friday night pizza

My daughter is on her way down for the weekend, so I decided to make pizza tonight. I prepped the pizza dough this morning before I left for work. I also sauteed some onions until they were caramelized. Yesterday when I stopped at Whole Foods, I picked up a 4 oz. log of goat cheese and today I picked up a bunch of local grown arugula. You might wonder where this is going.

Last year our local Italian specialty shop, Ma's Italian Specialties, created a pizza using the above ingredients. Using a recipe for pizza dough from "Naples at Table," author Arthur Schwartz, I am going to recreate this pizza. I'll also make a traditional Pizza Margherita. 

When I previously made the pizza with the goat cheese and arugula, I discovered it's best to par bake the pizza dough, then add the toppings. Another twist on this pizza is that I don't use a pizza stone nor my oven, I place the pizza right on the grates of my Weber grill. I find it's a close match to recreating a pizza cooked in a coal fired or brick oven.

By the way, my husband and daughter approved of the goat cheese pizza. 

Pizza Napoletana from Arthur Schwartz*
2-1/2 tea. yeast
1 cup warm water
4 cups unbleached flour
3/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup warm water

1. In a 2 cup glass measuring cup, with a table for, dissolve the yeast in the one cup of warm water. Stir in a 1/2 cup of the flour. Cover with dish towel and let stand until the mixture foams up to about double - to 2 cups, about 30 minutes.
2. In a large bowl (I use my KitchenAide stand mixer with dough hook attachment) combine 3-1/2 cup of the flour and salt. Stir in yeast mixture. Incorporate enough of the additional water until the dough masses together. Once all the flour is incorporated, let the mixer knead the dough for 10 minutes. When you have finished , the dough should not stick of the side of the bowl, it should be smooth, silken, slightly damp on the surface and very elastic.
3. Gather the dough onto a floured surface and spray the inside of the mixing bowl with olive oil. Put the dough back in the bowl and cover with a dish towel until double in bulk.

I'm able to make two pizzas from this dough.

(*I have modified this recipe for use with a stand mixer. I'll post his exact recipe shortly)

For the goat cheese pizza, I par cooked the dough before adding crumbled goat cheese, caramelized onions, arugula and a tablespoon or so of EVOO.