Authentic Italian Pizza Crust

Many years ago, I was lucky enough to help my mom work on the family cookbook in time for a family reunion. Most of our relatives, from all over Ontario and Italy, sent us their most treasured family recipes... including my Great Aunt's coveted pizza dough recipe.

Mushroom and Chicken Pizza

Since then, I have used this recipe to make several hundred pizzas, flatbreads, bread sticks, cinnamon buns, and sticky buns. It's incredibly versatile, it freezes well, it tastes fantastic with almost any ingredients, and it's almost impossible to screw up.

On Saturday, Shane and I made thirteen small pizzas. Why so many? They make fantastic freezer food, and we had a ton of vegetables from our visit to the farmer's market. Instead of baking them straightaway, we covered the pizzas in aluminum foil and stuffed them in the freezer to enjoy at a later date - making them a fabulous, healthy, preservative-free, fast food for when we don't feel like cooking or have no time.

Authentic Italian Pizza Crust
Makes 3 large pizzas, or a dozen small pizzas. 

Ingredients:

2 1/4 tsp Traditional Yeast
1 Tbsp Granulated Sugar
2 Tbsp Olive Oil
3 Cups Hot Water
8 Cups All-Purpose Flour + Extra
Extra Olive Oil

For starters, grab a large mixing bowl and add the yeast, sugar and 2 tablespoons of olive oil. Slowly pour in 1 cup of hot water (water should be very warm, but not hot enough to scald your fingers - shower temperature) and mix gently. Let this mixture sit for about ten minutes until the yeast is foamy and bubbly.

Add a cup of flour to the frothy yeast mixture, and stir. Alternate between cups of flour and cups of hot water. Mixture should take three cups of water total (including the water for the yeast mixture) and as much flour as required to make a soft round dough. At some point you'll have to dig in with your hands to work in additional flour until the dough is no longer sticky. 

Pat dough into a soft round ball in the center of the bowl. coat sides of bowl with olive oil and then drizzle oil on top of dough. Spread oil into top of dough with your fingers. Cover bowl with a clean, damp towel and leave in a warm corner of the kitchen for 1 1/2 hours or until dough has risen double. 

Punch down dough, and it's ready to work with! At this point, you can either freeze it in sections or make some hot, fresh, delicious pizza. Pinch off a piece of dough and stretch it with your hands, flattening and pulling it into a perfect pizza crust shape (if you feel the need to toss the dough in the air like the stereotypical Italian pizza chef, now is the time).

Preheat oven to 425F, and either lightly grease a pan or pizza stone with some olive oil or spread with cornmeal. Flatten dough onto pan. Spread with pizza sauce and desired toppings.

The entire time between putting the dough on the pan, topping it and putting it in the oven should be at least twenty minutes to allow the dough some time to rise once more, this way it winds up being a crispy light pizza dough.

Bake in a hot oven for 20-30 minutes, or until edges of crust begin to turn golden brown and cheese is bubbly and delicious. Enjoy with a glass of red wine!

Yummy variations: I've added many different things to this crust over the years. Half a cup of grated parmesan cheese and a quarter cup of minced garlic make a delicious savoury crust. Or sautée some spinach, pesto and garlic together to make a fun, green-flecked crust.

Hot, delicious hand made pizza.

edit: submitted to Yeastspotting. 

Butternut Squash Gnocchi Recipe

October is my salute to squash! Salute to seasonal vegetables in general! Possibly November as well, that's how excited I am about this salute!

Oh So Delicious Butternut Squash Gnocchi!

I love everything about Autumn, with frosty nights and nippy mornings and root vegetables all around. I find myself inspired by squash, and parsnips, and sweet potatoes, and possibly even pumpkin (though I haven't given pumpkin much of a chance in the past).

First on the roster: Butternut Squash Gnocchi.

My mother makes the most delicious butternut squash gnocchi, in a brown butter sage sauce, served usually as a primi piatto to a delicious turkey dinner - which means we had to wait all year to have these gnocchi. Not anymore mom! Today I learn to make gnocchi!

One thing that excites me about this gnocchi is that it's a totally vegetarian dish. It could even be vegan too, if you swapped out the butter for some extra virgin olive oil in the last step.

Take one butternut squash.

For starters, find a sexy butternut squash. Perfect specimens should weigh about 2lbs, and be nice and firm. Don't mind the jealous stares of the people at the grocery store - they probably know you are on your way home to create delicious things with that fabulous vegetable.

Butternut Squash Recipe

Ingredients:

One Butternut Squash

1/4 cup olive oil, plus extra for cooking

2 1/2 cups flour, plus lots of extra

Salt

Pepper

Fresh Sage, finely chopped

Oregano

Garlic Powder

Butter

Grated Parmesan (optional)

Take the butternut squash and chop it in half. I wish S was around for this part, because these squash are extremely firm and fairly tough to cut through. Scoop out the seeds and fibers and discard. Coat that gorgeous orange vegetable lightly with olive oil, and sprinkle with salt and pepper. Bake face down on a baking sheet, in a 375F oven, for one hour. Squash should be knife-tender when you remove it.

Let cool slightly, then scoop out the innards into a bowl, leaving behind the tough outer skin. Mash with a potato masher (or some forks) until no lumps remain. 

Let squash cool for another 20 minutes or so, until room temperature (or nearly). Drizzle 1/4 cup of olive oil into squash, with approximately 1/4 tsp ground pepper, 1/2 tsp of salt, 1/2 tsp sage, 1/2 tsp oregano, and a dash of garlic powder. Adjust spices to suit your particular tastes - I certainly tasted the mixture a few times as I was stirring!

