Perfect Pizza

It's taken me a few years to perfect my pizza crust. Well, perfect for me. I like my pizza crust on the thin side, more crispy than chewy. My favorite toppings are prosciutto/brasaola and cheese. But i also really like my father's red pepper, red onion, olives and anchovies.

Here's my recipe for the crust:

3.5 cups flour
1 cup warm water
2 tsp instant yeast
1.5 tsp sugar or honey
1.5 tsp salt

I combine all of the ingredients in a mixer with a dough hook, usually adding the salt last. Then, once the dough is a cohesive ball and no longer sticks to the sides, I remove it from the bowl and grease the bowl with olive oil. I place the dough back in the bowl and cover it in plastic wrap. I let it sit for an hour or two at room temperature and let it rise before use, though sometimes if i'm in a time crunch i've been known to roll it out immediately and skip the rise. But normally, after the dough has doubled in size, I preheat the oven to 250C, then I turn the dough out onto a floured surface and roll it out to the size of my pan which is lined with baking paper. I like it thin so I roll it out as flat as I can and cut off any excess and make a baby pizza out of any extra dough. I then dock the pizza dough (poke holes w. fork) and put it in the oven on the bottom rack for 4-5 minutes.

I then remove the semi baked dough from the oven and assemble my pizza. At first I made my own pizza sauces with garlic, peppers, onions, tomatoes, etc, but now I find that I really just like the crushed tomatoes out of a can or a good bottle of passata, ragu, conserva, what ever you have on hand, I spread a layer of it onto the pizza and then place my other non-cheese toppings, and last the cheese. As far as toppings go, I really recommend that you bake and test many pizzas with many different combinations until you find your favorite..my family loves to participate in these tests :)

I like to drizzle olive oil on the pizza before I place it back in the oven for an additional 12 minutes.

This pizza is best served with beer. But if you don't like beer then I recommend lemon soda!!

I Too, Bake Artisan Bread.

The Bread in Italy is WONDERFUL. If you live here, there's absolutely no reason to bake your own bread other than just for the fun of it. But, for those of you who don't live next door to a Pasticciera...You really should try to bake bread. It's so incredibly easy and delicious. So many recipes out there for bread baking. The two sources I recommened are the King Arthur Flour website. (You don't necessarily need to use their flour for the recipe) The other is a book called Artisan Bread in 5 Minutes a Day. I'm telling you people. I'm whipping out loaves and rolls with no previous experience and no baking stone.

Neve Fresca! Fresh Snow!

It snowed so much in Sestriere last week. I think this is one of the few resorts in Europe that still relies on fresh snow instead of snow cannons. On the way to the slopes this morning I was thrilled to see that it had been snowing all day yesterday, all of last night, and still in the morning! Neve Fresca!