A Trio of Pizzas

Good Evening, readers! Tonight's featured recipe is for homemade pizza. After focusing on my dad, who first inspired me in the kitchen, I thought it fitting to shift this entry to my newest kitchen guru - Gordon Ramsay.

If you've only seen him on American shows, you're missing out. I love a shouty episode of Hell's Kitchen as much as the next person, but his real charisma comes out on the British series he's done. It's to the point now that if he's in it, I watch it. Ten million points to the first person who comments that they've seen the romantic comedy he's in!

Alright, so tonight was pizza. I was supposed to make this over the weekend, but after doing the oatmeal bread, plus sweet potato donuts for work, I could not fathom making yet another yeasty bread item. So it was put off until tonight. But this evening's efforts will feed me for the rest of the week!

The base of this recipe comes from Gordon's book, Gordon Makes It Easy: 100 Sophisticated But Simple Recipes. It's in the "Just for Kids" section, which makes it awesome. Here's the ingredients he starts with:
Tomato and Mozzarella Pizza (serves 4-8)
Dough:
2 tsp active dry yeast (I used one packet; I always like to overestimate on yeast.)
1 cup lukewarm water (remember the rule: too hot and it will kill your yeast; warm is good.)
4 1/4 cups bread flour (I ran out just before hitting this, so I used part self-rising to make up the difference.)
1 tbsp olive oil

There is also a recipe for tomato sauce, but I only used olive oil as a sauce. Buy the book if you want to try out what I'm sure is a mouth-watering pizza tomato sauce! I'm going to paraphrase the directions, because I went off them just a bit here and there. Recipes are usually sort of a jumping off point for me.

1. Mix the yeast and water together and let sit to activate. Pour the flour into a big bowl. Now, the first time I made this, I felt the dough was a bit bland. So at this point I threw in some garlic powder, dried rosemary, dried basil, and salt. Then I tasted it and tweaked the salt until it didn't taste only like flour. Throw in whatever herbs or special dried flavors you feel like, but make sure they're not too chunky. Save those items for the toppings! 
2. Add the olive oil to the flour and then add in the yeast/water mixture. Stir with a wooden spoon until well-combined and pulling away from the sides of the bowl. I had to get my hands in there for most of this, but it turned out good. Add a bit more water - a little at a time - if the dough isn't pulling together for you. 
3. Once you can get the dough into a ball, let it sit in a warm place until it has doubled in size. I spent this time watching an episode and a half of Murder, She Wrote but that's just me. 
Here's how my dough looked once it doubled: 

Doesn't look like much, but that's a pretty big bowl. As long as it look different and slightly puffy, you should be good. 
4. Slice up any vegetables, meats, or cheeses that you want to include. I had a bunch of stuff from my trip to the Farmer's Market on Sunday. I used green and red pepper, an heirloom tomato, black beans (canned), Italian salami, ciliegine mozzarella balls, and goat cheese. But use whatever strikes you as yummy! 
5. Now, split the dough into multiple smaller rolls. Mine made three medium-ish pizzas. Maybe not medium like in a restaurant, but bigger than a personal size. Roll out each section of dough as thin as you like. Don't make it too thick because it will rise a bit more when cooking. 
6. Preheat the oven to 425 degrees Fahrenheit. Put the dough onto a heavy baking sheet or an oven-safe cast-iron skillet. Brush the surface of your dough with olive oil and then load on the toppings! 
7.  Bake for about 10 minutes. Mine took 12-15, but start watching it around 10 minutes. When it's golden brown and your cheese is melted, it's done. Let it cool a minute or two and then slice those babies up! 
Here's my trio: 

I've only tried the top one so far, and it was amazing! The additions I made to the crust this time really made a difference. The pepper gave it a little bite. Gordon talks about letting the kids decorate their own pizza, so this is another great option if you've got little helpers! Grab his book. Go by my version. Get cookin'! And then tell me all about it!