- You can still make a great pizza
without having to make the dough from scratch. Stop in your local bakery and ask them to
sell you a pound or two of bread dough. You can also buy frozen dough and pizza shells
from your local supermarket. Now you can't expect the same flavor as
pizza made from scratch, but the taste will be OK.
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- You can easily make a calzone
instead of a pizza. It is kind of an "inside out pizza". Or maybe you could
call it an "Italian Burrito"! Roll the dough out to a thin circle. Drizzle olive
oil on top of the dough near one edge. Place the toppings along the same end of the
dough. Fold the calzone and pinch the ends with a fork. You can use ricotta cheese, cooked
egg plant, fresh spinach or zucchini. Put in garlic, tomatoes, and spices. Place on a
pizza stone or cookie sheet dusted with corn meal. Slit the top of the calzone in
several places or stick with a fork to let the gases escape.
(Learn to make a Spinach and Ricotta
Calzone here.)
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- If your pizza sticks to the surface as you try to move it to your cookie sheet or
Pizza Stone !
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slide a knife underneath to loosen it. Remember next time to use enough corn meal or flour
underneath so it will slide. Another trick to loosen dough is to use a piece of dental
floss (wider than the pizza), and slide it under the dough.
The "dental floss trick" has saved many "sticky"
pizzas!
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- Assemble your pizza on your peel and make sure you have enough cornmeal underneath so it
won't stick. Liberally use cornmeal so your pizza will be easy to move. My friend Ron calls
cornmeal, the "ball bearings of pizza making".
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Fresh tomato is a great topping for pizza!
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- The trick to moving the pizza on a peel requires a quick jerky motion to get the pizza
to slide. As with anything else, practice, practice, practice. I have almost
ruined more than one pizza because a part of it stuck to the peel.
Make sure you use enough corn meal or flour so your pizza will slide!
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I think the most important pizza trick is to make sure
your oven is:
HOT, HOT, HOT!
Pre-heat up your oven for at least an hour.
The temperature should be 475- 500°!
This is essential if you are using a
Pizza Stone !
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A hot oven will cook your pizza quickly and
completely!
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Care and Cleaning your pizza stone:
I have had my pizza stone for over 15 years and have found it to be
practically maintenance free. With repeated use it has turned almost
black and continues to work well!
I always let my stone cool down before cleaning it. For every day
cleaning, I just wipe the stone, with a slightly damp cloth. This will
remove all of the corn meal or flour that has stuck to the stone. If I
have something baked on the stone, like cheese or a piece of dough, I
will gently scrape all the residue I can get off with a
spatula. If I am unable to get it clean, I will heat the stone in the oven for at 500 degrees for an hour or more, let the stone cool and then
try again to gently scrape the stone. Heating up the stone will burn off
anything that has stuck to it.
Then just wipe down with a cloth.
Do not immerse your stone in soapy water,
as the taste of the soap will get into the stone!!!
Take your pizza to the next level,
invest in a
Pizza Stone !
(Make sure your pizza stone
has a life-time guarantee
against defects!)
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For more information about a
Pizza Stone !
Go to our "Pizza Tools
Page!"
Putting a pizza on a pizza stone!
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