What’s For Dinner – How to make the worlds best pizza and what beer to pair it with.

The Dough
Great pizza starts with great pizza dough. To make great pizza dough, do the following: Pizza dough needs to rise in the refrigerator for at least two days!

Start with one cup of water. Heat in a microwave for 40 seconds.
Pour into a large mixing bowl.
Add 2 teaspoons of sugar
Add 2 teaspoons of bread yeast or around one packet.
Wisc until mixed and let sit for 15 minutes

After the yeast has risen pour into an electric mixer bowl.
First add ½ cup of ice-cold water to the yeast sponge.
Add 1 tablespoon of olive oil
2 teaspoons of kosher salt
½ cup of wheat flour
Add (high gluten if you can find it) bread flour a ½ cup at a time
Until it resembles pancake batter
Remove the mixing attachment and attach the bread hook
Begin adding bread flour until you get a somewhat plastic ball of dough.
Remove and kneed on a wooden cutting board until you make an elastic ball of dough
Put the dough in a bowl that you have poured a tablespoon of olive oil into.
Roll the dough in the oil coating the bowl and dough at the same time.
The bowl should be big enough for the dough to rise by 2 ½ times it’s current size.
Cover the bowl in plastic wrap and put into the fridge for 48 hours.
After rising for two days pour out onto a floured cutting board until you kneed a dough ball again.
Preheat your oven to 500º
I use a Teflon pizza pan with small holes in 90 % of the pan.
I bought a couple from Target for around $12 each
Spray your pan with olive oil pam
Start stretching the pizza dough by making two fists and stretching from the center
Once the size of the pan place on the pan and cut off the excess
You are now ready for toppings

The Sauce
There should be enough pizza sauce to cover the dough without a lot of excess , but it’s a personal preference.
Take about ½ a bottle of your favorite spaghetti sauce put into a blender.
Dice 2-3 garlic cloves
Heat a small skillet of olive oil on medium high and add the garlic ( should not smoke)
Cook until the garlic starts to turn opaque
Before it browns remove from the heat and blanche by pouring ½ cup of red wine to stop the garlic from cooking. Add to the sauce.
Add basil, oregano, pepper, salt , onion powder to taste
Blend in your blender and spread on the dough very thinly.

Sprinkle ½ pound of mozzarella on top of the sauce. ( I prefer fresh that I grate myself)

Add your favorite toppings
I like to brown some Italian sausage and add pepperoni
Thin sliced onion and black olives or sautéed mushrooms
But the sky’s the limit on what you like to add

The last trick is to sprinkle a 1/3 pound of mozzarella on your toppings before putting them in the oven to hold them together

Cook for about 10 minutes and enjoy
You won’t call in for pizza ever again!

A great cold Budweiser, Fireman’s #4, or Sierra Nevada pale ale pairs well with pizza. But almost any beer you enjoy will suffice.

Repeat and enjoy.