A Soft & Deliciously Simple Pizza

Italy should have been #103 in my quest to cook every country on Earth, but I fell out of alphabetical order around, oh, #3. So today it's #28.

I was dying – dying – to fix the recipe I found for Italian Parmesan Rice Bombs. I've never eaten a bomb. But the recipe called for 2 young pigeons, which I doubt my supermarket carries, and, besides, I'm a vegetarian.

So I made a pizza. My first pizza.

The dough is the best part: light and soft and about a gazillion times better than any store-bought pizza I've ever had the misfortune to eat. It's from Deborah Madison's Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone. It's a simple, light pizza that is equally tasty hot or cold.


A Soft & Simple Pizza

Dough
1/4 cup warm water
1 tsp yeast
1 Tbsp extra virgin olive oil
1/2 cup water
3/4 tsp salt
1/2 cup whole wheat flour
1 1/2 cup all-purpose flour

Mix the 1/2 cup water with the yeast and set aside to proof for 10 minutes (until foamy – wake those yeast up and get them moving). Add the oil, 1/2 cup water, salt, and flours. Turn it out onto a counter and knead until it's smooth. It should be a little sticky for a crisp crust. Allow to rise in an oiled, covered bowl for about an hour.

Tomato Sauce
1 Tbsp olive oil
1 garlic clove, thinly sliced
1 cup crushed tomatoes
1 tsp basil

Heat everything until the juices have evaporated and the sauce is thick enough to shape with a spoon.

Pizza
4 ounces mozzarella

Preheat oven to 500.

Spread, stretch, and roll the dough out into a 10-inch circle, or a rectangle, as I did. Set on floured pizza wheel or cookie sheet. Let it rest for about 10 minutes. Spread the tomato sauce over it, sprinkle it with mozzarella, and bake about 7 minutes, until it is lightly browned.