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Skillet Pizza


This is the un-sexy version of pizza at home: no fancy prep, no pizza stone, not even a little finicky. It's pizza for people who just want some dinner. It's also good enough that I wished I could have had dinner twice last night. 

You will need a 12" skillet with curved sides and a lid for this.  You can buy pizza dough and sauce, but that seems harder than just making it, especially in Lockdown.


Skillet Pizza
Serves two adults generously 

10* oz pizza dough OR
4 oz. warm water
1 tsp. sugar
1 tsp. salt
2 tsp./1 packet yeast
1 cup/6 oz AP flour plus a bit for kneading

2/3 cup pizza/pasta sauce OR
1 tsp. olive oil
1 clove garlic
1 tsp. dried oregano
1 tsp. aleppo pepper flakes
1/2 tsp. ground fennel
1/4 tsp. rosemary powder
2/3 cup crushed tomatoes

1 cup/4 ounces mozzarella (fresh or low moisture, your call) shredded
1/4 cup finely grated Parmesan or other nice hard cheese
1/4 cup finely sliced onion of some kind
other toppings as desired, but keep it scant

If you're making your own dough: 
Put warm water (bathwater warm, not dishwashing warm - around 90F is perfect) in a large bowl. Add sugar, salt and yeast to water and let stand for 10 minutes or so. It should look foamy and you should be able to see little blooms float up to the top. This means it's alive. If it looks like dirt sitting in the bottom of a bowl of water, it's NOT alive - try again with slightly cooler water.

Add half the flour and beat the mixture with a wooden spoon. Warmth + motion = gluten development, which you want in a pizza dough. When you have a smooth, stretchy batter, add the remaining flour. Knead the dough until smooth, adding a little more flour if needed. Oil the pan you'll be cooking in and pop the dough in there. Cover and let rise until doubled, about an hour & 15 minutes. Gently fold and press out air, and let rise a second time, about 45 minutes.

If you bought dough:
Oil the pan you'll be cooking in, take dough out of fridge and pop into pan. Cover and let come to room temp, about an hour.

Meanwhile:
Make your sauce. Saute everything gently in olive oil, add tomato, let cook over very low heat. Taste and adjust seasonings.

Get your toppings ready to go. 

Flour a rolling surface and roll dough out to a 12" circle. Let stand for about 10 minutes so it can get over its gluteny self.

If you have an electric stove, turn your burner on to medium and let it get started, but don't put the pan on it.

Poke the crust a few times with a fork - the little holes help prevent bubbling. Put the crust in the cold oiled pan. It should climb up the sides a bit.

Put pan on heat and cover. (Don't have a lid? Invert a cookie sheet. Careful, it's hot!) Cook 3 minutes, uncover and poke any big bubbles. Cover and cook another 3 minutes or until crust is starting to brown on the bottom, and has firmed up on top.

Remove pan from heat. Put on sauce and toppings. Put back on heat, covered, 3-5 minutes until cheese has started to melt.

Your pizza is edible now, but you may want it browner or more crispy. If so, 
preheat broiler while the pizza is cooking.

Uncover pan and slide under broiler 2-3 minutes until everything is bubbly and brown in spots. Pan not oven proof? No worries - just slide it out onto a sheet pan and pop into the broiler.

Remove from oven, slide out onto cutting board, wedge up and devour. 

*use 10 ounces of dough for a nice thin crust. You can go up to 12 if you'd like a thicker crust, but not more than that or it won't cook through.

The cooking technique is adapted from a Cook's Country recipe.

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