Who doesn't love pizza? The really nice thing about pizza is there are so many different things you can do to individualize it. I had somehomemade meatballs and decided to make a deep, dish meatball pizza in my Lodge, cast iron skillet. The results were delicious and somewhere between an amazing meatball sandwich and pizza. Hands down, everything seems to taste better when cooked in cast iron.
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| One just can't go wrong when they start with homegrown, home canned tomatoes. |
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| I drained (and drank) the juice off the tomatoes and then cooked them down with seasonings: a little salt, a little pepper, and oregano. (I often add garlic as well.). |
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| A vintage, red, Pyrex bowl just makes the whole process that much more fun. Making pizza dough is a simple process and well worth the effort. |
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| First the crust, then the sauce, lots of meatballs made from our pastured beef and then covered in mozzarella cheese. I baked it in the oven on 400 degrees until edges were brown. |
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| Delicious! If you are looking for a basic pizza dough recipe, here is what I use: 3 Cups of Flour 1 Teaspoon of Salt 3 Tablespoons of Olive Oil 1 Cup of Warm Water 1 packet (or two to three teaspoons bulk) yeast Mix together the flour, salt and olive oil in a bowl. Mix yeast and sugar in a large measuring cup with warm water. (Note: I buy yeast in bulk and use between 2 and 3 teaspoons of bulk yeast. A packet of Fleischman's yeast works perfect in this recipe. A packet contains 2 1/4 teaspoons of yeast. I "proof" the yeast since I buy it in bulk and keep it on hand in the refrigerator. By mixing the sugar and warm water with the yeast and allowing it to stand for a few minutes, it activates the yeast and gives the dough a head start. If the yeast doesn't activate, or bubble up, then your water is too hot or too cold or your yeast is no longer any good. The best temperature to activate the yeast is 110 degrees F.) After your yeast has proven that is happy and active, mix the dry and wet ingredients together. You will need to add more flour to the mixture to form a dough that is not sticky and that can be worked and rolled easily. You don't need to let your dough rise for a long time, but I do like to put my dough in a slightly warm oven (no hotter than 150 degrees) for a few minutes to allow it to start rising. I coat the dough in olive oil lightly before I place it in the oven to rise. When the dough is springy and starting to rise (probably 10 minutes or so) then you can roll it out or use your fingers to shape it to your pan, stone or skillet.
The recipe above turns out most like a traditional crust. Sometimes when I have a lot of cows in milk and I am trying to find ways to use my dairy products, I use milk instead of water and butter instead of olive oil. This also makes a nice crust. The recipe is basically the same, but here is a previous blog post I wrote on making pizza dough using honey and dairy and here is one where I ground wheat and made a wheat crust.
I also have a recipe for sourdough crust at this link. For this particular deep dish pizza, I coated my iron skillet with a little olive oil and used my hands to work the dough across the bottom of the skillet and up the sides. Then, I covered the bottom with my pizza sauce. (I used canned, whole tomatoes this time but often I have pizza sauce I have canned on hand.) Using the meatballs added a lot of volume to the pizza giving it a full appearance when it had baked. I generously covered the meatballs with mozzarella cheese and baked in a preheated oven at 400 degrees until the edges were brown. |