Cast Iron Skillet Pizza

Have you ever heard of making pizza in a cast iron skillet?  We've owned a pizza stone for years, but when I saw this recipe I wanted to try it anyway.  I wanted to see how a skillet held up to a stone, and how storebought pizza dough compares to homemade.  Initially I waved away the idea of following the recipe by using storebought dough, but then I wondered what the quality of premade dough is like and if the convenience is worth it.

You can buy premade pizza dough in the refrigerated section of your supermarket's bakery.  When I saw whole wheat dough along with plain, I decided to add another level to my experiment.  Both pizzas are made the same way, with a quick sauce from scratch, fresh mozzarella, and crumbled Italian sausage.  When they were done, I topped them with parsley and shavings of Parmesan.

My verdicts:

1) Storebought dough is not as good as homemade dough, but it's not far off, and convenience counts for a lot.  Dough from scratch has to be made the night before, and there are resting periods in the refrigerator and at room temperature -- the storebought dough is ready to use when you bring it home.  The flavor of storebought is close to homemade, and the texture is a little doughier than homemade but not a deal-breaker.  If you want to go the from-scratch route anyway, I have only praise for Peter Reinhart's dough recipe.

2) I can't say the same for the whole wheat dough.  It rolled out nice and thin and didn't have the annoying elasticity of the plain dough, but I missed that elasticity and chew when eating the whole wheat crust.  It also had all the flavor of cardboard.

3) The cast iron skillet works great, producing a crust with a nicely crisped bottom.  If you have only a 10-inch skillet like me, a half-pound of pizza dough will work for this recipe or one pound will make two pizzas; scale down the other ingredients slightly as well.  If you're fighting kitchen clutter, you may opt for just your skillet instead of buying a pizza stone.

4) The pizza recipe is delicious as well.  I like the from-scratch sauce, and the small amount guarantees you won't have a soggy crust.  I like the use of fresh mozzarella, and even though it releases water after cooking the taste is superior.  I left out the arugula because I'm not a fan, but the parsley and Parmesan are nice.

If you've wanted to try making your own pizza, this is the easiest I've seen yet.

Eggplant Parmesan Sandwiches

The crispy, Panko-coated eggplant slices are so good, I could eat a whole plate of just those.  But it doesn't hurt to throw on some mozzarella, tomatoes, peppadews, and basil, and sandwich the whole thing in a ciabatta roll.  I was telling Joe just that when he asked, sort of absent-mindedly, "Is it crispy?" I bit into one, and the loud crunch got his attention.  Then he ended up pilfering some eggplant slices.

The recipe is a bit of a production, but I think you can easily streamline it without affecting the quality.  Skip the whole eggplant-salting thing for starters.  This is a graffiti eggplant, and it not only looks cool, but it's smaller than your typical Italian eggplant and not as bitter or full of seeds; hence, no need to salt and drain. One of these made about a quarter of the recipe, which was a perfect amount for us.  And I made those oven-roasted tomatoes (they're lost between layers in the photo, in case you were wondering), and they were good but I don't think worth the trouble again.  A spoon of marinara will do it for me next time.

You also don't need the whole inch of oil in the skillet, or the frying thermometer.  We're not making bone-in fried chicken here, so drop a crumb of panko in the oil -- if it doesn't do much, the oil's not hot enough, and if it starts to bubble up it's hot enough.  I cooked them by color rather than time, flipping and removing them when they were golden brown.  I hate spongy, al dente eggplant, but these were meltingly soft.  A bit of a production, yes, but also a very satisfying lunch.

This post was featured on Yummly's 10 Egg-cellent Eggplant Recipes.

I also wanted to thank Dawn at DJ's Sugar Shack for passing on to me the Versatile Blogger award and Anuja of Simple Baking for the Liebster Blog award.  Since I've received the Versatile Blogger award in the past, you don't need to read all about me again or the blogs I recommend.  But if you'd like to anyway, click here.  And definitely visit Dawn's and Anuja's great blogs!

Pane Bianco

I couldn't help but be impressed with the shape and layers on this bread the first time I saw it on King Arthur Flour's blog, Baking Banter.  The one on the bottom is mine, filled with sundried tomatoes, basil, and cheese.  The one on the top is better -- I'm annoyed to admit -- and made by Joe.  It's got the same ingredients in different proportions, plus ham and pepperoni.  They're like our pizzas -- I'll scoff when he goes for the meat lover's variety, and I'll choose tomato and basil or eggplant and caramelized onion.  I do love meat, just not a whole barnyard of it.  But this time it just made the bread so moist and flavorful.  Although this bread may look complicated, it's actually a cinch to pull off.  Honest!

Bottom row: The risen dough; after spreading the filling, the dough is rolled up and then snipped to reveal the layers; my loaf is shaped into a figure-8.  Top row: The dough was rolled out and spread with cheeses, sundried tomatoes, and basil; the baked loaf had layers of the filling, pepperoni and ham, and bread.   

I'm not a fan of garlic powder, so we spread half a head of mashed roasted garlic on each bread.  And in addition to the cheese blend, we added chunks of fresh mozzarella.

My Favorite Use for Garden Tomatoes: Crostini

I once told a friend who says she can't cook how easy these are to make, and she replied, "But it requires a heating element." Come on, anyone can toast bread, right? That's all the cooking required!

My tomatoes only started ripening around the second week of August, probably due to the lack of sunshine with the nonstop storms we've had. My basil plant, on the other hand, is about 2 feet tall! And both are required for one of my favorite summertime snacks. The other must is fresh mozzarella -- the soft, creamy kind that's packed or stored in water. Don't buy the cheaper, rubbery variety at the store. That stuff is fine for melting and disguising behind other ingredients, but with something this fresh you need the good cheese.

Some people will want to toss it back in the oven to cook the tomatoes a bit and melt the cheese, but I like the summery freshness of it my way.

1 baguette

3-4 plum tomatoes, sliced

1 ball fresh mozzarella cheese, sliced

5-7 fresh basil leaves

Olive oil

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees. Slice the baguette into thin pieces and rub a bit of olive oil on them. Toast the bread on a baking sheet for about 20 minutes, until the bread is golden brown. You can also just throw them in your toaster oven, but that tends to brown just the outside instead of toasting the bread thoroughly for a nicer crunch.

After that, it's easy assembly. Top each piece of bread with a slice of mozzarella (the cheese acts as a nice barrier for the bread against the wetness of the tomato). Then top them each with a slice of tomato (and plum tomatoes are better because they have less water, leading to less sogginess). Slice your basil leaves into thin strips and scatter them over the tomatoes. Follow with dashes of salt and pepper. That's it!

These work great as party appetizers. You can also lay the ingredients out like I did above, but in larger quantities, and let guests assemble the finger food themselves.