Pizza

The boy wasn't napping yesterday, so I had to cut my updating short so I could actually get some stuff done while he was contained in his room. It was nice to have a clean house for awhile--of course this morning when I got up it was a disaster already. I think elves or some other small mythical creatures must sneak into my house in the middle of the night after I've cleaned and make a mess again. Oh wait--or maybe it's the husband and my almost three year old son. That's probably a more likely scenario.

Anyway, we had pizza last night. it was yummy. I had bought proscuitto at Trader Joe's a couple weeks ago and remembered a pizza I'd made with proscuitto awhile ago, so I made one of those and a plain cheese. I think the baby is going through a growth spurt because he wanted to eat every hour yesterday evening, so the husband and I ended up eating dinner after the boy went to bed because there was no way the pizza was going to be ready in time for us to all eat together. Here are the recipes for the crust I made and the proscuitto pizza.

Quick Homemade Pizza Crust
1 package of active dry yeast
1 tsp sugar
1 cup warm water
2 1/2 cups of flour
2 Tablespoons of olive oil
1 teaspoon salt
1 Tablespoon of Italian Seasoning (optional)
1 Tablespoon of garlic powder (optional)

1. Preheat oven to 450. In a medium bowl, dissolve yeast and sugar in warm water. Let stand until creamy (about 10 minutes).
2. Stir in flour, salt, & olive oil. Beat until smooth. Let rest 5 minutes.
3. Turn dough out onto a lightly floured surface and pat or roll into a round. Transfer crust to a lightly greased pizza pan dusted with corn meal. Spread evenly with sauce. Cover with toppings in an even layer.
5. Bake 15-20 min. Let cool 5 minutes. Cut and serve!


Mushroom-Prosciutto Pizza
Cooking spray
8 ounces sliced cremini mushrooms
1/4 cup finely chopped shallots
1 garlic clove, minced
1 teaspoon chopped fresh thyme
2 teaspoons sherry vinegar
1 (10-ounce) Italian cheese-flavored thin pizza crust (such as Boboli)
2 ounces prosciutto, cut into thin strips
1/3 cup (about 1 1/2 ounces) shredded fontina cheese

Preheat oven to 450°.
Heat a 12-inch nonstick skillet over medium-high heat. Coat pan with cooking spray. Add mushrooms and shallots to pan; sauté 7 minutes or until mushrooms are tender. Add garlic and thyme; sauté 1 minute. Stir in vinegar; remove from heat.

Place crust on the bottom rack of oven. Bake at 450° for 4 minutes.

Place the crust on a baking sheet. Spread mushroom mixture evenly over crust; sprinkle evenly with prosciutto and fontina cheese. Bake at 450° for 6 minutes or until cheese melts.

*****

Obviously I changed up the proscuitto one since I made my own crust. I also didn't have sherry vinegar, so I used red wine vinegar instead. I also couldn't find fontina cheese at the store I was at, so I got some smoked gouda instead. I don't like all smoked cheese on a pizza, so I did a layer of that and then regular old mozzarella (well, not old mozzarella because that would be gross, but you know what I meant). And I baked for the time in the dough recipe.

This pizza is FANTASTIC. I had kind of forgotten about it until I bought the proscuitto, and I was so glad I remembered it. The flavors in it are so good together. This is one I need to make more often because the husband and I both really like it. We had planned on grilling them, but we're low on propane, so we just did them in the oven instead. There are a few pieces left which I can't wait to have for lunch!!