Library Donut

I dove into the world of homemade pizza dough with a great recipe I found and I must say, when you have the time, the results are definitely worth it. Once the dough was made I went for a classic—the margherita—with a twist. You caught me. I got into the kalamata olives again.

Things you need, but shouldn’t eat:

• knife, cutting board
• pizza cutting tool
• pizza pan or pizza stone

The other stuff:

• pizza dough for a 10-12″ pizza
• one medium heirloom tomato
• 12 (give or take) leaves of fresh basil, shredded
• one ball fresh mozzarella
• 2-3 medium cloves garlic
• extra-virgin olive oil
• cracked black pepper
• parmiggiano reggiano (if desired)

Preheat your oven to something hot. My oven is a little on the old and unreliable side so I don’t push it past 525 (it allegedly maxes out at 550) but I’ve heard hotter is better, especially if you are using a pan rather than a stone. I don’t know what kind of heat these pizza stones are designed for, but if you’re buying I’ll take one and find out. For now, we stick with the $8 pizza pan.

While the oven is preheating, toss the garlic in there whole, skins and all with a little oil. Speaking of oil, let’s stretch the dough out to pizza shape and rub some of that olive oil on it too. This will keep the juicier ingredients from getting the dough all soggy. Thinly slice the  mozzarella and heirloom tomato* and place them evenly around the pizza in that order. Pit (if necessary) and finely chop the kalamata olives. It’s been a few minutes now so pull the garlic out. A little pressure with the flat of a knife should pop the cloves out of their skins. Mince them up finely and mix with the chopped olives. This makes it easier to evenly distribute the garlic since you have it mixed in with a more abundant ingredient that is easy to spread around the surface of the pizza. That means you should put the olive-garlic mix onto the pizza now.

Next, send it into the oven. Give it about 11 minutes at 525 in pan, less if you are using a stone and/or a hotter oven. As soon as you (carefully) pull it out, top it with the shredded basil, grate a little parmiggiano and crack some pepper over it. Let it cool for a couple minutes so the cheese can set and so you don’t burn your mouth, because your mouth is going to want to make this pizza disappear in a hurry! Just make sure to save some room for Part II: The Supreme Pile.

*Heirloom tomatoes are tomatoes that taste like tomatoes