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.



Follow my blog with Bloglovin

l inked up my recipe to Brandie@The Country Cook's Weekend Potluck #81
 Stop by and say Hi to Brandie!