Fancy Pizza

TGIFFF.....Thank Goodness it's Finger Food Friday! Tonight, I decided to make home made pizza. But not just any pizza...FANCY pizza.! And since it's Friday, a full-bodied red was consumed during AND after production. My recipe for dough (which is awesome) makes about 3 thin crust12-14 inch shells, or 2 regular-crust shells. I have always had a knack for making dough, which likely is from watching my mom when I was younger. She would always make bread or home made pizza and I would watch her knead and roll, and when she wasn't looking, I would just eat the dough. About one month ago, we had a make-your-own pizza night and my daughter had a friend over. It made me smile to see the two of them rolling out their dough and picking at it too! Tonight's feature pizzas: spinach and feta; and wild mushroom drizzled with truffle oil. Are you salivating yet? We even ended up freezing one of the pizzas uncooked in the hopes we can serve it up as a funky appetizer tomorrow night just in case we have guests...you know who you are!

One thing about this type of appetizer is that you can be so creative with your toppings. I have done a fig jam-proscuitto-blue cheese and a friend of mine did one with kalmata olives-goat cheese-caramelized onions. To. Die. For. Seriously. So be creative, and its okay to cheat and buy the dough from your local Italian grocery store (like Lina's Italian Market!). They freeze so well uncooked which makes for a quick meal. And just to note, for these "fancy" pizzas, I don't typically use the traditional tomato sauce.

Dough:

1 1/4 cup warm water (not too hot, not too cold.....just right)

1 TBSP sugar

2 1/2 tsp active dry yeast

3 1 /4 cups flour (approximately)

1/4 - 1/2 cup olive oil (I think I use closer to 1/4 cup)

Mix together the water, sugar and yeast and let it sit for a few minutes. Then add the flour and the olive oil and slowly begin to mix it with your clean hands. Slowly knead into a nice big ball and knead for a few minutes. When its nice and round and smooth, cover the bowl with a clean damp cloth. Let it sit on your counter for about 45 min-1 hour. Now you can get your toppings ready!

Tonights toppings:

Spinach and feta: 1 box fresh spinach (I think the box said 142 grams). Cook spinach and press out the water as best you can. Then add 2 cloves of minced garlic, a diced tomato, crumbled feta (no, I did not measure), and some parmesan and mozzarella cheese.

Wild mushrooms sauteed in olive oil: I just took two packages of dried mushrooms and soaked them in water for about 20 minutes. Drain liquid and slice and fry them up in a bit of olive oil, and add 1/2 pack of sliced fresh mushrooms, salt and pepper to taste.

Once the dough is ready, punch it down with your fist and divide it into three equal-ish lumps. Roll out and place each on a greased pizza pan. Spread the mushroom mixture on one, and then sprinkle fresh parmesan and shredded mozza. Once cooked, it is heavenly to drizzle just a bit of truffle oil on top....decadent! The spinach mixture is ready to spread, and no more cheese is needed, as its already in the mixture.

Bake at 375 convection for....well...it was cooked after my second glass of red and half way through my third...15 minutes? 20 minutes? Either way, its delicious and was perfect for our Finger Food Friday! Cheers!