Cherry tomatoes, mozzarella, red onion, basil, balsamic vinegar. It was thick and messy enough to eat with a fork and knife, but damn it was delicious.
Recipe?
These are all very rough estimations so please bear with me. I just eyeballed it for the most part. Bear in mind, this is not a conventional pizza. It was originally going to be caprese salad and focaccia like I posted a while back, and I figured “why not combine them?”
Dough:
2/3 cup warm water
1 tbsp sugar
2 1/2 tsp active dry yeast
1 1/2 cup bread flour
2 tbsp vital wheat gluten flour
1 tsp salt
2 tbsp olive oilWhisk together the sugar, water, and yeast, and let sit for ten minutes or until the mixture doubles in volume. Stir in the remaining ingredients. Knead until smooth.
Crust seasoning:
2 tbsp olive oil
Garlic powder
Crushed red pepper
Dried rosemary
Dried parsley
Dried oregano
SaltCombine these ingredients and coat a 12-inch baking pan with the oil/seasoning mixture. Lightly press the dough into the pan, flip the dough over so that both sides of the crust are seasoned, and then finish pressing the dough into the pan so that it covers the bottom. Cover the pan and set it aside to rise for at least an hour.
Caprese salad:
1 cup cherry tomatoes, quartered
1/2 cup fresh basil, coarsely chopped
2 tbsp red onion, very finely diced
8 oz package of mozzarella pearlsCombine and stir.
Bake the dough at 450° F for approximately 5 minutes or until the outer crust has set. Remove from the oven and use a slotted spoon to add the caprese salad mixture on top of the crust. Take care to drain excess moisture as you go. Bake for approximately 15 more minutes or until the cheese starts to brown. Cut and serve with a drizzle of balsamic vinegar.
THANK YOU! 🫡
Um, the dough isn’t even cooked through, just barely crisped on the bottom? The tomatoes look barely warm, much less baked. Was this “cooked” in a toaster oven, FFS? 🤢
Maybe it’s not the best picture, but I assure you the tomatoes were piping hot and the crust was done all the way through. I par-baked it before adding the toppings to make sure of it.
Apologies, but you are mistaken. The crust is clearly under-baked, even if nearest the center of the pie, and your par-bake is the only thing that saved it from a ruinous mess. Being able to parse criticism is essential to improving, so let’s start there.
It’s wet like that because the excess moisture of the tomatoes and fresh mozzarella soaked in. I promise the crust was already adequately cooked before I added them. It came out soggy on top, much like the top layer of a bread bowl filled with soup would be, but I promise it didn’t taste doughy at all. It wasn’t perfect, and I’m already thinking of how I’ll squeeze out more of the excess moisture beforehand next time, but I would not eat raw dough.
Fair enough, and good on ya for looking for ways to improve! 🍻🤘🏼
Ninja edit: try salting the tomato halves for an hour or so beforehand. I ran a small pizza joint back in the day, and I’m happy to give some ideas if you need 'em.
That’s a really good idea, and I appreciate it! Thank you. I considered salting the tomatoes, but the whole thing was so spur-of-the-moment that I didn’t really have time to let them rest.
This was my first time trying the dish and there’s definitely room to improve.
Tomatoes, much like eggplant and mushrooms, are notoriously soggy pizza ingredients without some forethought, so that’s a good lesson learned. 🍻
