I guess I’ll start calling this Tasty Tuesday?  Let’s see if it sticks…

Last week my incredible parents were in town, and I was lucky enough to get four whole days to hang out with them and cruise around Los Angeles.  Needless to say, we ate some pretty amazing food.

But one of the things my mom wanted to do while she was out here visiting was to make mozzarella and then make a homemade pizza with it!

Guess she reads my blog 😉

So we poured a couple of glasses of wine, threw on some aprons, and got to work.

Oh yea, and we took a few sunset pictures and selfies first.  To document it all.

Then we really got to work…

But then my Dad woke up from his nap, so we poured a third glass of wine.Then this happened…Ok, then we really got serious. I’d say we did pretty well. Even with the rental house’s exploding burners and unreliable oven temperatures, it was a pizza that Brad would be proud of (he was at work during all of this debauchery).

Not that we saved him any…  Oops.

If you want to try your hand at homemade mozzarella, this is the recipe I use that I think works best.  And if you want to make a delicious arugula and tomato pizza like ours, follow the recipe below.  And maybe make two pizza doughs, because you’re going to want a second pizza.

Arugula and Tomato Pizza

Smitten Kitchen’s Pizza Dough
deb over at SK has quite a few pizza dough recipes.  There are even two more in her cookbook that I recently had to buy.  This is my favorite, probably because it has wine in it…
6 tablespoons warm water
2 tablespoons white wine
3/4 teaspoon active dry yeast
1/2 teaspoon honey
1 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 1/2 cups flour We use a combination of “00” flour (pizza dough flour, available at Whole Foods, 1 cup) and semolina flour (pasta dough flour, available at most grocery stores, 1/2 cup).

Whisk wine, water and yeast in a medium bowl until yeast has dissolved. Add honey, salt and olive oil and stir. Add flour work it with a spoon and your hands until it comes together as a dough. (she says here that you may need more water, but i have never needed to add any)  Sprinkle some flour on the counter and knead the dough for a minute or two.  Coat the bowl you just used with olive oil and let the dough rest in it for an hour or two, until it doubles in size.  Once ready, roll out on a floured surface until about 1/4 inch thin.

Toppings
1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
2 bulbs of garlic, finely chopped
1 teaspoon chili flakes
10-12 cherry tomatoes, quartered
2 balls homemade mozzarella, torn
sea salt & ground pepper
1 handful torn arugula
1 tablespoon balsamic reduction
shaved parmesan

Before getting all crazy with toppings, I like to par-bake my pizza dough a little to ensure it is nice and crispy.  With your oven preheated to 500 degrees (or a low broil setting), bake the dough on your preheated pizza stone (or cookie sheet) that has been sprinkled with a bit of cornmeal.  Let the dough cook for about 5 minutes, watching it carefully.  You want to just barely see a golden brown color forming.

Then on to the toppings.  Drizzle the dough with olive oil before adding garlic, chili flakes, cherry tomatoes, and mozzarella.  Season with s&p to taste.  Place pizza back on the preheated pizza stone.  Bake for about 10 minutes more, or until the cheese is melted and bubbly.  Top with torn basil and a drizzle of balsamic reduction.  I like to shave parmesan over the whole thing to finish it.

Mmmm… Enjoy!

xoxo