A Diet You Can Stick To

I wonder if it's possible to get tired of pizza.

Probably not, at least not when you mix it up like I have been lately. Bacon, black mission figs, caramelized onions and gorgonzola is a good combo but it's far from eating the same thing as a pie made with prosciutto, black olives, Alfredo sauce and mozzarella. Or a pepperoni. And I'm just starting to warm up.



I'm experimenting with dough recipes. The most recent I mixed up after cooking three pizzas and a baguette last night:

Basic Pizza Dough
3 cups bread flour
1-3/4 cups warm water
1 tbsp. yeast proofed in said water
3 tbsp. olive oil
1/4 tsp. sugar in the water
2 tbsp. wheat gluten
Mix for a minute on low, then beat the hell out of it for eight minutes. Let rise in a covered bowl for three hours, punch down and bag it. Stick it in the fridge. At midnight, when you notice it's expaded beyond the bag, punch it back down and make a note to try 1/8 tsp. sugar next time.



I've also learned that corn meal makes a better anti-stick on the peel than flour. I tend to flour the dough while I'm stretching and doing a bad job of 'tossing' it. I even broke down and rolled some with a pin this time, though I've successfully made pizzas that were strictly stretched by hand.



At 550ºF, the oven smokes with the shed corn meal, spectacularly by the time you've done three pizzas and a loaf of bread.




I've got further plans to mix it up, including some Feta (which I'll probably combine with some other Mediterranean ingredients). And I'm trying to think out how I'd make my Goan Curry into a pizza. Make a concentrated version of the soupy part as a sauce and top with shrimp and whatnot. But what cheese to use on that one?

By the way, this might seem obvious to you but I had to learn the hard way: don't wear black when you make pizza.



I think I'll author a diet book: Pizza Diet. You might not lose any weight, I haven't anyway, but at least you won't fall off the wagon so easily.