Raquel taught me to make pizza in Boston. Thanks Raquel. A man can only eat so much chicken and rice. My life changed from the wonderful, fulfilling process of making pizza from scratch. Analu said “it is the only pizza I can eat that won’t give me acne”. Thanks Analu. Clearly, this pizza received rave reviews, so it deserves a post.
Making healthy pizza is a tasty way to warm up the house in winter with the oven, stay strong through hours of engineering, and recover from massive lifting sessions without ordering more dumplings, which gets expensive.
Dough
- 2 cups 00 flour
- 3/4 cup warm water
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- 3/4 teaspoon salt
- 1/4 teaspoon active dry yeast
Use a big bowl to mix the ingredients. Let it sit for 10 minutes or so and come back to knead it. Once smooth, put some oil into the bottom of the bowl so it doesn’t stick, and leave the dough covered to rise - around 2 hours.
Sauce
- plain tomato sauce
- garlic
- olive oil
- oregano
- thyme
- salt
Just mix the sauce ingredients together. I’d just put it into a glass jar with a lid and shake it.
Toppings
Some combination of the following was my favorite:
- green and/or red peppers
- onions
- minced beef (pre-cooked)
- olives
- fresh black pepper
- pepperoncini
- mozzarella cheese (and a vegan cheese section for Raquel and/or Analu)
When the dough is risen, roll it out with some added flour to get out some of the gas bubbles.
Butter the pan - in this case I had a great circular one with holes in it - and put the dough onto it, shaping it by hand to match the desired thickness. Put on the sauce first, toppings second, and cheese third, then shove it into the oven. I like to make it thick, so normally I’d bake it for around 18 minutes at 450 F.
The result was glorious. Not greasy, had a good squish to it without floppiness, and plenty of veggies to make it healthy. Adding beef made it become more of a nap food… no way to eat more than a piece and not have to just collapse in bed afterwards. Amazing. Highly recommended. Non-greasy homemade pizza naps are a life treasure.
A piece of cornbread afterwards? You’re basically living in heaven.
Best,
Daniel