easy recipes

This Margherita pizza recipe is adapted from Tyler Florence from the show Tyler’s Ultimate at Food Network. Since quarantine, all I’ve been doing is cooking. Every single day ! I could not believe it myself either. I’ve never cooked so much in my entire until we were quarantined. No carry outs, yet. I’m not sure if I feel proud or feel sorry for myself hahaha because to be honest, your girl gets tired too. This quarantine period put me in a roller coaster of emotions. But anyway, I don’t want to sway the topic. I’ll talk about that sometime. Let’s stick with the recipe for now, because I have so much thoughts and emotions to share that it deserves it’s own special space.

So let’s get to it ! To be honest, I was not a fan of vegan pizza. I want meat on my pizza, until I tried Margherita pizza in a restaurant somewhere in one of those small beach towns here in Michigan. Since then, when we go to a restaurant or do carry outs, we order Margherita pizza. There are different versions and the taste vary from each other. So it’s all about the basic ingredients and the style of cooking. If you don’t know, Margherita pizza is the original style of pizza in Italy. If you want to go back in time, the most authentic way to bake a pizza is in a brick oven. A lot of restaurants even nowadays still do that and if you are lucky to have one in your home, then lucky you! But right now, let’s make it in our electric kitchen oven.

As I shared to you the recipe, let me give you some tips. These are very important for you to know before you proceed.

Tips:

1. As you preheat the oven 450 degrees F. Put the pan in the oven. When you are ready to assemble your pizza, take the pan out, drizzle the pan with olive oil and put your dough on the pan. Why do we need to do this? So you will have a crispy crust.
2. When you assemble the dough on the pan, you don’t need a rolling pin. You put your dough on the pan and just try to spread it out until it covers almost the entire area of the pan.
3. Ingredients are super important. I highly recommend your herbs to be fresh but if it’s not available, you can use dry herbs.
4. Fresh tomatoes are the best, but if not available you can use canned tomatoes. Recommended: San Marzano
5. If you don’t have a ball fresh buffalo mozarella, you can use shredded mozarella in packs. The good ones are from Costco and Gordon’s. We get our mozarellas there in bulk but a ball fresh buffalo is the original and authentic way for Margherita pizza. We are using shredded pizza here to make it kid friendly. Yes, my kids are quite picky. I’m easing them, including my husband to try new things.

I wish I could have done a video but hopefully next time. I will leave a link on how Tyler Florence made it though. It’s very helpful and super easy. VIDEO HERE

I know you would say, ” It’s so time consuming April! “. But homemade is always good for you. To be honest, I get tired of cooking everyday but it’s very rewarding afterwards, especially when it comes out exactly the way you want it. Also due to the fact, that you know what ingredients you put in, the food preparation and all that. Most of all, my family’s happy faces, the memories you create, you can’t beat that.

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Margherita Pizza

Adapted from Tyler Florence

Ingredients

• 2 tbsp extra-virgin olive oil, plus extra to grease pan
• 4 garlic cloves, minced or thinly sliced
• 1 tbsp fresh thyme
• 1 tbsp fresh oregano leaves
• 1 can whole peeled tomatoes drained and hand crushed
• Kosher salt and freshly ground pepper
• 1 8 ounce ball fresh buffalo mozzarella, water drained
• 1/2 bunch fresh basil leaves

For the Pizza Dough

• 3/4 cup hot water 110-115 degrees F
• 1 tsp active dry yeast
• 2 tsp sugar
• 2 cups flour plus more for rolling out the bread
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 2 tbsp olive oil

Instructions

For the Pizza Sauce and Assembling the Pizza

1. Preheat oven to 450 degrees F. Put a sheet pan in the oven.

2. Begin by making the tomato sauce. In a large saute pan over medium heat, add 2 tbsp olive oil, the minced garlic, thyme and oregano. Cook until just fragrant then add the crushed tomatoes and season with salt and pepper, to taste.

   Lower the heat and simmer for 7 to 8 minutes to reduce and concentrate the flavor. Shut off the heat and set aside.

3. Take the preheated pan out of the oven and drizzle some olive oil over the entire surface. Stretch the pizza dough out do it is just bigger than the pan, then lay it inside the pan, so the dough comes up the sides to form a crust on the rim. Smear with tomato sauce then tear up the mozzarella and scatter it evenly over the top of the pie. Tear the basil leaves, spread them over the top and drizzle with a little more olive oil. Give it a final season with salt and pepper, to taste, then bake in the hot oven until golden and bubbly about 15 minutes.

For the Fresh Pizza Dough

1. Dissolve the yeast and sugar in the hot water and let it stand until the yeast starts to foam, about 5 minutes.

2. In a large bowl of a standing mixer, combine the flour and salt. Mix with the dough hook attachment.

3. Add the oil and then the yeast mixture, and start mixing on low speed. Increase the speed and mix until a smooth and elastic dough forms. Knead for at least 5 more minutes.

4. Cover the bowl with a plastic wrap and set aside in a warm place to rise while you are prepping the rest of the ingredients.

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