My friends who don’t cook often look askance at me when I say cooking from scratch doesn’t take that much time when you’re in practice. The more often you make a recipe the faster it goes; and the larger your stock in the pantry is, the less time you spend running to the grocery store.
I used my favorite pain à l’ancienne recipe because the dough can last a couple of days in the fridge. It takes ten minutes to mix, and the baking can be done while you’re doing something else. An extra day in the fridge enhances the nutty taste of the bread.
Day one I made bread. Day two we made old school pizza. Day three I regretted not reserving dough for a third loaf. Please, learn from my mistakes.
Roll out the dough thinly (a quarter inch, but a little thicker on the sides) and let rest for ten minutes. Brush with olive oil.
We topped our pizza with canned artichokes, sautéd pancetta, a little fresh mozzarella, parmesan scraped together from leftovers, and a few capers.
The trick to authentic pizza is go easy on the sauce, the toppings and the cheese. Less=More; More=Less
- We baked the pizza at 500 degrees fahrenheit until it was browned and the crust was done. If your pizza browns too quickly, just put a sheet of foil over it.
- Truth be told it would have been better if we had used a pizza stone, or if we had poked a hole or two in the crust, but it was still crispy, tender, and if I do say so myself, delicious. The total time was less than it would have taken to order out, about 35 minutes. I think it would be a lot of fun to do with kids.
The Nomnivores Dilemma 