Heart Shaped Pizza

Continuing with the Valentine's Day theme from my previous post, Ricotta Pound Cake, I want to share with you all one of my passions. PIZZA. I'd say my pizza passion started last year when my friend Rosy and I realized you could buy fresh pizza dough from Whole Foods for 2 dollars per dough. We'd go a little crazy with our Friday night pizza and trashy tv nights. I know some people have a weird aversion to Whole Foods because it can get a little pricey, but do not buy Trader Joe's pizza dough. I repeat- don't do it! It's good for making soft pretzels (just roll it into a thin log, make a U shape, and cross the sides over) but it is extremely hard to stretch into a pizza. The Whole Foods dough is made on site, packaged as you order it, and fluffy as a cloud. But what does this have to do with Valentine's Day? My house mates and I invited some friends from the next block over the day after valentines day for pizza making, and we ended up making heart shaped pizza! It was adorable. The one wrong thing that happened this night was that neither Whole Foods, nor Trader Joe's had basil in stock. I couldn't believe it. But we made due on the Margherita with dried herbs.

Heart Shaped Margherita.

Our favorites are...
Goat cheese - with sundried tomatoes and carmelized onions (cooked beforehand). No sauce, just a drizzle of olive oil
Margherita - the real way with buffalo mozzarella, slices of tomato, and basil (sauce optional)
Veggie- orange pepper, mushroom, spinach in the sauce
Mexican- drained and rinsed black beans, corn, chopped cilantro, pico de gallo, mozzarella and/or cheddar, and a squeeze of lime (no tomato sauce)
(the pictures are out of order)

The Mexican

Veggie

Goat cheese.

Rosy and I watched a youtube video on how to stretch a pizza dough by hand and it gets easier with time, but some parts are going to be thinner than others if you're amateur like us. I recommend using a rolling pin until the dough is about a foot in diameter, then lay the dough over your knuckles and turn it around until it gets stretched out. Always flour both sides of the dough and your work surface. The best thing to do in terms of cooking it is to heat the oven to 450. If you have a pizza stone, through that baby in there while the oven heats up. If not, throw a heavy cookie sheet in there for 10 minutes before putting the dough on. This will help the dough get nice and crispy on the bottom but stay soft inside the crust.

When you're putting sauce on, remember that no matter what, a crust will appear. Don't leave a one inch margin around the edges to form a crust, you'll end up with a 2 inch crust. Spread the sauce and toppings to about 1/4 to 1/2 inch away from the edge. Cooking times will vary, but ours usually take about 15 minutes. If you have two in the oven at once, switch the racks half way though so that the bottom of the lower pizza doesn't get charred. At the end, if everything is done but you want the cheese to brown and bubble, pop that sucker under the broiler!

This weekend Caty and I are going to Berkeley to see Ashelen and Tristin's (our house mates) A Capella competition. As excited as I am to hear them sing on a real stage, ever the foodie I'm just as excited to eat at two great restaurants that Caty has raved about for the year that I've known her. The first is Cheese Board Collective, a vegetarian pizza place and bakery that serves one pizza a day. This Saturday it is "Roma tomatoes, onions, mozzarella and feta cheese, lemon zest, lemon juice, garlic oil, cilantro." YUM. The second is La Note a classic provencal restaurant- definitely want to try the pain perdu or pancakes there. More posts to come. Happy eatings!