That's right - this pizza is ENTIRELY from scratch. Homemade dough, homemade sauce, and homemade mozzarella cheese. We started with flour, milk, and tomatoes. Unfortunately we can't take credit for growing, harvesting, or milking our way to those ingredients, but this is about as garden-to-table that two apartment city dwellers can get! And it was worth it. While this took an incredible amount of time, it yielded food that tasted fresh and that tasted better due to the satisfaction of making all of it from start to finish.Keep in mind that you do not have to make every single piece from scratch. Making homemade dough or homemade sauce can make a huge difference by itself - not every single piece is always needed. Figure out what time you have available and do what you can. If you can only do one piece, I'd recommended the sauce. While the mozzarella was fun to make since we had never done it before, it actually wasn't quite as tasty as some of the mozzarella you buy (this could be simply because it was our first effort, though!) And while fresh dough IS better, it's not miles and miles better. But the sauce? Well, just taste it and find out.
Difficulty: medium-hard
Time: 4.5 hrs
Cost: $28.71 (5 individual size pizzas, 4 corn on the cob)
Homemade Tomato Sauce
Time: 4.5 hrsI'm actually not going to dive into the recipe for fresh tomato sauce again, since you can find it posted here. But keep in mind that while I present one option, there are endless varieties here. For instance, I prefer rich sauces since I'm a huge fan of tomatoes (and tomato sauce.) The longer you let the tomatoes and sauce simmer, the richer the taste will be. My recipe calls for about 4 hrs of simmering time. However, if it's summer and tomatoes are in season, you might prefer to keep some of the light, fresh taste of these delicious fruits and instead just simmer the sauce for 1-2 hours. It'll be thinner, but if the tomatoes themselves are in their peak, still flavorful and delicious.
You can also toy with dicing fewer or more of the tomatoes based on how chunky you like your sauces. Or, you can add things - mushrooms and onions, for example, among many things. And of course you can take things out, like the green pepper in the description at the linked post above. In fact, I did not actually use the pepper in this recipe. Finally, you can play with the herbs. I listed the ones I like to use, but there is no right or wrong here. Simply cook to your taste!
Servings: 6
Serving size: enough for one individual pizza
Nutrition: calories 93; carbs 14g; fat 3g; protein 2g; sodium 10mg; iron 7mg
Mozzarella from Scratch
Time: 1 hrIngredients:
1.5 tsp citric acid
1/4 rennet (enzyme) tablet
1 gallon 2% milk - lightly pasteurized (non-homogenized if possible)
1/4 tsp salt
Pour out 1 cup of cold, chlorine-free water. Pour 1.5 tsp of citric acid into it, and stir to dissolve completely. Set aside for now.
In a different dish, pour out 1/4 cup of cold, chlorine-free water. Put the 1/4 table of rennet in it and let it dissolve. Set this aside for now.
Now, it's time to get to the milk! Get a large pot out, and gently pour the milk into the pot. If you have non-homogenized milk, like I did, don't be worried when it comes out lumpy. As long as it's fresh milk, you are good to go. Non-homogenized means the cream is separated instead of evenly spread throughout the milk.
Heat the milk over medium-low. Heat slowly. Keep a thermometer handy and a close eye on it. After about 10 minutes, you should be to 85 degrees F. As soon as you reach that point, add the citric acid to the pan. Whisk slowly for 20 seconds and then continue to heat.
After about five more minutes, you should reach 100 degrees. At that point, add the rennet solution. Stir in an up and down motion for 30 seconds.
Heat the milk slightly more so it reaches 105 degrees. At that point, turn the heat off. Cover the pot and leave it on the stove, though. Let it sit for 10 minutes. After 10 minutes, it should be coagulating. The curds (the white mass that becomes the cheese) should look like shiny yogurt and pull away to clump in the middle of the pot. The whey, the liquid part, is murky clear-ish liquid with a creamy or even yellow tint.
After 10 minutes, check to see if the curds are ready by pressing them gently with the back of a teaspoon. If the teaspoon leaves a dent, they are ready. If not, allow them to sit undisturbed for another 2-3 minutes before checking.
When the curds are ready, you'll need to drain them. Handle them as gently as possible in the steps below or you'll ruin your cheese!
Put on some plastic gloves to protect your hands as you handle the hot curds. Gently press them with the palm of your hand, pushing out as much whey as possible. Do this for a few minutes until there is almost no more whey coming out. Pour our the whey in the microwaveable bowl (or use it for something else) and put the curds in the bowl.
Again, gently push down and remove as much whey as possible.
When all of the whey is removed, microwave the curds on high for 1 minute. Drain the whey. Then, fold over the curds to evenly distribute the heat. Drain again.
Microwave the curds for another 30 seconds. Drain and knead, as above. You can use a large spoon if the curds are too hot to handle, even with the gloves.
At that point, test the cheese to see what temperature it is. You'll need it to be at least 135 degrees. If it's not, microwave for 30 seconds and test again. Continue until it's 135 or more.
At that point, add the salt and any other herbs you'd like to add. Stretch and fold the cheese to incorporate the salt.
Finally, stretch the cheese. Hold the curds up and let them fall on themselves. Repeat this until the cheese is smooth and shiny. When it reaches this point, shape it into a ball. Pull and tuck the edges underneath, so the top and sides are smooth.
Wrap the mozzarella ball tightly in plastic wrap. You can eat it now, warm, or plunge the ball into ice water for 15 minutes to retain it's shape as it cools.
Congratulations - you've made mozzarella!
Pizza Dough
Time: 1 hr
Ingredients:
2 tsp honey
1 package yeast
2 1/4 c flour
Now, we'll make the pizza dough. (Yes, I'm aware this picture is not of dough, but hey, it's a picture of more toppings to include! Discussed below.)
After that, add 2 cups of flour to the yeast mixture. Stir until you get a soft dough, and then flour a surface and turn the dough out onto it. Knead the dough, adding the rest of the flour very slowly as needed to keep it from sticking. Knead until smooth and elastic.
Spray a bowl with cooking spray and place the dough into it, in a ball shape. Flip a few times to coat with the cooking spray. Then cover and let rise for 30 minutes in a warm area, free from drafts. At the end of the 30 minutes you should be able to gently push 2 fingers into the dough and leave an indent. If so, the dough is ready for the next step.
Roll the dough into a 12-inch circle. You now have your dough! Just remember to spray the pan or stone or whatever you are using before placing the dough on it.
Servings: 2
Serving size: half of a pizza
Nutrition: calories 200; carbs 88g; fat 0g; protein 12g; sodium 0mg; iron 24mg
Assembly!
On the other pizzas, I placed shrimp and broccoli. I simply sauteed the shrimp and garlic, and then tossed them onto the pizza.
Obviously, though, the possibilities are endless. Keep it simple with just cheese or else make it as complicated as you want with meats, veggies, and perhaps even fruits!
Finally, last but not least, you'll need to cook your pizza. You can do this in the oven, on a pizza pan or pizza stone, or else on the grill. I chose to go the grill route, and put the pizza directly on the grill instead of using a stone. It mean it was a little tricky to maneuver the more full pizzas (with shrimp and broccoli) onto the bare grill, but they were delicious. The dough was striped on the bottom and imparted with a delicious, summer-y flavor.
Yum. It's the taste of satisfaction!
No comments:
Post a Comment