Wednesday, August 21, 2013

Making Margherita Pizza and Saturday Night Adventures.


Last Saturday night we decided to make a homemade pizza, since the last pizza that we had, a large veggie pizza, was $26 and change, which included tax and delivery. We did buy the pizza dough, and fresh mozzarella cheese at Trader Joe's for our homemade Margherita pizza.  The fresh, ripe tomatoes were compliments of our Neighbor Pauli's Garden and our herb pots yielded the fresh Basil and Oregano.  Little did we know the kind of evening we were going to have.


First off, we had to stretch the pizza dough into a circle on our Pizza pan.   Our Pizza crust looked like an amoeba, by the time that we were done.  Then, our pizza pan has little holes for easier browning, which was the first of several fiascoes that night. Scott had spread a "little" olive oil on the pan before stretching the dough. then we continued to add the sliced tomatoes, and sliced Mozzarella cheese, herbs and drizzled more olive oil over the pizza, as the recipe instructed.  Does this sound like  a recipe for disaster?  We'll see.

We put our lovely looking pizza in the oven.  As the pizza cooked, the overabundance of oil started dripping on the floor of the oven.  Then, the the oil started to burn and smoke. Billowing smoke from the oven, filled the kitchen.  We opened all of the doors and windows, and turned on the ceiling fans, but to no avail our smoke alarm went off.  Now, you would say that was a good thing, but our smoke alarm is wired in and goes directly to the Fire Dept.  I called the alarm company ASAP, to say that it was only smoke, and the woman said, that it might be too late to stop the Fire Dept. from coming.  Yep, you guessed it.  The Fire Dept. had gotten the message to cancel, but sent one truck to see, if we were suffering from smoke inhalation.  Scott and I were so embarrassed to tell him that it was burnt oil on the oven floor.  The fireman said not to worry, that burnt food happens all of the time.


  No, I didn't get a picture of the fireman or my burnt oven floor.  Miraculously, the pizza didn't burn, and we're never ever making pizza on the that pan again. We ended up eating our pizza, which was OK, and drank the whole bottle of wine.  All I can say is thank goodness for self cleaning ovens.  I was afraid I would have to get a new stove.  Now I have a sparkling clean oven again. Never a dull moment in our house, especially on a quiet Saturday night. Have you ever had the Fire Dept. come to your house, due to a cooking disaster?

Margherita Pizza Pre-heat oven to 375 degrees Adapted from Food Network

Ingredients:  You will need 1 lb of pizza dough per pizza  We bought pre-made pizza dough from Trader Joe's. or use your favorite pizza dough recipe.

1 c. fresh, crushed tomatoes San Marzano, Cherry, or Roma tomatoes
1 Tbsp. Fresh  Oregano or 1 tsp dried  and Oregano
Salt and pepper to taste
Olive oil
3/4 lb. Fresh Mozzarella, diced

Stretch pizza dough into a 12" circle. Top each with 1 cup crushed  fresh tomatoes, dried oregano, salt, pepper and olive oil***; bake until golden. Sprinkle with1/2 pound diced mozzarella, torn basil and salt. Bake until the cheese melts, then drizzle with olive oil.

Use olive oil sparingly, being careful that the oil doesn't drip on your oven, and start to smoke, especially if you have a smoke detector wired to the fire dept.



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l inked up my recipe to Brandie@The Country Cook's Weekend Potluck #81
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11 comments:

  1. Oh, you poor thing! It's bad enough to have an oven disaster, but then to have to share it with a dispatcher and fire person. Ugh! I would never guess from looking at that gorgeous pizza that it caused so much trouble. :)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Christiane,
      The oven got the worst of it but the pizza was still edible, remarkably. I'll never use that pizza pan again.

      Delete
  2. Replies
    1. Thanks, Kayle! The oven got the worst of it, but is now sparkling clean, thanks to a self cleaning oven, worth every penny.

      Delete
  3. What a crazy evening! At least you had a bottle of wine to go with your pizza, sounds like you needed it. The pizza looks delicious :)

    Happy Blogging!
    Happy Valley Chow

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Eric,
      The wine definitely helped:) Despite problems, the pizza turned out well.

      Delete
  4. I'm laughing but not at you. I hate nights like that. Poor thing, it came out great despite all the drama. The wine probably helped, huh. I bake pizzas on a regular sheet pan. Happy Hump Day my friend.
    -Gina-

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Gina,
      We will be baking pizzas on the sheet pan from now on. Remarkably, the pizza didn't burn, and the wine definitely helped. Happy Hump Day to you, too.

      Delete
  5. Oh my gosh what an insane evening - it is often the worst when everything just happens!
    But just from this pizza, it looks worth the trouble - yum! :D

    Cheers
    CCU

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Uru,
      The evening was pretty crazy, but turned out well with pizza that wasn't burnt, and wine.

      Delete
  6. The pizza looks yummy! Love Margherita pizzas! Good tip though, I have never used our pizza stone for pizza (we did make cookies with it once) but now I will rethink that. Also be careful of other recipes that say the same thing I once followed a butternut squash recipe that said to lay it on a pan to bake & drizzle with olive oil. Used a baking sheet...with no sides! Thankfully I realized, quickly a disaster was in the making, before our house went up in smoke, but I'm sure to use my baking dishes, with sides, when roasting squash.

    ReplyDelete

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