I'm a healthy kinda girl in a home full of mostly unhealthy-preferring people. When I make pizza, I make one covered in a bunch of cheese and sausage and black olives. And then I make one that I can justify a piece of. Case in point--the Greek pizza. As opposed to the Italian/American variety.
True confession here... Of course I'd rather eat a huge slice (or three) of Pizza Hut cheese pizza. Or barbeque beef pizza from Pizza Ranch. Or even veggie pizza from Casey's--our local convenience store-pizza place (with the grease napkined off the top). But as I said, I'm a healthy kinda girl so I generally refrain.
It took me a long time to find a pizza crust good enough to make more than once. I've gone through a bunch of recipes, and even went through a period of time when I bought pre-made pizza shells from the grocery store (horror of horror! preservatives!). Those days are gone. If you've never checked out the blog Annie's Eats, you must. She's a genius. Her recipe for pizza crust is the best I've found, and her desserts...oh my. But add those to the list of things-I-try-to-refrain-from.
It's hard to be healthy.
Greek Pizza
Pizza dough recipe directly from Annie's Eats. No one should adapt it at all. :- )
I'll let you use her site for that part, and just share some tips from the process.
Make certain you proof the
yeast in warm water. I use a glass measuring cup for this because it's
easier to pour the mixture into my mixer.
I've had the unfortunate problem (too many times) of covering my bowl of rising dough with saran wrap, and then losing a tenth of my dough to what gets stuck to the wrap. My solution? Cover my oiled glass bowl with the bowl from my mixer. Plenty of space, no waste. In the winter I put the dish near our fireplace to let it rise. In the summer, I put it into a vehicle parked outside. I'm clever that way.
No mess, see?
After you punch down the down, form the balls and let them rest, they make the most lovely dough blobs.
When this is happening, start with the Greek-pizza-part. Place the pizza stone in your oven, and turn the oven on to 500 degrees. Yep, it's going to sit in there and get super hot and you might worry about wasting energy keeping your oven on for so long, empty. Let go of your environmentalism for a little bit. Your dough might not cook through if you don't do that, and ruining your dough would be just as wasteful as wasting electricity....
Slice and soak some red onions in water. It takes some of the bitterness out of them. Did you know that? I learned it from Chopped on the Foot Network. I love the Food Network. We no longer have the Food Network because we cancelled our dish and switched to NetFlix. NetFlix carries no Food Network programs. I am sad.
Anyway.
Soak your onions while your dough blobs rest.
You will also want to slice up about 3 roma tomatoes and grab your jars of kalamata olives and artichoke hearts. After the dough has relaxed for 10 to 30 minutes, grab a piece of parchment paper and spray it with cooking spray. Trust me on this part. Annie doesn't share that tip about parchment paper, but it's a total must. I have no idea how Annie manages to get her pizza on her pizza stone without that. But I digress.
Press out your dough into a circle or square shape. Whatever floats your boat and will eventually fit on your pizza pan or stone. Brush it with olive oil and sprinkle with Italian seasoning and parmesean.
I know it's ridiculous, but it bothers me now that the shape wasn't a perfect circle. We'll imagine I was intentionally going for 'rustic.'
Layer the crust with the toppings you'd like. I use roma tomatoes, red onions, artichoke hearts, kalamata olives and feta cheese. I'm sure it would all taste better with a heap of mozarella, so if you're into that, definitely add it. You might also like pizza sauce. I do not. Not at all.
Slide the pizza onto the pan or stone that has been heating in your oven. Bake as Annie instructs for 8 to 12 minutes. You could remove the parchment from under the pizza after about half of that time if you wished. I just leave it there because, well, the oven is hot and so is the pizza and I'm ok with browned parchment paper.
Remove the pizza from the oven and let it cool. Then, of course, dive in!
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