roasted pepper pizza

The sauce is made from water and dried chiles, the kind that are tied into decorative ristras and two other kinds too that would not be attractive strung up that way. 

A few dry chiles of each is broken open over the sink and the seeds poured out, and the stem broken off. The pieces of dry flesh are boiled awhile until they soften. I'm aiming for about a cup of sauce so I'm boiling two cups of water. 

The softened chile skins and water are processed to thick goop and forced through a strainer for a smooth mixture that looks like catsup. It is taste-tested and adjusted with the usual things, vinegar and sugar to impart sweet and sour if necessary, salt, pepper, what have you. 

Obviously each time I make it the flavor is different. This time some chile negros and few dry smoked poblano are included with the hotter red stringable ristra types. 

This pizza also has my own roasted poblano on top of that. Those things were frozen earlier. 

The cheese is a mixture, mozzarella and parmesan. 

There is heavy cornmeal on both sides of the dough as learned from the Denver Pizza Co delivery. 

I remembered, it's not proofed like bread, it's rolled out and smeared up and baked without rising. Mine did rise in the mixing bowl and pulled by quarters its corners stretched and folded over patty cake style and with all that handling it never did fully deflate. The heavily folded but only partially deflated dough was stretched out as it relaxed over cornmeal, turned over and covered with more cornmeal as it stretches then smeared up loaded up and baked. It turned out very good. 

Smoked Gruyère pizza

With iceberg lettuce with balsamic and olive oil drizzled over. Broken dressing, as it were. The pizza could use more olive oil for dipping or sauce. The bread is a bit dry. And Gruyère is great melting cheese but not when it's smoked. Both times I roasted it the cheese firms up. I'll use regular Gruyère from now on. 

I missed breakfast and lunch and dinner, all day went by and it was well past midnight before starting this. The dough went so fast it made my head spin. I honestly think that I made it from scratch, grew the yeast so rapidly that it didn't take much longer than ordering one. That's always a great idea.

I had some really good olives on hand. And I don't even like olives that much. 

I realized this is a bread and water diet today. With cheese and few other things.

Bell pepper, onion, ham pizza

This dough is perfect. 

If at six years of age had I only understood this then I'd have saved myself a good deal of trouble struggling with pizza dough, stretching it on an oiled tin pizza pan. It kept shrinking back. 

This is nothing at all like that. It is started the night before carelessly as can be. It's shocking. Scant yeast so meager you'd think the salt will kill it. 8X more salt than yeast at least. A tiny amount of yeast to get things started slowly 1/8 a teaspoon at most, and it literally grows throughout the dough overnight. When dumped and stretched out it pulls to windowpane thinness mere one molecule thick and still holding together. The center is very thin with the bulk at the edges, so topping is piled at the edges too.

Aged dough; water, yeast, salt, flour mixed with dinner knife, no kneading whatsoever, covered and set overnight, dumped and pulled to a stunning thin sheet, who does that?

Crazy people, that's who.  

Oh! 20% estimated semolina flour. That would be the one expert touch. Yeah, we pros like to toughen up our pizza dough a little bit. *examines fingernails* I learned this from an American expatriate living in Lyon. Lucy's Kitchen Notebook. The woman is quite remarkable.

)nion, mushroom pizza

The dough is started with half a cup of hot water and two tablespoons semolina flour, the rest is all purpose flour added in tablespoon increments into 1/2 cup hot water, 1 teaspoon dry yeast, 1 tablespoon sugar and 1/2 teaspoon salt. 

The topping is scrounged cheese, cheddar and something unidentifiable, olive oil, mushroom, and olives and an onion. Heavy on the olive oil. 

Pizza

This tin of fire-roasted tomatoes is pureed by emersion blender for the sauce.

The crust is crisped by being fried in the oven by being spread on generous olive oil. Ten minutes at high heat. Very simple, very good. No garlic nor onion, only nice things this time.

Pizza, ham, aged dough

Tomato paste from a tube

Anchovy paste from a tube

*Whispers* It wasn't very good.

Sourdough pizza

Not digging these frozen pizza bases that much anymore. I'll be glad when they're gone. They weren't worth the freezer bag needed to protect them. And come to think of it, I'm tired of that pizza stone too.

Maybe I should use the remaining frozen dough as starter for new dough. It would be a project and it tends to gobble up flour. The whole time I'll be thinking, "Is this worth it?" I could be aging a few days brand new dough with commercial yeast and yield the same or better result.

Pizza, spiced beef and super-spiced pork

This is a fast un-aged dough that contains a large portion of sourdough starter.

Stringy Gruyère cheese to waterproof.

The red sauce is a can of tomatoes reduced to paste.

One single garlic clove, but a good one. 

There is a way of pinching the garlic clove and using the chef's knife as a paper cutter to rapidly chop paper-thin slices while steadily backing the pinch closer and closer to pinching the root. It is possible to slice it so thinly it appears to have been done by razor, and some get chopped in half by falling in the way as you move the pinch and chopping motion ineluctably toward the end. 

The meat is half a hamburger patty prepared earlier for something else with ground pork that itself was spiced up earlier for something else. So beef and pork, now spiced further with fresh garlic and dried oregano.

Salty feta.

Salty Parmigiano.