First Pizza

Among Sissy and me, when one of us suggests a plan that clearly is too aspirational, the other of us often takes her hands and begins to flap them, pantomiming little wings - a reminder of Icarus flying too close to the sun.  So were the origins of my first successful pizza from scratch - yesterday, not today.

 

Finished product - overhead view.



Yesterday's rainy Saturday began slowly, as Saturdays seem to run these days, with the change of seasons.  But the rains apparently caused a certain Match.com prospect's Long Island golf date to be cancelled, leading to his remaining in the city, leading to a drinks invitation in the late evening.  The invitation text came after he came out of the gym (I had told him I would be around this weekend).  I accepted, and declined my mother's offer to pick me up on her way through from a lunch club get-together in New Jersey to see her new kitchen; I wisely decided there was no way getting picked up post-3pm to travel to Queens could possibly leave me with enough time to return to the city for a 9:30pm date.  So sometimes I do recognize my Icarean tendencies and know to squelch them.

Mr. Match's reference to his having gone to the gym left me feeling somewhat guilty about not keeping up my own running; I also thought it might not hurt to try to appear a little more trim for the date - whatever little result may come from a last minute workout.  The rains, and wind, and definitely chillier temperatures, convinced me to move my exercise routine indoors - I decided to do the stairs, whilst taking various rounds of recycling down, picking up my mail and my next door neighbor's... stairs completely wind me; four sets of stairs felt like something at least approximating a respectable portion of the cardio from my usual weekend running routine.  All about trying to fit it in, wherever and however possible. 

The plan had been to get in the workout, be showered and out, and have close to 3 hours to make myself a pantry-clearing pizza to for dinner, and then a short walk to meet Mr. Match at a "speakeasy" in the neighborhood that I'd never even heard of.  The pizza-making part of the plan was where I got into trouble.  But the pizza was only to take 10 minutes to knead, and only 15 minutes to bake... I should just know to expect recipes to take longer, especially on a first go-round.  So by 8:30, with dough assembled and kneaded but pizza nowhere close to assembly, Sissy shared her leftover pizza, and that was my pre-drinks dinner.  Thank goodness - because that was the only thing in my stomach that absorbed the 2 drinks I had.  A lovely date, a nice guy, actually, a really nice-seeming, solid, smart, stable guy - we'll see whether anything comes of it; I am hopeful.  But I seem to have no luck with securing second dates... but maybe this time will be different.

So Saturday's ball of dough stayed in a plastic container, and was re-kneaded today, and finally assembled into a late lunch.  Voilà!

In the oven, at the beginning of the bake.

It was inspired by some leftover milk and the desire to use it up somehow, to upcycle it.  Now that Sissy no longer drinks milk (she is lactose-intolerant), and since I have weaned myself off my decades-long cereal habit, the milk sits longer than it should sometimes.  So was the case in the last round, and some of the leftover milk was frozen, but then sat thawed too long, before I went to use it.  It curdled and turned into cheese - did not seem like it would be quite right in my new oatmeal routine.  On "The Kitchen" I had seen a recipe for pizza dough with Greek yogurt - I figured my curdled milk could stand in.  AND it would be a way to use the little tomatoes I had been gathering.  AND it would be a way to use some of the Brazilian cheese living in the freezer since not being consumed at the Olympics opening ceremony party I was invited to back in August.  I thought a pizza bianca might be the inspiration - all the better for lack of sauce; the tomatoes could be the stand-in.  I actually ended up using a slightly different recipe - this one, seemed easy, simple - I skipped the mixer and just put it all into a bowl, after finding a separate recipe for self-rising flour.  Thank goodness for Google - what ever did we do in the days before it?  And the recipe worked!  Well, it required more yogurt to be added; the curdled milk wasn't quite enough for all the flour - that is part of the reason it look so long, adjusting the proportions.  The kneading took about as long as the recipe called for - quite satisfying, actually.  I don't usually knead - I may do more of it.  But it kept well in the container overnight.  And the rest was as per the recipe.



Post-bake, pre-adornment.

Post-adornment with the late-season basil Genovese.

But it truly came alive with the addition of the basil - and it was nice to have a use for the basil at the end of the season.  Only worrisome part is that the basil does not seem to be flowering or seeding.  Maybe the Mother Garden has some seeding basil; I will have to look when I am next there.

Posed, in front of the enameled cast iron pot for some pretty background color.

It was not bad at all.  The little tomatoes burst just as they were supposed to.  The Brazilian cheese isn't really a melty cheese, so maybe the pizza was a bit drier than otherwise would be the case.  Some of the curdled milk cheese taste came through in the dough - next time, we'll stick to just yogurt; will keep the excess milk frozen instead until it can be used.  Lessons learned.

 

All in all, a good food experiment.  It was today's heavy, late lunch.  It will be tomorrow's dinner of leftovers.  It looks pretty.  And it was relatively quick - worth a repeat.