Pan Style Pizza

Okay, okay, it's been a while since I've posted. Dearest internet, you have my sincere apologies.

Allow me to make it up to you with tales of pizza excellence.

So, I found a recipe for a stupid simple pan style pizza recipe on seriouseats.com and decided to try it out. This is not an ideal same-day pizza recipe. It does best when the dough is allowed a day to rise - though if you get the dough going in the morning it can work out just fine for a same day dinner.

The coolest thing about this recipe is that even though the dough for the crust is from scratch, you can let the stand mixer sit this one out. This dough requires exactly zero minutes if kneading. Just weigh (yes, "weigh" - as in with a scale) out the ingredients into a bowl. Mix to combine, and walk away for at least 8 hours. I like to let mine go overnight because the dough develops more of a yeasty flavor the longer it is allowed to rise, and I really enjoy that in a pizza.

Once the dough has risen for a day, remove it from the bowl and plop a pizza'a worth of dough down into a well-oiled cast iron skillet. Any heavy, dark, oven proof pan will work, but non-enameled cast iron is best. Once the dough hits the pan, set a timer for two hours. After that, it's toppings then on to the hot oven for about 15 minutes before being devoured in about 5 minutes.

The crust for this thing is simple... I mean stupid simple.

I had my buddy time me for grins and giggles last time I made one of these, and getting the crust together took under 4 minutes. That wasn't a race. I wasn't rushing. I was taking my time and measuring carefully. it is that simple.

Start by throwing an empty bowl on your kitchen scale and taring it. That is, make it so the scale says "0" when the empty bowl is on it, and set the display unit to grams.

I don't have an interesting pic of the ingredients in the
bowl.... So here's more pizza. 

Scoop bread flour into the bowl until the screen says 200g, then tare again, so the reading zeroes out.
Next add a few large pinches of kosher salt until the reading says "5g" and tare again.
Up next, throw in a couple small pinches of instant dry yeast (such as SAF instant yeast) until there are 2g of yeast in the bowl.

Next, the wet ingredients.

Following the same procedure as the dry (measure, tare, measure, tare) add in 4 grams of good extra virgin olive oil, followed by about 140g of water.

Observant readers may notice that I just changed gears. Up until that last bit, I have been exceptionally precise - stating to the gram exactly how much of each ingredient to use. In contrast, for the water, I used the carefully formatted italic word "about". You may be wondering: "what gives?"

If that's the case, then thank you for reading carefully!

See, I can't tell you with exacting precision how much water to use because that's a moving target. One day, you may need 137g, and a week later, you could need 165g. This one is more of a "feel" type of thing. This variance occurs because flour is sensitive to atmospheric changes. If it's humid where you're at, the flour actually absorbs a small amount of water from the air, and therefore you will need slightly less for everything to come together. The opposite is true as well. Don't over think it though... Just add enough water that the dough comes together and there is no dry flour sitting around in the bowl. To be on the safe side, start with about 120g, mix thoroughly, and add water a little at a time until you run out of loose flour.

When it looks something like this, you're set. 

After the dough is mixed, cover the bowl tightly with plastic wrap and leave it out at room temp for 8-24 hours. 

Pictured: double batch after rising

The next day, when you're ready to get down to business and eat some pizza, just plop the ball of dough out of the bowl and on to a well floured surface. I'll say again a well floured surface. This dough is very loose and quite sticky.

Once it's sorta round, set it into your olive-oiled cast iron skilled and let it sit (again, covered in plastic wrap) for 2 hours at room temp in the skillet.

Mmmmmmm... Bubbly. 

After an hour and fifteen minutes or so, start your oven preheating. I like to run mine at hot as it'll go (which for me is 550 degrees).

When the full two hours are up, use your fingertips to gently "dock" the dough. You want to pop any large bubbles that are visible in the crust. If you don't, when it expands in the oven you'll end up with those giant bubbles that rise up, letting all the cheese and sauce run off them and then burning... Not desirable.

Now for everyone's favorite part... Toppings.

Start with a generous layer of sauce. This is a hearty, sort of spongy crust. It can take a lot of sauce (unlike a typical tossed crust where you want a thin layer). This next string of photos shows my typical pie getting all dressed up for a trip to the hot box.

Sauce - leave a little border around the
outside unsauced.

Cheese - right up to the edges please! it melts,
oozes down the sides, and gets crispy. 

Pepperoni. Plenty of it. 

Hot Italian sausage. Partially cook the sausages whole,
cut them up, finish cooking the rounds. I keep a
bunch of them in my freezer.

Onion. If you're into that. I am. 

MOAR CHEESE PLZ

Ok, now stop drooling. We're on the last step.

Take this masterpiece, and throw it in that rippin' hot oven for about 8-12 minutes.

The bottom crust will gently fry in the oil lining the pan. The cheese will melt, ooze down the sides, and get crispy and delicious against the hot iron. The top will brown slightly and get a little bubbly... Probably. If it doesn't kick on the broiler for a few minutes at the end, but watch it closely if you do... There's only about 30 seconds between "brown, bubbly and delicious" and "charred carbon from hades", and a pizza is a terrible thing to waste.

