feeling comfortable

I used to figure skate. Many many years ago. I have mixed feelings about it, looking back. But the good was VERY good. Today, on the radio, I heard the section of music that always made me feel most comfortable o n the ice. Music from the third act of Carmen. The flute part always made me feel like "I was home."

There are things that I make in the kitchen that make me feel that way. I make them often, move away from them, and come back And it always feels like "welcome home Annalena" when I make them.

Pizza is up there. I love making pizza. And everyone is amazed. They think it's so hard. But it's not. Today, I was going over the process of making it, because I'm teaching it tomorrow. It's easy. I want to share it. And I want you to make it.

Now, first of all, know that it's silly to make dough for one pizzza at a time. So I'm going to give you the dough recipe for two. They freeze beautifully, and you can make as many of them at one as you like. It involves yeast. Don't be afraid.

You need a tablespoon of yeast. That's one package. CHECK THE EXPIRATION DATE. And add a cup of water COLD water, and keep a third of a cup in reserve. Now add three tablespoons of cornmeal if you have it, and three tablespoons of olive oil a teaspoon of salt and a teaspoon of sugar. Stir it up. Then add three cups of flour. Use a spoon and stir it. If you don't get all the flour together, add the other third of a cup of water. When it's all blended, dump it out on a surface, and start kneading it. How do you knead? Easy. Pretend to be folding a letter from the top, turn 90 degrees and keep on doing it until you get something smooth and silky. Maybe five minutes. Put it into a bowl, cover it and let it rise for an hour. Then, punch it down and let it rise for another thirty minutes. Now you're ready .

During the last thirty minutes of rising, kick up your oven to 500. Yup, 500. Now, take half of that dough, and roll it out, or smooth it out if you're good with your hands (I'm not, so I roll). Take a baking sheet and turn it UPSIDE DOWN. Put a sheet of parchment on that, and then the pizza dough. Take some tomato sauce and spread a thin layer on it. Be stingy. Then put on some mozzarella. Half a pound , cut into cubes, is plenty.

Notice I didn't say anything about parmesan. Wait. Get this into the oven, and bake it for about fifteen minutes. Keep an eye on it. When the mozzarella stops bubbling and starts browning, you're ready.

Protect your hands and take the whole sheet out of the oven. This is the hardest part of the process. If you have a cooling rack, move the pie to it. NOW you grate your parmesan on it. You waited because, at 500, the parmesan will burn Many toppings will.

But you're done. Let it sit for ten minutes, get a big knife, hack at it, and enjoy it.
There are many toppings you can make. Some of the ones you would put on after the pie is cooked include parmesan, truffle oil (if you must), cooked greens, ricotta, and arugula.



I'm going to post more pizza options in days to come. Start with this one. Get comfortable with it. Ultimately, it's so much better than having to buy the crap from the corner or the chainstore.