pizza – Indian Culinary Center, NYC

My cheat recipe of pizza got the most views yesterday and I was thrilled.

Thought I’d keep the trend going and share my recipe with you to make your own dough.

Sometimes I call this pizza and at other times focaccia – I guess it depends on the toppings I use. You call it what you like – I don’t mind 🙂

In 1/2 cup tepid water – about 140 degrees, add two packets of yeast along with a tsp. of sugar. Let sit.

Meanwhile put 3 cups of flour in a mixing bowl of a food processor – you can do this by hand. It is very satisfying as well as helping you take out some of your aggression.

After about 5 minutes or so the yeast should’ve bubbled up which tell you that it is alive.

I like to add some spices to my focaccia dough.

Here I have nigella seeds, fennel seeds, crushed red pepper and salt of course.

Add the water and yeast along with a 1/4 cup of olive oil.

Process the flour and liquid mixture till it starts to pull away from the sides.

You will have to adjust the liquid.

Don’t be afraid of this recipe – just add flour or liquid to achieve a dough that is not sticky to the touch.

Process on high to develop gluten and then put in a bowl with some oil and cover with a clean cloth.

Put in a warm over or a warm spot in your kitchen.

Depending on the temperature of the day your dough should start to rise within a couple of hours.

Punch it down and cover again. I like to do this a few times.

If you are not ready to cook it that day – cover and put in refrigerator overnight and bring to room temperature before cooking.

When ready to cook – heat the oven to 450 degrees.

Pour the dough on a cookie sheet and spread out as much as possible.

Let it rest for about 10 minutes and top as you please – here I have whole baby tomatoes and sprinkle with some salt and pepper. Drizzle some olive oil if you like and cook for 20 minutes or until the dough feels hollows when you tap it.

I like to put it under the broiler for a couple of minutes to get the charred color.

The second picture is one I made topped with olives, sundried tomatoes and Parmesan cheese.

The toppings are your choice – cooked onions, peppers, sausage, anchovies – anything really.

I hope you try this recipe and again, call it what you please – just cook it and enjoy.

Until I cook again!

I love pizza.

Luckily, living in New York I have access to really good pizza at all hours of the day.

But sometimes I want to make my own pizza with my own toppings and mostly no tomato sauce.

I will teach you a very easy way to make pizza at home with a little cheating.

I make my own dough often and I will share the recipe one of these days. More often though, I buy pizza dough from my local pizzeria. I get a nice amount for $5/-

That makes a medium size pizza.

I encourage you to buy a pizza stone – it makes a whole lot of difference mimicking the high heat of the pizza oven.

I heat the stone at 450 degrees.

Then I spread the dough on the hot stone. You don’t have to put any oil – the pizza will release easily. Sometimes I do sprinkle some corn meal – it gives a lovely crunch to the crust.

Drizzle some olive oil and kosher or coarse salt. Then the sky is the limit. I like to top my pie with roasted peppers, onions, sausage or pepperoni. Most importantly, whatever you put on the pizza – add some freshly grated parmesan cheese.

Mozzarella of course if always a great thing.

Cook for about 10 minutes in the 450 degrees oven and you have piping hot pizza.

Once you have the dough, you can always make calzones, individual pizzas or focaccia which is thicker and chewier.

I hope you try this – you will love it.

Until I eat again!