Day 46: Pizza with Four Cheeses (less two)

It was a bit of a mad house in the kitchen yesterday.  I was going to a wine tasting potluck, and I wanted to find something I could make that would fit into my 50 day challenge.  Paul was staying home but I wanted to make sure he had something to eat besides the crackers he usually feasts on when I'm not there.  The answer?  Pizza!  I found this recipe for Pizza with Four Cheese in The Greens Cook Book, and it sounded delicious and so simple to make.  The only problem is I didn't have all the ingredients, and being the day before pay day I didn't have the money to go buy them either.  So I decided to make the Goat Cheese Pizza with Red Onions and Green Olives for the wine tasting potluck, and make the Pizza with Four Cheeses (moins deux) for Paul.  Unfortunately I didn't have time to take pictures of the pizza, but I think we can all imagine what it looked like, right?  Paul did snap a picture of the girls grabbing some pizza.

Once again I used the pizza dough recipe from A Great American Cook (found here), even though I promised to try The Greens recipe.  Hey, I was short on time, and when you're in a hurry why try a new recipe when you have a favorite that you've made before?  So I promise, really, next time I make pizza I'll try The Greens version which I've listed below this pizza recipe

I shredded some mozzarella (about 4-5 ounces) and the 1 ounce Parmesan for the pizza, and I loved the combination of just the cheese with the onion.  I did miss the tomato slices though -- it would have added a really nice acidic bite to cut through all that cheese.  Oh, and I used parsley in place of the marjoram.  

I'm going to make this pizza again as it's written, and one as I made it today (except adding the sliced tomato) so I can compare the two.  

We had a nice surprise visit from Anne and Lisa who were traveling from Portland to the Wintergrass Festival in Bellevue.  I grabbed a slice of the cheese pizza on my way out the door, and they stayed to dine with their Papa.

Pizza with Four Cheeses

The Greens Cook Book

Yield:  One 10 inch pizza

1 recipe Pizza Dough (see below)

2 tbsp Garlic Oil (see below)

1/2 small red onion, thinly sliced

1 ounce (1/3 cup) Gorgonzola cheese, crumbled

2 1/2 ounces Fontina cheese

1 ounce Parmesan

1 medium tomato, thinly sliced

Salt

Pepper

1 to 2 tsp fresh marjoram, finely chopped

     Prepare the pizza dough and set it in a warm place to rise.

     Preheat the oven to 500 and if using a pizza stone, warm it for 20 minutes.

     Shape the dough, and place it on a well-floured peel or on a pizza pan.  Brush it with the garlic oil, and top with the red onion.  Add the cheeses, then the tomato slices.  Season the tomato with a little salt and freshly ground black pepper.

     Bake the pizza in the upper third of the oven until the edges and bottom are nicely browned and the cheese are melted, about 8 to 12 minutes.  Remove it from the oven and sprinkle it with the fresh marjoram.  The cheeses will be quite runny, so let the pizza sit a minute or two before slicing. 

Pizza Dough

The Greens Cook Book

Yield:  One 10 inch pizza

3 tbsp hot water

3 tbsp milk

1/2 package (and 1 1/4 tsp) active dry yeast

Pinch of sugar

1 tbsp olive oil

1/4 tsp salt

1 tbsp rye flour

2 tbsp whole wheat flour

5/8 cup unbleached white flour

     Combine the water and the milk.  the mixture should not be much warmer than body temperature.  Add the yeast and the sugar, and stir to dissolve the yeast; then mix in the olive oil, salt, rye flour, and whole wheat flour.  Gradually add the white flour, stirring to make a soft, workable dough.  Add only enough flour to keep the dough from sticking -- the dough should be a little moist.  Turn it out onto a lightly floured surface and knead it for about 5 minutes.  Put the dough into an oiled bowl, and turn it once so the surface is coated with oil.  Cover the bowl and let the dough rise in a warm place until it has doubled in bulk, about 35 to 40 minutes. 

     Preheat the oven to 500 and warm the pizza stone, if using, for about 20 minutes.

     To shape the pizza, first form the dough into a ball, and then roll it out onto a floured surface.  Pick up the dough and stretch it, shaping it with your hands to form a circle, and roll out more, as necessary.  The 10 inch round will be about 1/8 inch thick, at most, and slightly thicker around the edge.  Set the dough on a pan or on a well-floured wooden peel, brush it with garlic oil, if desired, and cover it with the topping you have chosen. 

     Bake the pizza on its pan, or slide it from the peel onto the heated pizza stone. 

Garlic Oil

The Greens Cook Book

Cover finely minced garlic amply with olive oil, and use it to brush over the surface of pizza dough before adding the toppings if you like extra garlic.  In addition to the flavor, the garlic oil makes a kind of protective seal that keeps the crust crisp and dry.  

Tonight Paul is on his own again.  I'm off to an Academy Awards party downtown, but he has a couple pots of leftovers to choose from so I think he'll be okay.