizza; the meat will not reach high enough temperatures to be completely cooked. The sauce and toppings will have a tendency to migrate toward the center, so you should put a little less in the center.

Baking
– Place the pizza pan in the oven on the lowest rack. Bake at 500 degrees Fahrenheit for ten minutes. Move the pizza pan to the middle rack and lower the temperature to 400 degrees Fahrenheit. Bake for an additional fifteen to twenty-five minutes. The instructions list a range of time because the temperature of different ovens can vary.

You want to bake the pizza until the crust is nicely browned and crispy on top as well as on the bottom (inside the pan), but not overdone. In addition, the toppings should heat through with the sauce bubbling over the entire surface of the pizza. This ensures that the toppings and sauce have reached the right temperature. Just keep an eye on the sauce and the edges of the pizza to ensure it does not burn.

Serving
– After removing the pizza from the oven, let it stand for a few minutes on a trivet until the sauce stops bubbling and the pizza cools slightly. This allows the toppings and cheese to set prior to cutting. Cut the pizza into manageable size slices and serve while still warm. Take the pizza pan to the table, place it on a trivet, and serve the pizza directly from the pan.

Variations

Various pizzerias make their pizzas differently. An alternative shaping method is this:

• Do not punch down and knead the dough after rising.
• Dump the risen dough out of the bowl into the oiled pizza pan.
• Press the dough into the pan.
• Do not let the shaped dough rise; immediately assemble and bake the pizza.

Dough
– Cornmeal Dough, 1 1/2 recipe Focaccia Dough, Potato Pizza Dough, Sicilian-style Dough

Sauce
– Basic Pizza Sauce, Chicago-style Sauce, Sweet Pizza Sauce, Fresh Plum Tomato Sauce, Mexican Chile Sauce, Sassy South of the Border Sauce, Squashed Tomato Sauce, Vegetarian Eggplant Sauce

Fillings
– Virtually any edible vegetable, meat, or cheese.

Assembly and Baking
– This pizza is best when made in a pizza pan allowing the dough to rise some before assembly. You can coat the pan with any kind of oil that suits your tastes. You can even coat the pan with melted butter. There is a pizzeria in Chicago that uses butter and calls it the “butter crust” pizza; it is fantastic!

Stuffed Chicago-style Pizza

Stuffed Chicago-style pizza is like no other pizza you will find. It takes the best of Chicago style pizza and puts it into a truly different package. It is hard to go away hungry eating this type of pizza; it is also hard to eat more than two pieces!

The pizza bakes in the same heavy steel pans as Chicago-style Pizza. What would normally be a “topping” on a regular pizza is a “filling”; the chef places the cheese and any extras in between two layers of dough. They then place sauce on the very top after the crust has had a chance to cook.

Stuffed Spinach Pizza

Makes one fourteen inch pizza.

1 pound frozen, chopped spinach
6 ounces pepperoni
1 pound Mozzarella cheese, shredded
red pepper flakes (optional)
1 recipe Sicilian-style Dough (see recipe
page 95
)
1 1/2 cups Chicago-style Sauce (see recipe
page 114
)
unbleached all-purpose flour (for kneading and shaping)

Filling
– Cook the spinach as directed on the package and drain the liquid. You can discard the liquid or you can strain it and use it when making your dough. Let the spinach cool until you can touch it and squeeze as much of the liquid out as you can; it should be quite dry. Dice the pepperoni into small cubes approximately a quarter inch square. Cook the pepperoni pieces in a skillet over low heat until it is slightly crispy, but not burned. Drain the pepperoni cubes on paper towels until cool. Combine the shredded cheese, cooled spinach, pepperoni cubes, and red pepper flakes (to taste, if desired) in a bowl and mix thoroughly; set aside until ready to assemble the pizza.

Resting
–
After the dough has risen, punch it down with one fist, take it out of the bowl, and knead it briefly (about one minute) without adding any flour, to release the large air bubbles. Divide the dough into two pieces by cutting off one third of the dough; one piece should be approximately twice the size as the other. Make a dough ball from each piece and shape each into a flat circle about one inch thick. Sandwich each piece of dough between two layers of plastic wrap and let it rest briefly on the work surface for five to ten minutes (up to a maximum of twenty minutes) before shaping it.

Shaping
– Spread a thin coat of oil over the surface of the Chicago-style pizza pan. You will shape Stuffed Chicago-style pizza by rolling the dough to the desired size with a rolling pin. First roll out the bottom crust (using the larger piece of dough) and place it in the pan, and then roll out the second crust. You should roll both pieces of dough out before assembling the pizza.

When the dough circle has reached the desired size, (approximately sixteen inches in diameter) place the rolled out dough onto the oiled pizza pan. Gently drape the dough into the pan so that it lays smoothly into the corner at the edge of the pan. Using a sharp knife cut off the excess dough so that the dough is flush with the top of the pan.

Following the same technique as you used for the bottom dough, roll out the smaller piece of dough until it is a circle approximately fourteen inches in diameter; it should be almost the same size as the pan. Let the top dough circle sit while you assemble the pizza.

Assembly
– Evenly distribute the spinach filling over the dough in the pan. Gently place the top dough over the filling to align its edges with the edge of the bottom dough. While gently squeezing the edges of the top and bottom crusts together with your thumb and fingers, roll them together towards the center of the pizza. Do this around the entire pizza. Make three or four two-inch-long slits in the top crust to let the steam out during cooking.

Do not put the tomato sauce on the pizza until the pizza is mostly cooked. Otherwise, the top crust will become soggy and will not really cook. However, do not forget to add the sauce!

Baking
– Place the pizza pan into the oven on the lowest rack. Bake at 500 degrees Fahrenheit for ten minutes. Move the pizza pan to the middle rack and lower the temperature to 400 degrees Fahrenheit. Bake for an additional ten minutes. Temporarily remove the pizza from the oven and gently spoon the Chicago-style Sauce onto the top crust. Return the pizza to the middle rack of the oven and continue baking for an additional ten to fifteen minutes until the sauce bubbles and the crust browns lightly. The instructions list a range of time because the temperature of different ovens can vary.

You want to bake the pizza until the crust is nicely browned and crispy on top as well as on the bottom (inside the pan), but not overdone. In addition, the fillings should heat through; the sauce should be bubbling over the entire surface of the pizza. This ensures that the fillings and sauce have reached the right temperature. Just keep an eye on the sauce and the edges of the pizza to prevent them from burning.