Pizza e Amore

For dinner, last night, we had...an array of savory pies. "When the moon hits you eye like a big pizza pie, That's amore!" We LOVE our pizza. And we especially love that we can create our own - with whatever toppings we want.

There was pizza smeared with pesto and fresh ricotta, topped with fresh arugula, and dotted with lemon slices; pesto and four kinds of shredded cheese; tomato sauce topped with pepperoni, salami, ham, and 4 kinds of cheese; tomato sauce, 4 kinds of cheese, ham, and fresh pineapple.

You can guess who ate what!

When I plan ahead - way ahead - my favorite pizza crust is Mark Bittman's "No Work Mostly Whole Wheat Pizza Dough." This is the easiest pizza dough I have ever made! But it does require lots of lead time. The recipe suggests letting the dough ferment for six to twelve hours and that the longer you let it ferment, the more complex the flavor. This recipe makes one pizza. I double it and triple it with no problems.

2 C white whole wheat flour

1 C white flour

1/2 t active dry yeast

1 t pink Himalaya salt

freshly ground pepper

2 T olive oil

1-1/2 C warm water

Mix everything together in a large bowl. The texture will be a wet, sticky dough. Cover and let ferment for as long as you can - between six and twelve hours. At the end of that, use the dough as you would use any pizza dough.

Preheat oven to 450 degrees. Once we press the dough out, we top it to our hearts' content. Bake for 15-17 minutes until the crust is crisped and golden.