When the pizza is finished cooking, take it out of the oven and lift a bit of the crust off the bottom of the pan. If it's a nice golden brown, grab a spatula then (wearing your bestest oven mitt(s)) lift the pan next to your peel (or cutting board) tilt the pan slightly, and use the spatula to slide the pizza onto your cutting surface.

Let it sit a few minutes before cutting so the cheese can set up a bit.

If the bottom isn't as dark as you'd like it, you can put the pan over a regular stove burner for a few minutes at a time until it darkens up a bit.

You know what comes next... 

Here's the full recipe!
Adapted from the "slice" blog

For one 10'' (12'') pizza:
200g (288g) bread flour
5g (7g) kosher salt
2g (3g) instant yeast
4g (6g) good quality olive oil
~130g (187g) filtered water
Toppings of your choice

Instructions:

1. Mix the first four ingredients in a bowl, then add water slowly until the dough comes together in a loose ball and there is no dry flour in the bowl
2. Cover tightly with plastic wrap (leave room for rising) and let sit at room temperature for 8-24 hours.
3. Remove dough to floured surface and work into a ball
4. Transfer to oiled cast iron pan and let sit, covered, for two hours. 
5. Preheat oven to highest temperature (at least 450F) for last hour of step 4.
6. Use your fingertips to spread the dough on the bottom of the pan, and pop any large bubbles in the crust.
7. Top pizza as desired. Make sure the cheese goes right up to the edges. 
8. Bake for 8-12 minutes or until toppings are properly cooked and cheese is melted and slightly browned. 
9. If desired, further crisp the bottom crust over a regular stove burner until desired doneness.

Tomato "Swiss Army" Sauce

What the heck is "Swiss Army" sauce you ask? It is a really tasty tomato sauce that can be used for just about anything. It is good as a regular pasta sauce, great on pizza, served in bruschetta, a glaze for a meatloaf, with ravioli, and well you get the picture. 

Looks good, right??

A few weeks ago I got a pizza stone. I figured if I was going to give it a proper welcome to my kitchen arsenal, I may as well go all out with the homemade business. I made crust, I made this sauce, and I would have gone so far as to make cheese for it if I would have had enough time to get the stuff together. Giving credit where it is due, this recipe is from an episode of my favorite cooking show, Good Eats. It was featured in season 2 episode 12 titled "Pantry Raid II: Seeing Red". I made a double batch because it doesn't add much time to the process, which takes a while to begin with, so I figured I may as well get a bunch out of it. The recipe as follows is a single batch.

This recipe is not difficult per se, but there is a fair amount of knife work involved.

Start with two 28 oz. cans of whole peeled tomatoes. Grab two mixing bowls and a colander, and set up near the sink. We want to collect the liquid in the cans, and also seed the tomatoes. I started by dumping the tomatoes in to the colander over one of the bowls to get the juice separated, then punctured each tomato with my thumb under running water to get the seeds out. As I seed each tomato, I put it into the second mixing bowl. When it's all done you'll have a bowl of tomato juice and a bowl of seeded tomatoes.

When you're done seeding all the tomatoes set them aside, transfer the juice to a sauce pan and add the vinegar, sugar, red pepper flakes, oregano, and basil. We will come back to the tomatoes later. If you can't find sherry vinegar, you can use equal parts sherry cooking wine and regular white vinegar. (That is not a "recommended substitution" as far as I know, but it works just fine.)

Tasty!

Once the seasonings are added, put it over high heat until you see it start to bubble a bit, then reduce to a simmer.

Reduce the heat when it looks like this.

Over the next 30 minutes or so, this sauce should reduce by about half which will concentrate the flavors going on in there. Keep one eye on the sauce while you're moving through the next steps. Make sure to give it a stir every so often so the bottom doesn't end up burned to the bottom of the pan.

In the mean time, we've got some chopping to do.

We're going to chop down some onion, celery, and carrot to make what's called a mirepoix (mere-paw) or "trinity" which will form the base of the flavorful goodness in this sauce. We'll also add some garlic, because we can.

Let's start with the carrot... It will take longer than the celery or onion to cook. The big thing to pay attention to is that the chunks you end up with are close to equal in size so they cook at the same rate. The steps here are to peel, halve lengthwise, slice into long sticks, then dice, as shown in the following image.

Got it? Good. 

Once the carrots are cut, throw 'em in a heavy, oven safe pot over medium-low heat with a bit of olive oil. I used an enameled cast iron dutch oven. A roasting pan would be ideal. The carrots are hitting the heat first because they will take longer to cook than the celery and onion. 

Keep the heat on the low side - we are sweating the vegetables, not sautéing them. If you see any browning or hear more than a slight hiss from the pan, turn the heat down. 

Next, cut the celery exactly like the carrot, but don't add it to the pot right away. 

