Homemade pizza v.02

The second in a previously unpublished post, I made homemade pizza for the second time this week! The first time was last week with dough purchased at the grocery store (pillsbury, for shame!) and was consumed with the wine from the previous post, Columbia Crest Vineyard 10 red. Well, this time I got it right and went to the closest pizza place (Pizza Schmizza) and purchased some dough. Soooooo much better! In addition to being less than half the cost of the supermarket brand, it was so much easier to work with and get real nice and thin. I purchased the amount of dough used for a 12" pizza, which costs $1 and works out to a pizza that stretches the limits of my pizza stone.

I decided to go with a straight cheese pizza. One of my favorites is sausage and onions but my onion wasn't looking too hot, so I kept it simple. Cranked the oven to 500 degrees, heated up the stone, dressed the pizza and about 8 minutes later I had a tasty cheese pizza that cost me probably less than $2 altogether. I defintely recommend buying dough from your local pizzeria the next time you make pizza at home. It is cheaper and easier than making your own and no doubt there is some kind of pizza joint nearby.

I'm still working on getting the pizza crust just the way I like it. An oven as hot as it gets and a pizza stone are surely two important factors. In addition, not overworking or overflouring have helped. Room temperature door and sauce will help to cook the dough all the way through without burning the outside. The closest I've come to recreating the pizzas I've had in Italy was placing a pizza stone on the gas grill, cranking up the heat and then using the grill like an oven. this actually worked quite well. Good char on the bottom of the pizza, golden crust cooked through and crisp with some chewiness and cheese not burnt. However, I gave up on that method after gently moving my pizza stone resulted in a three piece stone, never to be used again.

And, since this is indeed a wine blog, I suppose I should talk about the wine I had. A by Acacia Pinot Noir 2006. Retails around $16. I wasn't too impressed. It's a pretty simple California pinot noir, light red fruit (strawberries on the nose?) and light raspberries. Just a hint of spice but really no finish. Pass...but only on the wine. And pass me another slice of that pizza!