margherita pizza - food processor / skillet broiler method

After coming home one day and seeing the pizza stone I had just bought at Goodwill in four pieces, I knew that making real pizza at home would be impossible.

My mom took me to Kroger on the second day of Spring Break. She came up to me at the deli counter while I was ordering and showed me a fresh mozzarella on sale for $2. It was a gift from the gods. My recent success at creating bread with the no-knead dough recipe (http://www.nytimes.com/2006/11/08/dining/081mrex.html) gave me confidence. I could do it. Even though I had no experience actually kneading dough. Thankfully, with the help of SeriousEats, I once again skipped the laborious process of kneading.

Apparently a food processor can give you similar (maybe better?) results compared to a mixer. The Pizza Lab’s New York Style Pizza at Home recipe (http://slice.seriouseats.com/archives/2010/10/the-pizza-lab-how-to-make-great-new-york-style-pizza.html) made me skeptical, but being the lazy ‘lil turd I am I had to do it.

The recipe calls for:

• 22 1/2 ounces (about 4 1/2 cups) bread flour, plusmore for dusting
• 1 1/2 tablespoons sugar
• .35 ounces kosher salt (about 3 teaspoons)
• 2 teaspoons instant yeast
• 3 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
• 15 ounces lukewarm water

and is as easy as combining all of it in a food processor and blending until the dough rises above the blade and turns into a manageable mess. After the obligatory rising processes, a beautiful, succulent, moist, delicious, food porn worthy dough is now in your hands.

But what are you supposed to do with the dough when your pizza stone ~mysteriously~ breaks? Use this: The Pizza Lab’s Skillet Broiler Method (http://slice.seriouseats.com/archives/2010/09/how-to-make-great-neapolitan-pizza-at-home.html).

Apparently by cooking the pizza two separate ways (over a burner and underneath a broiler),better results than I’ve ever seen at a home kitchen are possible. If you’re like me and your oven doesn’t go above 550 degrees, then this is the perfect method for you. The broiler gives off more heat than your oven could ever wish to do and the burner gives off more heat on the bottom of your crust than any other way. It’s like having your pizza at the top of the oven and the bottom, at the same time, with the broiler and the oven on at the same time, too.

I never thought I’d actually get delicious, black, puffy bubbles on my pizza at home. I love pizza.

Here are my results. I made a traditional margherita pizza with crushed san marzano tomatoes as my base and fresh mozzarella on top.

*Also, a ‘lil tip, after cooking your pizza on the burner, THEN put the basil on top and put it under the broiler for a bit. My first pizza I put the basil on at the beginning and ended up with ‘lil black crisps on top.