Pizza For Two, And Two For Pizza

Pizza Day. I have only wanted to eat pizza lately because I am a pizza bum. I checked a few local menus, but for good-quality pie, their prices are more than I wanted to spend. My favorite local joint is going down the tubes, or so it appears to me based on my last visit there, and I am surly today anyhow so I baked my own damn pizza.

Flour, salt, water, yeast, a little olive oil makes the crust that I use. Mix it, knead it, raise it. Flatten it out with your hands. Good therapy.

I took a ride down to the 505 Market on Greene Street today for some local meat and veggers. I watched "Food, Inc." a few days ago, so I was pretty disgusted and bummed out by what I saw. I do not think I am willing to end my carnivorous ways, but I wanted to buy some meat that was local, grass-fed and clean. I bought a few tomatoes, a few button mushrooms, and then I stopped at HT for some store-made mozzarella that was pretty good.

I wanted to make a Margherita pizza and a carmelized onion and mushroom pizza. Both turned out okay. I pulled them from the oven before they could cook to the point of brownness that I like, but the wife will probably throw hers on the pizzazz machine when she gets home, and that will finish the pizzas.

For the Margherita, which is not the authentic Neopolitan version but a corruption of it, I used a bit of sauce that was simply canned crushed toms, a little olive oil, and salt. Apparently, a council in Naples has declared the exact specifications for this pizza to be considered authentic, but I do not have a wood-burning oven and a few other items. Spread the sauce in a fair amount, cover it with sliced tomatoes, a generous amount of mozzarella cheese, and top with basil. I used a lot of basil. The initial offering was cooking away to crispness atop the pie, so I added more. Pretty good, though I should have cooked the crust a little before adding the heavy and wet tomatoes.

I caramelized a large onion and a few cloves or garlic in olive oil and salt for my second pie. Just about when the onion was ready, I added my button mushrooms and sauted away. A little olive oil on the crust, then my mush and onion mix. I used some shredded provolone piccante and that fresh mozz as my cheeses, and it was good. Monday is Pizza Day. I am slightly less surly after having eaten my pizza, but ONLY slightly.