Homemade Pizza for One
Today was stressful and went longer than I wanted, resulting in a trip home right at 5:15. Given that it's road construction season here in Minnesota and the bonding bill went through (meaning more money to *do* road construction), that was the worst possible time to go home.
So, I sat on Hwy 100, staring at a proud parent of an honor student who was also the owner of an exceptionally long middle finger and a strongly held belief that sharing it with the Ford Taurus in front of her would clear out the 15 miles of non-moving cars in front of her.
As I sat there, I developed a craving for pizza. This was the kind of craving that can't be explained, but MUST be obeyed. However, I didn't want crappy frozen pizza as the craving wouldn't be pacified with that. However, as it was going to be nearly 6:30 by the time I got home, I knew that ordering for delivery was just going to put me in another long line, quite likely with some of my companions on the road.
Since I had to stop at Target anyway on the way home, I thought I'd buy one of their deli pizzas as a possible solution. I put one in the cart and walked over to the deli meats to buy stuff for grilled cheese sandwiches tomorrow night. For the last month or so, Shelly's been doing a lot of traveling and I usually just eat a couple of grilled cheese sandwiches for dinner on those nights.
Anyway, as I was standing in front of the counter, waiting for the meat to be sliced, I saw fresh mozzarella (the stuff that's packed in water). In that moment, I decided that even the deli pizza wouldn't suffice. No, I was determined to have homemade pizza for one, within 45 minutes.
I succeeded and it was delicious. In case you are interested, here's how it goes:
Whether it's a deli frozen pizza or home made, you need the oven good and hot 425+ degrees F, so as soon as I walked through the door, I preheated the oven.
Because I didn't want to wait any longer than necessary, I used a Betty Crocker pizza crust mix, where you just add water. It uses chemical leaveners in addition to yeast, so it's a little less chewey and yeasty than the "real" stuff would be, but it only requires a couple of minutes of mixing and kneading and its ready to go. I mixed that together and let it sit in the bowl.
I then diced up a slice of the deli ham and half of a tomato. That, with the cheese are all I need for toppings. I put the tomatoes and the mozzarella on paper towels to soak up the extra moisture.
When going all out for pizza from scratch, I use a baking stone and preheat that along with the oven. However, that also requires making the pizza on a peel and transferring it to the oven, which was too much work for tonight. So, I just used a dark, heavy sheet pan. That gives better, even browning underneath, with little effort.
I brushed the pan with olive oil, stretched and tossed the crust dough until it was about plate-sized and put it on the sheet. I brushed the crust with olive oil as well.
Personally, I don't like sauce on my pizza, so I just went right to the toppings next. Tomatoes and ham on the bottom and the cheese spread out over the top.
It all went into the oven until it was golden brown, when I pulled it, let it cool a bit, cut it up and enjoyed it while watching The 4400.
