Pizza Experiment #1

I'm always on the lookout for new ways to make pizza. It is tough to deny the greatness of a simple slice of pepperoni, but if you can't experiment in the kitchen where can you? It's in the experimentation that we eventually discover our own signature on a recipe. Let's face it there are not too many things out there that have not been tried, but by playing around a bit with already existing dishes you may just discover something wonderful that will result in people asking, "I have to get your recipe for that."

After trying out the biscuit recipe from Paula Dean I knew I had an opportunity to do something more than just whip up the always enjoyable biscuits and gravy. Biscuits are nothing more than dough that is baked, so why not skip the cutting it up part and just spread it out into a much larger and somewhat thinner shape. If I can turn a tortilla into pizza crust, why not a biscuit.

You may notice the recipe for the dough is slightly different than the biscuit recipe, but only slightly. The concept is still the same, mix all of the dry ingredients together and then cut the butter in. You will want to get it mixed in until it hits a point that resembles cornmeal ... kind of. If it's not perfect its okay. The idea is to have those little bits of butter hanging out that will melt when baking giving you a moist and flaky crust. You can probably use a food processor to get the results quickly, but I'm processorless so I've found that a whisk is the best tool. If you stab at the pieces of butter and stir occasionally you should get the desired result in a fairly short period of time.

All that is left is to add your milk and gently knead it altogether. You can use a spoon if you are really against getting your hands dirty, but I highly recommend using your hands. You don't want to over knead the dough. The more time you spend kneading it the more dense your crust will end up. So just get it to a point that it all sticks together.

When it comes to rolling out your dough there are a couple of options. I usually put the dough onto a greased pizza pan. This way you know how big you need the crust to be, and by having it greased you don't have to worry about it sticking. If you are determined to use a rolling pin, sprinkle the dough with a little more flour, but not too much. If you don't, you'll end up with the dough stuck to your rolling pin, and it will be a giant mess. You also want to be gentle the rolling. Again, you don't want to overwork the dough and make it too dense. The other option is to just use your hands/fingers to work it out into a pizza crust. It is the best way to keep from over working the dough.

With your crust ready to go all that is left is hit it up with sauce and bring on the toppings. However, if we are going to make the crust from scratch why not make the sauce from scratch too ... or at least mostly from scratch. When you have odd amounts of things left over it can be tough to figure out what to do with them. I had some leftover pesto from a pasta I made a few nights early, and I'll admit that it was store bought. Not nearly as good as fresh, but it was a bit cheaper and much less work so I'm not going to be ashamed of it, and you shouldn't be either if you take the occasional shortcut. I couldn't think of any better use for the pesto than to use it as part of a sauce for the pizza. I tossed the pesto along with the garlic into the same pan I used to cook off the chicken that I mentioned in the toppings. So there was already a bit of oil and fat in the pan. After a few minutes I tossed in the flour and stirred thoroughly. The flour helps thicken the sauce ... if its too runny you'll end up with toppings all over the place and soggy crust and it will be a huge mess, so you want to thicken it up a bit. After giving the flour, pesto and garlic just a few minutes ... stirring constantly ... I added the milk and continued to stir. A few minutes later it was at a perfect consistency and read to spread on the crust. Not your traditional tomato sauce, but there is no rule that says you have to use a tomato based sauce on your pizza.


To finish it up I spooned on and spread around the ricotta cheese, added the chicken, pepper and onions then sprinkled on the mozzarella and basil.

I tossed it in a 400 degree oven for about 15 minutes (or until the crust turns a nice golden brown) and that is all there is too it ... it is Just That Easy!