PIZZA NIGHT

"When the moon hits your eye like a big pizza pie, that's amore." Yes, I am a child of the '50s. Yes, my parents subjected me to the Lawrence Welk show and any other television program that featured Dean Martin or Frank Sinatra.  Also in the '50s and '60s there were groups of adults that gathered under the guise of competitive card playing (Bridge) to enjoy  each other's company and a few cocktails.  My parents were avid bridge players, members of at least three different bridge clubs. That meant on two Friday nights and one Saturday night each month, I was left home alone to fend for dinner myself. The decision of what was for dinner was simple, PIZZA.

I’ll never forget the look on my mother’s face the first time I ordered a large pizza for myself. She was sure I was inviting friends over as soon as they left for a party. But no, at age 11 I was able to put away a full 16 inch pie all by myself.

When I got to college, the local Shakey’s Pizza Parlor was foolish enough to offer all you can eat pizza on Fridays at lunch.  I would gather my fellow swim team members and we would gorge ourselves on any combination of pizza they dared to put out on the buffet. Eventually, they would try to run us off with jalapeño and pineapple pizza. After a semester of our killing their profits they pulled the all you can eat offer.

Once our girls were of an age they could eat solid foods, Friday became pizza night. It became a long time tradition we all looked forward to. We would pick up a six pack of beer on the way home and place our standard order to Mr. Gattis, a medium pepperoni with black olives and a Fiesta. The Fiesta satisfied the desire for pizza and Mexican food with a mix of spicy ground beef, cheddar and mozzarella cheese and of course jalapeños.  The beer was for the parents at the end of a long week.

No matter where we travelled, and we’ve been fortunate to travel the world, Friday night was pizza night. Recently, we recalled the many locations where we’ve enjoyed pizza. We came up with 17 countries where we’ve found pizza, impressive on many levels.

As the girls reached their teens, we realized their friends had caught on to the fact that if they showed up at the right time, they too could join in Pizza Night. That was when we decided to "kick it up a notch" as Emeril is known to say. We decided to make our own pizza. There is nothing difficult about pizza. And there is little more amusing than watching teenagers assemble their own pizza. We would provide the basics:

• crust (initially it was the prepared crust, Boboli, later it was homemade dough),
• sauce (usually Prego marinara, sometimes homemade)
• cheese (always mozzarella, and as we matured, fontina, Gouda, cheddar, Parmesan, feta, etc.)
• meat (always pepperoni , sometimes ground beef, Italian sausage, leftover chicken breast, etc.)
• veggies (sliced tomatoes, sun dried tomatoes, olives, asparagus, artichoke heart, red onion etc.)
• herbs (basil, oregano, red pepper flakes)

The teenage boys would load up a crust with everything that was offered. The girls were purists, a simple pepperoni and cheese.

The Friday night pizza party guaranteed we would have a chance to spend time with our girls and get to know all their friends really well. We’d learn all the goings on of the week from not only our girls perspective but from their friends point of view as well.  And I’m pretty sure we inspired more than one young man to go on to be pretty good cooks.

Here are the recipes for a couple of our favorite pies. Just remember, once you’ve got the crust your only limit is your own creativity.

Pizza dough

Don’t let thought of making your own dough hold you back from making your own pizza, the pre-prepared crusts from the grocery are a great place to start. But I will tell you, once you’ve made your own dough you will never look at pizza at home or away the same.

Ingredients:
1 package active dry yeast
1 cup warm water (105-115 degrees F)
½ teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons olive oil
2 ½- 3 ½ cups of all purpose flour
1 tablespoon corn meal

Dissolve yeast in warm water in a warmed bowl.  (warm the bowl by filling it with hot tap water, drain and add the cup of warm tap water) Add salt, olive oil, and 2 ½ cups of flour.  If you have a mixer with a dough hook, turn to Speed 2 and mix about 1 minute. If you don’t have a mixer, use a wooden spoon to mix until all the flour is moistened.

Continue mixing on Speed 2, add remaining flour, ½ cup at a time and mix about 2 minutes, or until dough clings to hook and cleans sides of bowl. If you are doing this manually, stir with the wooden spoon until the dough comes together then roll the dough out onto the counter and knead for about 5 minutes.

Place the dough in a greased bowl, turning to grease top. Cover. Let rise in a warm place, free from draft, about 1 hour, or until doubled in bulk. Punch dough down.

Brush a pizza pan with oil. Sprinkle with cornmeal.

Separate the dough into three equal sized balls. Sprinkle the kitchen counter with flour and use a rolling pin to shape a 14 inch round. You can make the crust as thin as you prefer. We like a thin crisp crust.

Form a bit of a collar around the outside as a barrier for the toppings.

Load up the pizza with your favorite toppings and bake at 450 degrees for 15 to 20 minutes.

Our favorite pies:

Pepperoni and black olive

Roll out your dough and place on pizza round or cookie sheet.  Brush the dough with a thin layer of olive oil

Add your favorite tomato sauce (Prego straight out of the jar is easiest)  I  use about 1 cup per pie

Add mozzarella cheese, I use about 2 cups per pie

Add Pepperoni slices, you can find packages of sliced Hormel pepperoni  at the store, I cover the pie completely

Sprinkle the pie with sliced black olives, straight out of the can. You can buy kalamata  olives in bulk and slice your own if you prefer.

Into the 450 oven for 15 to 20 minutes

Asparagus and Parmesan (makes two 14 inch pies)
Slice 1 ½ lbs. of asparagus into 1 ½ pieces and cook in boiling water about 2 minutes until tender. Drain and pat dry with paper towels.

In a frying pan melt two tablespoons of butter over medium heat and add ½ cup of diced red onion stirring frequently until softened about 5 minutes.  Add in the asparagus and toss frequently for about 2 minutes. Remove from heat and season with salt and pepper.

Roll out your dough and place on pizza round or cookie sheet.  Brush the dough with a thin layer of olive oil

Scatter about 1/3 cup of mozzarella over the crust, top with half the asparagus and red onion mixture.

Into the 450 oven for 10 to 15 minutes until the crust is crisp and the cheese is melted.

Remove from oven and shave parmesan cheese onto the pie.

If you want to add a little color add sun dried tomato before it goes into the oven.

Long live Pizza Night!