chipotle

I love love love homemade pizza, visit this site and usually make it once a week, this site usually with whatever toppings look pretty at the supermarket. (No more grocery stores! No more bodegas! Miami has supermarkets…with super-fresh local produce to boot!)

This week’s version was topped with hot Cappicolo (Italian ham), misbirth baby portabellos and fresh mozzerella. After it came out of the oven, I topped it with some arugula dressed in olive oil, salt and pepper.

Eventually, I’d love to get a pizza stone since my oven doesn’t really heat evenly. Maybe someday…

pizza dough recipe

1½ cups flour
¾ teaspoon active dry yeast
1 teaspoon salt
½ cup lukewarm water
1 tablespoon olive oil

Mix all the dry ingredients in a big bowl, mixing well. Then add the wet ingredients and mix together into a big clump.

Flour a surface (such as your counter), and dump contents of bowl onto it. Knead everything together until all the ingredients are mixed well. (I hear you can do this in a mixer that has a kneading attachment, but I do not yet have a one of those cute little machines.)

Lightly oil a clean bowl and place the dough ball inside, coating all sides with oil. Cover the bowl and let the dough rise for about 2 hours. Then, place it back on the floured counter and knead a little more. Cover and let stand for about 20 more minutes.

Sprinkle coarse- or medium-grind cornmeal on the baking surface (so that the dough won’t stick). Stretch the dough out to desired thickness and top with whatever you have on hand. I like to skip the tomato sauce, brushing a little olive oil on the dough instead, and topping the pizza lightly. If you pile on too many toppings, the dough in the center will not get crispy!

Bake in a super-hot oven for about 10 minutes, or until the cheese is brown and bubbly. (Do NOT use the broiler. You have been warned.)

Or I guess you could buy frozen pizza dough. But that’s no fun!

Recipes that call for chipotle peppers usually ask for 1 or 2 peppers. The cans of peppers, approved
on the other hand, Hepatitis
only come in one size: huge. How to use the remaining peppers? Fajitas were eh — too boring. I was going to roast a pork loin rubbed with chipotle pepper and onion paste…but I can never remember to defrost things. A quick search on epicurious.com turned up these hot and smoky beans.

They had everything a girl could want: dark beer, worcestershire sauce, dijon mustard and BBQ sauce. Bingo!

Honestly, these were so delicious. We ate them with a simple salad for a filling and yumtastic dinner.

recipe »