When the Moon Hits Your Eyes Like a Big Pizza Pie....That's Amore!
Dean Martin sure knew what he was talking about when he wrote this song! Who doesn't LOVE pizza??? Saturday = Pizza Night in my house, unless I get some crazy idea to try something new or I feel like bringing something back to the table that I haven't made in ages!
As you prepare to make your pizza you must listen to this song to get you in the mood!! That's what I do! It works! Music is a tremendous part of my life...it is my passion! I listen to music to take me to another place! It's funny because I sing and dance as I cook and clean the house...LoL One day I was making sausage and peppers at my friends house for Memorial Day Weekend and I was listening to "Pitbull's" song "Fireball" and I was singing and dancing around in the kitchen since I thought everyone was outside. All of the sudden one of our friends was hiding in the corner video taping me with his phone!!!! I screamed!!! LoL...Even the walls have eyes and ears!!! A quote I will always remember!! Hahahaha
Ok getting back to the pizza!! I know you are asking yourself this question...do I make the dough? Actually, I don't!! Hahaha Sometimes I am lazy so I pick up dough from the local pizzeria. That's the beauty of it! I know a lot of you don't feel like making the dough, just like I don't. Just walk on over to the pizzeria and ask them for pizza dough! There are also various grocery stores that sell dough so it's easy enough for you to go out and pick it up.
SAUCE!!! That's the key to great pasta and great pizza! If the sauce isn't good you're doomed! Another great thing about pizza is that you can put whatever you want on it! Don't forget about making stromboli and sausage rolls!! Especially sausage rolls, my favorite! I usually make them for special occasions or if I'm just in the mood. They are a treat! I will have a whole section of my cookbook specifically on making sauce. The pizza's pictured in this post are as follows:
Top Left - White Pizza or A Pizza Ca Ricotta, as we call it my family.
Top Right - Your regular Margherita Pizza or A Pizza Regolare
Bottom Left - Pepperoni Pizza or A Pizza Chi Pepperoni
Bottom Right - Pizza with Pesto - A Pizza Cu Pesto e Mozzarella Frisca
My personal preference is baking my pizza on a pizza stone. One quick helpful hint is that the stone stays real hot and continues to cook the bottom so keep an eye on it and take it off the stone to serve. My pizza stones were the best investment I've made. You can even put them on the BBQ and make BBQ Pizza!! My brother-in-law and sister-in-law also bought us a great outdoor pizza oven that cooks your pizza like a real italian brick oven! All you have to do is attach your gas from the bbq to this pizza oven and they cook real quick! Note: You have to prepare that pizza with a lot of flour on the bottom in order to be able to use a pizza peel to slide that pizza onto and off the stone.
This is a picture of the pizza I made on the outdoor pizza oven!! Not too shabby, huh???
Stretching the dough....Probably the most difficult part of making a pizza. Once you get used to it you'll be fine but at first you might find yourself flipping them up in the air like Lucille Ball in I love Lucy!! Hahaha She's hysterical!
The key is to drizzle just enough Extra Virgin Olive Oil onto the stone so the dough doesn't really stick too much. If you put too much oil, guaranteed it will not stretch out on the stone for you and it will keep retracting to its regular form. Turn it over and start stretching starting from the center but then stretch every part of it towards the outer part of the stone or pizza pan. If you keep stretching from the center it will tear...and you saw what happened to Lucy! Hahaha Spread out evenly until it keeps the form of the pan you are using and stays that way! Practice makes better, because no one is perfect! Don't give up! My mother-in-law is a great cook but the one thing she was never able to master was making pizza because she claimed she never could stretch out the dough! Keep trying! You'll get it I promise! Also, something people tend to forget...take off your rings and be careful if you have long nails! They will make a hole in the dough and once there's olive oil on that dough there's no closing it up! Once you stretch add your toppings!!! This is a perfect opportunity to go wild and use your imagination!
When making a stromboli or rolls of any kind...stretch out the pizza dough as explained above and add your filling. Remember if you have leftover chicken or eggplant or vegetables of any kind you can put it in as a filling and roll it up! This is great way to make use of leftovers in the fridge too! DON'T OVERFILL or like a burrito everything will pour out! If there's too much liquid it will cause the roll to open up in the oven. These are just little tidbits to remember. Roll it up from the bottom up very carefully. Try not to roll it too loose, you want your filling to stay inside. Roll it evenly. Then start cutting about 1 inch rolls and make sure you form it in your hand before placing on your pan or if you're making a whole stromboli all you need to do is poke around it with a fork to prevent bubbles in your dough.
If you want to make a calzone, everything is the same. Stretch out the dough, then add your filling on half of the dough. One example I would like to talk about is Spinach filling...if you are a making a spinach calzone make sure you squeeze out all the water to avoid the dough from not cooking in the oven. It will stay raw and gooey! If you're making a calzone with ricotta you should add pecorino romano cheese to the ricotta and shredded mozzarella to it. Prepare this ricotta mixture before hand. Make sure to add some parsley and black pepper too!! One rule of thumb for me is "Always be generous with the cheese!!" This quote is from my mother-in-law Bea!! She's right! When you mix these ingredients into the ricotta it will make it thicker and it won't keep the dough raw as it cooks!
Looking at the picture below, notice how I closed the calzone. Basically once you flip the top over and cover your filling, press down the dough with your left pointer finger and using your right pointer finger push the bottom of the dough over the left finger and push down (this is if you're a righty like me). It creates a fancy shmancy look to your calzone while keeping it closed. The sausage rolls on the other hand are made like little pin wheels.
So there you have it! Basic instructions on how to make pizza, calzones and rolls! Try something new! It's Saturday! Which means go out and buy some pizza dough and make your own creation today!! Get the kids involved! My kids love to make pizza!! It's something fun for the whole family!
Let me know how it comes out...feel free to ask me questions, hopefully I can help! Now go put on some Italian Cooking Music and get into the groove!!!
Buon Appetito! Enjoy!