It’s no secret I love pizza. I often crave pizza at least once a week usually on Fridays, but I can eat pizza any time throughout the week. Out of everything I make, pizza is probably the most versatile. Then again, it’s easy to make a case for anything you love with a passion. I like to eat pizza for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. My family knows how much I love pizza and have been getting me pizza gifts throughout the years. During the holidays last month, Yu and Audrey got me a pizza stone, pizza peel, and pizza cutter for Christmas. A couple Christmases ago, Yu got me a gummy pizza pie. If I’m visiting New York City, my dad preorders a large cheese pie from our local pizzeria as a welcome home gift. My family definitely knows the one key to my heart. Over the weekend, I was eager to put the pizza stone and pizza peel to use. New tools always give me an excuse to make some of my favorite foods. I ended up making a broccoli, bacon, and cherry tomatoes pizza mostly because I had those ingredients sitting in my fridge. The combination of the healthy, crunchy broccoli paired with the smoky, salty bacon and fresh, sweet cherry tomatoes made for the perfect pizza toppings. The foundation of a great pizza starts with the dough. I used my bread flour and all-purpose flour pizza dough recipe as a base for my pizza. Preparing the dough ahead of time saves you a lot of time when you are ready to whip up a pizza pie. I like to prepare my dough hours in advance if I’m craving pizza. If I want pizza for breakfast, I prepare my dough the evening before. If I want pizza for dinner, I prepare my dough the morning of. I try my hardest not to cheat, but sometimes when I want pizza at the moment, I end up tearing a piece of dough to use after only a couple hours of resting. Eating pizza always gives me the energy to complete my homework. Yes, I now have homework since I decided to go back to school for baking.
Broccoli, Bacon, and Cherry Tomatoes Pizza:
· 1 tablespoon olive oil, divided
· ¼ of a small can of whole tomatoes
· ¼ teaspoon Italian seasoning
· ¼ teaspoon kosher salt
· ¼ teaspoon freshly cracked black pepper
· 2 ounces Parmigiano Reggiano cheese, grated
· 3 ounces fresh mozzarella cheese, torn
· 6-8 cherry tomatoes, halved or quartered
· ¼ of a small broccoli crown, cut into florets
· 2-3 slices of thick cut bacon, diced and cooked until crispy
Directions:
1) Prepare the pizza dough the evening before. In a large bowl, combine the flours, yeast, salt, and sugar in a bowl. Stir to combine all ingredients. Add the water to the mixture. Add the teaspoon of olive oil. Knead the dough for 8-10 minutes on a lightly floured surface. Drizzle olive oil in the large bowl. Return the dough back to the large bowl. Place a sheet of plastic wrap over the large bowl. Let the dough rise undisturbed overnight.
2) In the morning, place a pizza stone in the oven and preheat oven to 500°F. Lightly flour a pizza peel. Divide the dough in half. Reshape both halves into two balls. Place one of the balls of dough on the pizza peel. Save the other ball of dough to use later. Using both hands, stretch the dough on the pizza peel. Pour the tablespoon of olive oil over the dough. Keep stretching the dough with both hands until you form a circle. Leave the edges of the circle slightly raised for the pizza crust.
3) Hand crush about ¼ of a small can of whole tomatoes. Distribute the hand crushed tomatoes evenly over the pizza dough. Sprinkle the Italian seasoning, salt, and black pepper onto the pizza. Evenly distribute the Parmigiano Reggiano cheese over the pizza. Top the pizza with the fresh mozzarella, cherry tomatoes, broccoli, and bacon.
4) Gently guide the pizza from the pizza peel to the pizza stone. Place the pizza in the oven for 9-11 minutes. Remove the pizza from the oven once the crust is golden brown.
Takeaways: The hardest part about cooking the pizza is transporting the pizza from my pizza peel to my pizza stone. After three tries of using a spatula to gently nudge the pizza onto the pizza stone, I thought why not use a sheet of parchment paper between the pizza dough and pizza peel. This way, I can easily transport the pizza onto the pizza stone. If you don’t own a pizza peel and pizza stone, you can also use a sheet pan. Check out my BBQ turkey pizza and tomato, lemon, and black pepper pizza for the sheet pan method.