Paying Attention Pays Off

I've been wanting to make good homemade pizza for years. It hasn't ever worked out well. Always too thick, too floppy, too stringy, too saucey. Too... blah.

But not tonight.

Tonight -- it happened. The Pizza Of My Dreams.

I've been paying attention to various pizza recipes and finally took all the bits and pieces of advice and put it all together.

And... ta da!!

So what did I do?

It was a many-stepped process. Very little effort, lots of planning ahead.

1. Make the dough, set to rise. I used this recipe from Smitten Kitchen. It worked perfectly. It was also very easy.

2. Then, I put two heads of garlic in a 450 degree oven to roast. About an hour. (actually, Terri did this part)

3. About 20 minutes before the dough was done rising, I turned the oven to broil and roasted some red peppers until the skin was blackened. Hint: use lots of oil. Oil is your friend.

4. Set the red peppers to cool. Take the garlic out now that it's all mushy and caramelized. Try very hard not to eat the garlic right now.

5. Finish the dough. Peel the peppers (again, use lots of oil! Makes peeling easier).

6. Assemble pizza. Roll dough very thin. Spoon a *very little* amount of sauce (I used jarred marinara) over the dough and spread it around. Sprinkle a *very little* amount of cheese over whole thing (I used the Quattro Formaggio blend from Trader Joes). Smoosh roasted garlic all over cheese. Sprinkle sliced red peppers over all.

7. Bake 8-10 minutes at 500 degrees, on a pizza stone. I put it on parchment with a sprinkling of cornmeal (on top of hot pizza stone. I don't know if it makes a difference if it's hot or not).

I know that's not really a recipe, but it's what I did and it was wonderful. The pizza was flavorful, crispy, crunchy, exactly how we like it.

Terri said (with her mouth full), "You don't have to try any more. This is it. This is the one."

I agree. This is it. This is the one. Yum.