Sunday, October 08, 2006

cl's fontina, olive, and tomato pizza

okay, so usually i'm pretty loyal to my whole-wheat pizza dough recipe. and usually i don't follow recipes to top my pizzas. however, i made an exception for this tempting treat right out of last month's Cooking Light. the dough was nice, even if there was a bit too much of it for just one pizza. the toppings were delish as well. to anyone who's scared of making your own dough or anything that you must "let rise," get over it. this is easy to do and much healthier than carry-out. i ask, who doesn't love pizza??

Cooking Light's Fontina, Olive, and Tomato Pizza with Basil Whole-Wheat Crust

Dough:
1 T. honey
1 pkg. active dry yeast
1 cup warm water (100-110 degrees)
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour (i used whole-wheat pastry flour)
1 cup whole-wheat flour
1/2 t. salt
1/8 t. fresh ground black pepper
1/4 cup chopped fresh basil
2 T. stone-ground yellow cornmeal



Toppings:
2 plum tomatoes, thinly sliced
1 cup (4 oz.) shredded fontina
3 T. chopped pitted kalamata olives
1/2 cup shredded part-skim mozzarella cheese
1 T. chopped pine nuts, coarsely chopped

To make dough, combine honey and yeast in warm water in a large bowl; let stand 5 minutes to proof. Add 1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour (or whole-wheat pastry flour), whole wheat flour, salt, and pepper to yeast mixture, stir until a soft dough forms.

Preheat oven to 500 degrees. Turn dough onto a floured surface, and knead until soft and elastic (about 6 minutes); add enough of the remaining flour, a little at a time, to keep dough from sticking to hands (it will feel slightly sticky). Knead in fresh basil until incorporated. Place dough in large oiled bowl, turning to coat. Cover and let rise in a warm place, free from drafts, 40 minutes or until doubled in size (i just sit it on the preheating stove and it usually does the trick).
Roll or stretch dough into a 12-inch circle on a floured surface. Place on rimless baking sheet or preheated pizza stone sprinkled with cornmeal.

Position one oven rack in the middle of the oven, another at the bottom. Slide pizza crust onto bottom rack. Bake 8 minutes.

Arrange tomato slices between two paper towels; let stand 5 minutes.

Sprinkle fontina over crust, leaving a small border. Arrange tomato slices and olives over fontina; sprinkle with mozzarella and top with pine nuts. Bake on middle rack an additional 8 minutes or until crust is golden brown and cheese melts.

1 comment:

eatme_delicious said...

that crust sounds pretty intriguing. i've never seen honey and cornmeal added to a pizza crust before.