Mad skillet pizza skills

What you are about to witness is literally a slice of heaven and wonder, sent down from the Internet gods:

Bea Arthur + mountains + pizza: the triumvirate of pop culture and class. It's like the Internet Fairy knew I'd be blogging about pizza while planning for a cheesecake + Golden Girls party later this week.

You can find the original site and more tasteful photos at beaarthurmountainspizza. All glory and credit for the above images belong there! I hope B/M/P is the brain-fruit of one person; the images' composition and the original pizza toppings give me hope that this is true. Can you imagine it? A vision to share his (or her) favorite three things with the people of the Internet: Bea Authur, accomplished actress, home-made pizza, and mountains from around the world. Cyberspace is certainly amazing.

If the creative person behind B/M/P ever does accept outside images, I'd like to submit my home-made pizza. It's got a wheat crust stuffed with mozzarella cheese, sauteed winter greens, and a healthy splash of red sauce. If Ms. Arthur was still around, I hope this pizza could be classy enough for her.


Freeze-able wheat pizza crust*
makes two crusts

• 1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 cup whole-wheat flour
• 1 Tb. dry yeast
• 1 cup warm water (about 120 degrees)
• 2 Tb. olive oil
• 1 tsp. dried oregano (optional)
• 1/4 tsp. sea salt

Preheat your oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit and lightly coat the inside of a cast-iron skillet with olive oil. In a large bowl, combine half of each kind of flour, the yeast and salt; add the warm water and oil. Beat the dough with an electric mixer on low speed for 30 seconds, scraping the bowl sides.

Bump up the mixing speed to "high" for three minutes. Stir in as much of the remaining flour (and oregano) as you can with a wooden spoon. Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured surface. Knead in the remaining flour until you have a moderately stiff dough that is smooth and elastic--about 6 to 8 minutes total. Divide the dough in half.

If you're saving the dough for later, lightly grease the insides of two plastic sandwich bags, drop the dough in each one and freeze for up to two months. If not, cover each dough half with a tea towel and let it rest for 10 minutes.


Shallot, crimini, and chard pizza with wine marinara
serves 2

• 4-6 crimini, button, or brown mushrooms, sliced thinly
• 1/2 medium shallot, diced
• 2 large leaves of Swiss chard, sliced into thin ribbons
• 2 cloves garlic, diced
• 2 Tb. olive oil
• salt and pepper to taste
• 1 15-oz. can Italian diced tomatoes, partially drained
• 1/4 cup red wine
• 1/4 cup soft, shredded mozzarella cheese
• 3 strips of string cheese (or another 1/4 cup mozzarella)
  
• shredded Parmesan cheese to finish
• 4-5 leaves fresh basil, shredded
  

Let the dough rest while you heat a tablespoon of olive oil in a small saute pan. Pour the can of diced tomatoes, wine, and other tablespoon of olive oil into a blender; pulse until smooth. (A note for my prohibitionist friends: if you wish to omit the wine, substitute 1/4 cup of the reserved tomato juice!)

Pour the sauce into a small pan and bring to a simmer over medium heat. Let the sauce reduce and thicken while you prepare the vegetable topping. Cook the garlic and shallot over medium heat, stirring occasionally. After a few minutes, add the sliced mushrooms. When the garlic and shallots begin to soften and become translucent, toss in the sliced chard. Season lightly with salt and pepper. Remove the veggies from heat when the chard starts to wilt; cover the pan and set aside.

Uncover your pizza dough and give it a quick turn. Gently roll, toss, or pull the dough into a 12" circle that's 1/4" thick. Lay the dough, centered, into the prepared skillet. You should have almost an inch of dough trailing up sides of the skillet. Split each rope of string cheese in half; create a ring of cheese along the perimeter of the dough. Fold the dough's edge over the cheese and crimp the edges down with a fork. Prick the bottom of the dough with a fork (to avoid air bubbles.)

Remove the pizza sauce from heat. Spread half of the marinara on the pizza crust and save the other half for dipping sauce. Layer on the veggies, shredded mozzarella, a sprinkle of Parmesan and fresh basil. Bake the pizza for 20 - 30 minutes, or until the crust is puffed and golden brown.

If you like this recipe, you might enjoy:

The OMFG pizza
Barbecued peach pizza
*I can't get enough of this pizza crust recipe! There's hardly any kneading, the dough only has to rest for a few minutes, and the recipe makes enough dough for two pizzas. Make one now, freeze the other for later. When you're ready for pizza number two, just thaw the dough at room temperature for 30 minutes.