Last week I enjoyed my first slice of Domino’s Pizza since I was 15 and as a result wanted to crawl into a hole and die. Consequentially, this lit a fire in me, and set me on a mission to make my own orgasmic pizza and stomp all over the memory of fast food pizza. And so it has begun.
I spent the latter of that fateful week thinking of all kinds of delicious things I love to eat. I wanted my first pizza to be a success on all fronts, so I didn’t want to get too weird with it yet. (That was will absolutely come, as I have some crazy ideas on the back burner.)
My mind took a creative turn down memory lane to when I was in college and went through a similar obsession but with lasagna– something I’m hoping to recreate based on memory one day. I took a couple staples from my once classic recipe and added some new loves. What I decided on was the following:
Asparagus and Pancetta Pizza with Vodka Sauce, topped with Fontina Cheese.
Yes. I also just involuntarily shivered with excitement.
I’ll be honest. The Fontina Cheese was a last minute addition thanks to my roommate who got all kinds of excited about the melty cheese/ asparagus combination. And thank god that happened because it was an excellent addition.
So let’s start from the top. I returned to the pizza dough recipe that was once featured on foodpress.com. Thank you Janae Monir for bringing this into my life. This time around (see previous post where I completely blew it) I was very patient and careful. And with a pizza stone to boot, this pie was about to be unstoppable. Here is the link for this amazing pizza dough!
While the flour and yeast was having its 2 hour love affair, I prepared my toppings.
Vodka Sauce is fairly easy to prepare and is something I don’t make as often as I’d like. I could stuff my face with this every day and die happy. For this, I whipped up a quick red sauce using the following ingredients:
- 1 24 oz. can of crushed tomatoes
- 1/2 small can of tomato paste
- 1 small brown onion, chopped
- 1-2 cloves of garlic, crushed
- olive oil
- red wine
- sugar
- basil
- salt and pepper to taste
Throw some olive oil into a saucepan and add your garlic and onion. Let that saute for a couple minutes on medium heat, but be sure not to burn the garlic! Next add the crushed tomatoes and tomato paste and stir. Let that bubble up and add your red wine. There isn’t a real measurement here. I always just pour a little in to add some bitterness. I’d say around 1-2 Tb worth. I had a heavy hand as a youngster which didn’t yield good results. Then add some basil, fresh if you’ve got it, or the dried stuff if you don’t. After all, for this purpose your red sauce doesn’t have to be stellar because it’s going to be transformed into greatness. Toss some salt and pepper in there and add a generous pinch of sugar to start with. Stir. Let this bubble for a bit. It can get really messy, so put a lid on top. Normally I’d advise against this, as usually you want some liquid to evaporate, but this is going to be a quick sauce so it’s ok. Once the ingredients have had some time to marry, give it a taste. At this point you’ll be able to decipher if you need to add more sugar or salt. Make your adjustments and keep your sauce on a low heat until you get just the right combination. The art of the red sauce is a bit of a beast. You really need to keep tasting this to get it right.
For the Vodka Sauce you will need the following:
- a lot of crushed garlic- I used 4 cloves
- 1 c of cheap vodka- Thanks Randy
- 1/2 of heavy cream- I used half and half
- red sauce for color
Take a pan and warm some olive oil in there. Add your garlic and cook until it turns gold over a medium heat, but DO NOT burn. Next add your vodka and let it simmer until the fumes die down, no more than 10 minutes. Add your cream and let that boil before turning down to a simmer. Then spoon in your red sauce until you achieve the desired shade of pink. See! So easy!
For the asparagus, I just used leftover grilled asparagus I had made a couple nights earlier. If I could get a redo on, I’d definitely blanche these babies and season with a touch of salt and pepper.
I bought the circular cuts of Pancetta and no further prep was needed for those. Although, I do remember seeing a chopped version that may have served this purpose better.
Then I cubed my Fontina Cheese and tried desperately to not eat it while I waited.
I preheated my oven for as high as it would go. 475 degrees.
After my dough was done rising and getting kneaded and rising again, I stretched this mary out. I had a bit of a hard time this go around and almost ripped her here and there, but finally got a decent layout going. At this point my camera had just revived so I don’t have as many pictures as I’d like.
Gotta have the gratuitous cheese shot.
I dressed this lady up with all my goodies and popped her in the oven. I was very careful this time to not overcook my pizza, and checked after 10 minutes. Things were looking good, but I left her in for another 5 before taking her out.
Side note. I do not have one of those large wooden spatulas that one usually receives with a pizza stone, in order to remove large pizzas from said stone. Instead, I received a pizza cutter which I think is a poor substitute. So I had this double small spatula arrangement going that was failing me as the crust had stuck to the stone. So after a lot of grunting and close attempts at burning my hands, I just took the whole stone out and proceeded to pry the pizza off of it. There were barely any casualties so I’m still marking it with success.
I really wanted to take one of those awesome pictures where you have the spatula under the slice as you raise it up over the whole pie, but it's really hard to do on your own. And I'm far too embarrassed to ask someone to take a picture of me holding food.
As far as taste goes, I think this is a winner. The combination of flavors was excellent and the vodka sauce was a really great touch. The dough came out perfect. It was soft and chewy in the middle, yet just the right amount of crisp on the edges. I was very happy with this and can feel myself jumping into the pizza spiral of carb doom.
Roaring Tiger 