Pizza Pizza

Seems that the Husband and I have been eating a lot of pizza lately. Yeah, yeah, I know—Chicago is so famous for deep dish. Which I don’t like.at.all. Too doughy and cheesy and saucy [yawn]. I’m a thin crust kinda gal, preferably wood-fired. This spring, we’ve enjoyed the following pies from places mostly in or around our neighborhood, at least we can walk to/from our indulgence:

The mushroom and spinach pizza at Crust.

The white pizza at Coalfire.

The potato rosemary at Pizza Metro.

The arugula and proscuitto-topped pizza at Enoteca Roma:

enotecaroma

The delicious New Haven white clam pizza at Piece:

clampizza
And my favorite, the mozzarella di bufala with arugula pizza at Spacca Napoli.

We make it at home, too, using a pizza stone that came with the Husband. Latest house favorite is cherry tomato, shallot (sautéd with sherry vinegar), bacon, and fresh mozz.

pizzapizza

For the dough I’ve been using a recipe from the New York Times Magazine, substituting half of the white flour with whole wheat. Seems to work well with the bacon for some reason. Easy for a quick dinner, as you make the dough ahead of time. If you get your oven and pizza stone hot enough, you’ll bake up a great pie. Serve a salad on the side to make up for all that cheese…and bacon.

Pizza Dough

1 1/2 c flour
1 1/2 c whole wheat flour
3/4 teaspoon active dry yeast
2 1/4 t kosher salt
1 1/2 c cold water
3 T olive oil

Make the dough in the morning to count on pizza for dinner. In a stand mixer using the paddle attachment, mix the flours, yeast, salt until combined. Add the water and oil and mix at low speed until the dough is rough and shaggy. Increase the speed to medium and beat for about 8 minutes. The dough should be just shy of forming a ball.

Scrape dough out onto a heavily-floured surface. Let rest for 10 minutes. Separate into 2 pieces and form into a smooth ball. Place each ball in an oiled bowl, dust with flour, and cover with a towel or loosely drape with plastic wrap. Let dough rise until doubled in size, about 3 hours.

Punch down the dough and place into two freezer bags. Chill in the fridge for at least an hour and up to one day before use. I usually freeze the second ball of dough for another night’s dinner.

Makes enough for two 10- to 12-inch pizzas.