Slowly add flour, mixing constantly until you achieve a soft dough ball. The consistency should be much like Play Dough. Cover with plastic wrap or a damp tea towel for at least 45 minutes to let the gluten in the flour become nice and sticky.

When my dough's time was up, I found the mixture had become insanely sticky again. To counter this, I poured a small mountain of flour on the cutting board so I could work it into the dough as needed. Roll small pieces of the dough into skinny sausages, approximately 3/4 inch in diameter. Notice how the beautiful orange colour goes away because of all that flour? Not to worry - it comes back in the cooking process. Chop the gnocchi into small bite-size pieces. For added gorgeousness, roll the tines of a fork over each individual gnocchi. I didn't do that step - I had much better things to do than spend all evening rolling hundreds of gnocchi over a fork just so they are a bit prettier.

                              

I taste tested the first dozen gnocchi I cut to see if the consistency was right. To do this, drop the gnocchi carefully into a pot of boiling water. Stir gently. Cook for several minutes, until they float to the surface. 

To store the gnocchi I wasn't going to eat immediately (anything you aren't going to eat that day) I spaced them evenly on a cookie sheet that was well dusted with flour, and I froze them all. It made servings enough for 8-10 people (depending on their level of hungry).

Cooking the gnocchi right away? Yum, I approve. 

Prepare a pot of lightly salted boiling water. Drop gnocchi individually into pot, stir gently to make sure none are stuck to the bottom. Cook for several minutes or until gnocchi float to the surface. Melt some butter in a pan, add some chopped fresh sage, oregano, pepper and garlic (or any combination that suits you). Remove floating gnocchi from water with a slotted spoon, deposit into pan. Stir to coat with butter. I like to cook them for several minutes in the pan, or until just firm on the outside. Sprinkle with parmesan and serve hot. 

Your lucky guests will beg for this recipe. It is great on it's own, or as a starter to a wonderful meal. Unfortunately it was midnight when I finished, so I didn't really bother making side dishes.

Cheers!

Delicious butternut squash gnocchi.

Easy Five Minute Ciabatta Recipe

This morning, when I began thinking about my evening plans (a lovely little dinner with my lovely fiancé) and then started thinking about our evening dinner (homemade bread?) I didn't pause to remember that I had agreed to babysit my friend's gorgeous four-month-old daughter Penelope. Luckily, Five Minute Ciabatta Bread can be made with a baby tucked under one arm. And yes, it takes a little longer than five minutes (but not much!)

Exceedingly Yummy Ciabatta Bread

My night went fabulously, and Penelope was a great help in the kitchen.

"Penelope, how much garlic should I put on this bread?" "Gurgle gurgle gurgle" "Really Penelope? That much?" And then there was "Penelope, do you think I should put butter on this?" "Gurgle gurgle" [drooling and bubbles] "You're right! It does need to have butter on it!"

This recipe is so easy, you can do it with one of these tucked under one arm! Also, yes I did make this hat. I will definitely have to blog about it soon!

 After much research, I adapted a recipe found on Lifehacker.

Five Minute Ciabatta Bread

Prep Time: 5 Minutes
Rising Time: 4 Hours
Baking Time: 25 Minutes
Yield: Enough for two, or three if they feel like sharing. 

Ingredients:

1/8 tsp Traditional Yeast
1/2 tsp Granulated Sugar
1 Cup Hot Water
2 Cups All-Purpose Flour
1/2 tsp Salt
Herbs and Spices
Cornmeal, for dusting

Mix together sugar and yeast in a large bowl. Slowly add hot water - it should be hot, but not hot enough to burn your fingers. Mix together thoroughly and let the yeasty water sit for a few minutes, until the yeast starts bubbling up to the surface.

Mix two cups of flour directly into yeasty water. Add the salt, stir together. It should not be thick enough to feel like 'real' dough - instead it will be the consistency of thick cake batter. Cover with plastic wrap and let sit in a warm area for about 3-4 hours, or until mixture is doubled in size. You should be able to see bubbles in the dough.

While your dough is rising, use this time to chop up some herbs, or have a snack, or change the diaper of the baby you have under one arm. Oh wait, that's just me!

I used a combination of fresh rosemary (from my mother's garden) fresh basil (from my grandmother's garden) and fresh oregano (from a cutting I had on the windowsill). Dried herbs work great too, but I find fresh tastes better. Wash herbs and chop very finely with a sharp knife. 

Yummy Fresh Herbs!

Once the dough has risen, prepare a baking dish by coating it lightly with non-stick cooking spray. Sprinkle with cornmeal and pour dough into the bottom of the dish. Don't handle it too much - the less you handle it, the more fabulous bubbles will be in your ciabatta. Sprinkle herbs on top of the dough, and shake some ground pepper and liberal amounts of garlic powder on top as well. Let dough sit in baking dish for an additional half an hour. Meanwhile, heat oven to 400 F. Because this dough is so small, I cooked it in a toaster oven.

Raw dough, sprinkled with herbs.

Pop into the oven for about 25 minutes, or until the dough is golden brown and risen. Let sit in baking dish for at least ten minutes undisturbed, or else bread will collapse. I'm serious, no matter how delicious it looks, don't touch!

Fresh baked ciabatta bread!

Slices of fresh ciabatta bread

Once the ten minutes are up, remove bread from dish and either let cool for later, or (preferably) slice and eat. I buttered a couple slices for S and I to enjoy. Penelope looked like she wanted some too, but I didn't feel like sharing (also she doesn't have any teeth).

Cheers!

Edit: Also, I've submitted this post to Yeastspotting.