Is it Friday night yet?! Here is another great pizza recipe to help celebrate the end of another work week. As you have read in a few posts back, we did a deep dish pizza, now it is time for a round pizza pie! This recipe is our traditional pie recipe that we have been using for quite some time. My husband Mike developed this pizza making technique, and over the last year he has taught me all his tricks, so he is my official consultant on this post. So welcome Mike everyone, <insert applause>.
It’s a pretty simple recipe and it tastes fantastic! Now don’t get me wrong, if we lived in New York, we would not be posting about making pizza, we would be going to Gino’s Pizzeria in our hometown of Lynbrook. But if you live outside of New York, you want to make this recipe. If you live in New York, pizza making can be a fun activity for little kids or bored adults.
This recipe will make (1) 16″ round pie. I recommend getting a non-stick round pan, skip those pans with the holes. The non-stick round pans (no holes) are fairly easy to find and they aren’t expensive, I think we own 4! You want to set your oven rack to the lowest level possible and at 500℉. The lower the rack and hotter the oven, it will help the crust get that wood fired oven effect.
For the ingredients here is the secret, we don’t use prepared or homemade sauce, just a 28oz can of whole peeled tomatoes. I recommend using Cento or any Italian style canned tomato brand. Check the back of the can and it will say product of Italy. These are the best kind of tomatoes in my eyes, so stick with this type. You can buy crushed tomatoes, but we have found you get really great flavor from the whole ones. All you have to do is pop the top off the can and quickly puree the tomatoes with an immersion stick blender, you can do this right in the can. If you don’t have a stick blender you can throw the tomatoes in a food processor, blender or you can just crush them up with you hands. Note: You don’t have to use the entire 28 oz can of tomatoes, you will probably use less than 7 ounces per pie. We will just store leftover tomatoes in separate containers, label then freeze.
Next up we have the cheeses, which is grated pecorino romano and mozzarella. If you don’t have or can’t find romano cheese, you can use parmesan. Our favorite brand of romano cheese is Locatelli, so if you can find that, get it and stock up! It is more on the expensive side but well worth it in the end. For the mozzarella, get a block of whole milk cheese, such as Polly-o. When we first moved to Minot we couldn’t find Polly-o, a few months later they started selling it at our commissary on base. The check out lady must have thought I was a weirdo because I may have bought 8 blocks. But stay away from the prepackaged shredded cheese, always buy the blocks. I feel like shredded cheese has a coating of something on it that prevents the cheese from sticking together in the package. It really doesn’t take that much time to shred cheese, I recommend getting a box grater, they even sell them now with an attachment at the bottom that catches the cheese. How innovative! Another option we have used in the past is fresh mozzarella. You don’t even have to shred it, you can just slice the fresh cheese into thin rounds and place throughout the pizza, leaving room for it to expand.
Next is the dough; again you can use store-bought for a grocery store, if you live by a pizzeria you can even buy dough from them or use My Go-To Pizza Dough Recipe. I recommend if you are using the go-to pizza dough to store it in the freezer then move to the refrigerator the night before you are going to use it. I totally drop the ball this day and had to take frozen dough out of the freezer that morning. In reality this is no big deal, I just left it out on the counter until it defrosted and started to rise again. When you are ready to use, lightly flour a clean VERY CLEAN work surface and add some flour to the top of the dough, things will get a little sticky. You want to first use your fingers and a little palm to stretch the dough out, you can lift it and turn it at this point to get an even circle. Take your time with this step, then you can use the rolling pin to stretch it out even more to get a 16″ circle, no need to roll the edge of the crust. We find when it is rolled it puffs up too much, so better leave it unrolled, unless you want to do a stuffed crust. Never tried that, but it does sound delicious!
Once the dough is fully rolled out and ready to go, sprinkle some corn meal on the non-stick pan, this will ensure even more that the crust will not stick. One time my husband mistaken the corn meal container with sugar. Now that was an interesting pizza pie! Nice crisp caramelized bottom…
To get the dough on the pan, simply fold it in half and slide on top of the pan, then unfold. If you feel the dough might stick together you can place the rolling pin in the middle of the dough and fold over, then transfer to the pan.
Top the dough with a thin layer of the crushed tomatoes and a sprinkle of kosher salt then place in the lowest level of the oven for about 8 to 10 minutes, or until the the bottom starts to turn golden brown a bit. Don’t be afraid to check the crust, you can lift it up from the pan and take a peek. If dough-air bubbles start to appear, no worries, just take a sharp knife and pop them, that should do the trick so they go back down.
Once the crust finishes the first round of baking, remove from the oven and add a light but even sprinkling of the grated pecorino romano or parmesan. Next top with the mozzarella in a thin layer and try not to over cheese! You want to see some of the sauce, because when the cheese melts, it will spread. Now you can just stop after the cheese and have a plain pie or you can get a little crazy and add endless amounts of toppings. In this case we decided to go with pepperoni, diced fresh jalapeño, mushrooms and sliced red onion. Delicious!
Some of our other favorite combinations are:
Margarita (fresh mozzarella, roma tomato, garlic and basil)
Roma tomato and fresh jalapeño
Crumbled Italian sausage and green pepper
Thawed frozen spinach, cherry tomato halves and garlic
Skip the red sauce and use prepared pesto, goat cheese-mozzarella mix, portobello mushrooms, yellow pepper, roma tomato and red onion
After you added the cheese and toppings, place the pie back in the oven for another 8 to 10 minutes until the cheese is melted and the crust around the edge is a golden brown. You can then finish the pizza off with some julienned basil. Then use a pizza cutter to cut the pizza into 8 traditional slices. Feel free to top with some more grated romano cheese or garlic powder and if you want more heat you can add some crushed red pepper. Buon appetito!
Fredo’s Round Pan Pizza
Serves 2 adults and 2 tiny humans
1.5 pounds store-bought pizza dough or half a recipe of My Go-To Pizza Dough Recipe
All Purpose flour for dusting
28 ounce can peeled tomatoes, such as Cento, lightly pureed or hand crushed, store and freeze unused tomatoes
Kosher salt
Pecorino Romano cheese, grated, such as Locatelli
16 ounces Mozzarella cheese, grated, such as Whole Milk Polly-o
Yellow Cornmeal
Optional: additional toppings, such as pepperoni, diced fresh jalapeño, red onion, mushroom slices, julienned basil etc.
Equipment: 16″ non-stick round pizza pan, rolling pin
Place your oven rack on the lowest level and preheat your oven to 500℉.
Sprinkle cornmeal on a round pizza pan.
Lightly flour a clean work surface, place dough ball on top and lightly flour. Press dough with your fingertips and palms pushing outwards, use a rolling pin to help roll the dough to a 16″ circle. Transfer rolled dough to the cornmeal dusted pizza pan. No need to roll curst around the edges. Top dough with a thin layer of pureed tomatoes (about less than 7 ounces), season lightly with kosher salt. Place in oven for 8 to 10 minutes, until bottom of crush starts to turn a light golden brown. Remove from oven.
Top tomato sauce with an even layer of grated pecorino romano, then mozzarella cheese. Add additional toppings if desired. Place back in oven for 8 to 10 minutes or until cheese is melted and begins to turn brown in spots and crust is cooked through. Remove from oven.
To serve, top with julienned basil and cut pizza into 8 slices, top with extra romano cheese, garlic powder and/or crushed red pepper if desired. Enjoy and pray for leftovers!
Fredo’s Pizza[/caption]
livingdevitaloca.com 