Chop the onion the easy way... Use a paring knife to take both ends off the onion, but leave a bit of the root end attached. Remove the outer layer, and halve lengthwise. then make evenly spaced cuts almost all the way through to the root. Turn the onion 90 degrees and chop into even squares. There is no real need to make cuts parallel to the counter because the layers of the onion will separate without any added intervention. Throw out the last 1/2 inch or so, as that is often the most pungent part of the onion. 

I enjoy .gif images... 

Once the onion is chopped,  mince 4 cloves of fresh garlic, and add everything to the pan with the carrots.

Mirepoix accomplished!

At this point, you can add a bit of salt and pepper to the mix, but don't overdo it. We have a lot of good flavors working in that saucepan with the tomato juice.

Continue sweating the vegetables, stirring occasionally, until the carrots are soft and the onions are starting to become translucent. This should take approximately 20 minutes.  After about 15 minutes start preheating your broiler.

Once the carrots are softening, and the onions are ready, add the whole seeded tomatoes to the pot, and mix everything together.

I made a double batch in a 6 qt. dutch oven. It worked out ok,
but a larger pan would have been ideal.

Once everything is mixed together, put the whole mess in the oven under the broiler. Leave it there for 15-20 minutes. Watch it closely (pay close attention for burning... Erm, or "over caramelization") and stir the mixture every 5 minutes or so.

Glowing under the broiler... (sorry for the bad pic)

You're looking for the tomatoes to brown ever so slightly, and for the carrots, onion and celery to begin to caramelize. Nothing should be golden brown, but the dry heat of the broiler roasting the vegetables will add depth to the flavor of the final product.

It will look something like this when
it comes out of the oven

Once it's out of the oven, break up the tomatoes a bit with a wooden spoon, add the white wine, and cook for about 5 minutes over high heat, stirring constantly.

Once wine is incorporated, add in the reduced tomato juice.

Hungry yet?

Mix to get everything combined, and you're good to go!

Good on just about anything

At this point, the sauce is complete.

Without any further work, this stuff is great right on top of a bowl of your favorite pasta, or with crunchy toasted bread. You could even brown up some Italian sausage and have a pretty darn tasty meal on your hands.

However, some of you may be thinking "But Techie Chef! This is way too chunky for the dish I have in mind! It'll never work..." But don't worry... There is hope for you yet.

I may have mentioned earlier that this stuff makes for a most excellent pizza sauce. All that is left is to blend it to whatever consistency you want. The easiest way to do so, would be to take an immersion or "stick" blender and go to town right in the pot until it is as smooth as you need it. I, however, used a standard bar blender and blended about 4 cups of the sauce smooth for use as pizza sauce, and left the rest as is. I figure I can always blend it down further when needed.

As far as packaging goes (remember, I had cooked a double batch) I used quart sized freezer bags, and put only enough sauce in each so that the bags would still be pretty flat when laid down.

Don't forget to label!

 I recommend laying these flat in your freezer for a few hours until they start to freeze up. After that, they can be lined up on end like books on a shelf and stored wherever there is room in your freezer.

In my experience with this sauce, it freezes and refreezes very well. I normally just take a bag out of the freezer in the morning before I go to work so it can thaw during the day, use about a quarter cup or so to make a pizza that night, then throw the rest right back in the freezer.

I hope that you enjoy the recipe as much as I do!


Here's the full recipe!
Adapted from Alton Brown's recipe here.


2 (28-ounce) cans whole, peeled tomatoes
1/4 C Sherry vinegar OR equal parts white vinegar and sherry cooking wine
1/4 C Sugar
1 tsp dried red pepper flakes
1 tsp dried oregano
1 tsp dried basil
1 small to medium onion
1 large carrot
1 large stalk celery
2 oz. olive oil
4 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 C white wine
Salt and pepper to taste

1. Open and drain the tomatoes, reserving the juice into a saucepan. Set tomatoes aside. 
2. Add spices, sherry vinegar, and sugar to the saucepan and heat over medium high heat until it starts to bubble, then reduce heat to medium and simmer until reduced by half, stirring occasionally.
3. Peel and dice carrot, and sweat in a roasting pan over low heat with the olive oil. 
4. While tomato juice is reducing and carrot is cooking, seed and rinse the tomatoes.
5. Chop celery and onion as described, reserve. 
6. mince garlic, then add garlic, chopped celery, and chopped onion to the roasting pan with the carrot. Keep over low heat.
7. Once the vegetables are slightly softened, add the seeded tomatoes to the roasting pan, and broil on high for 20 minutes, removing pan to stir every 5 minutes. 
8. Remove roasted vegetables from oven, add wine and place pan over medium high heat. Stir constantly for 5 minutes. 
9. Turn off heat, and add the reduced tomato juice to the pan. Stir to combine. 
10. Optionally, use an immersion or bar style blender to blend the sauce to your desired consistency. 

Yield: approximately 4.5 cups.