Pursuit of the perfect pizza

Could there be anything better than homemade pizza? My teenage self would have snorted at that question, rolled her eyes and said, “Duh. Pizza Hut.”

To 14-year-old Monika, fast-food pizza was the only pizza. It defined pizza everywhere, for all time. When, after a grueling afternoon spent complaining to my friends on the phone, I’d wander into the kitchen and see Dad bent over a baking tray full of dough, carefully layering on sauce, hamburger, green pepper, onions and mozzarella, my delicate sensibilities would be offended. “Gross!” I’d drawl in my most disdainful voice. My main objection, really, was that it was square instead of round.

I didn’t understand that Pizza Hut, while delicious, is only related by the merest culinary thread to the Italian pizza that I came to adore in Italy, eaten while standing on the ancient cobblestone street or inside a bustling caf’e or in the sunny kitchen of my Italian friend Vera. She made me the most beguiling homemade pizza with all kinds of exotic (to me) things like thinly sliced potatoes, whole garlic cloves, asparagus and various hard and soft cheeses. Recalling my dad’s homemade pizza, I wasn’t sure what to expect, but the resulting pizza was wonderful beyond description.

Fast forward a few decades and I’ve enjoyed excellent homemade pizza at a few friends’ houses, though it still seemed to require some secret knowledge or skill that I didn’t have. It never occurred to me that I might also consume such vaunted delights from my very own oven until I saw a bag of raw pizza dough at the market. It was less than $2, so I thought, “Why not?” Turns out it’s the simplest thing in the world except for burning toast, which I can also do. Just use what you’ve got on hand and you’ll have pizza in a jiff.

Monika’s Spontaneous Pizza

Let the dough sit at room temperature for a couple of hours before spreading it on an oiled cookie sheet sprinkled with a little cornmeal (optional, but it adds a nice texture). Roll the dough out with a rolling pin or stretch it into a rustic circle-ish shape with your fingers; this takes some doing but be patient and the dough will bend itself to your will.

Next, layer it with anything that sounds vaguely pizza-ish: Alfredo sauce, fresh or canned mushrooms, thin slices of zucchini or yellow squash, red onion, olives, bell peppers, goat cheese or feta, arugula, cherry tomatoes or sun-dried tomatoes, sausage or hamburger.

Last week I made a Spontaneous Pizza with pesto, canned mushrooms, sliced fresh tomatoes, artichoke hearts, pimientos, cheddar and mozzarella topped with fresh basil. It was simply grand. I don’t have photos because we ate it so quickly. Last night I made a Spontaneous Pizza with a little spaghetti sauce, mozzarella, fresh crimini mushrooms, frozen bell peppers and sliced tomatoes, topped with a few shakes of Parmesan and a little more mozzarella. This time I was able to hold off the salivating masses long enough to snap a couple pictures.

The instructions on the dough say to cook it for 10 minutes at 475 degrees, but I get better results by cooking the pizza for 15 minutes at 500 degrees. Let the mouth-party begin.

Rachel Pinsky’s Chicago-style Deep-dish Pizza

There’s another way to make homemade pizza and that’s the Pinsky Method, perfected by Rachel Pinsky, The Columbian’s restaurant writer. One enchanted evening in pre-pandemic times, I was sitting in her kitchen when she pulled her version of a Chicago deep-dish pizza out of the oven. It was a masterpiece of pesto, spinach, cheese and tomatoes. I’ve tried to make it myself many times and can’t get it right. Fortunately, past failures are never a deterrent. I just keep on truckin’, or pizza-ing, as the case may be. Selfless soul that she is, Pinsky gave me permission to share her pizza in today’s story.

Preheat your oven to 500 degrees. Generously coat a large cast iron or oven-safe skillet with olive oil. Put the dough in and use your fingers to press it all the way to the edge of the skillet.

“You do have to work it,” Pinsky said of the dough. “It’s not going to go where you want it to go.” (This is true, but just keep at it.)

Next, cover the dough with a thin layer of pesto, then add a layer of fresh baby spinach or thawed and extremely well-drained frozen spinach. Cover the spinach with a layer of sliced mozzarella or provolone.

“Use sliced, not shredded, cheese,” Pinsky said. “You want a nice, nonporous layer of cheese over spinach and pesto, otherwise the tomato will soak through the cheese into the dough. If you want, you could put two layers of cheese.” (And that explains why we’re friends, because she understands that sometimes you just need more cheese.)

Thoroughly drain a can of diced tomatoes, then toss them with Italian seasoning, oregano, salt and pepper or red pepper flakes for heat. Spread the tomatoes over the cheese. Bake the pizza for 15 minutes.

Pinsky noted that true Chicago-style pizza doesn’t have any cheese on the tomatoes, but you can dust the pie with Parmesan after it’s cooked.

You may be wondering: How did it turn out this time? It was the most beautiful thing you’ve ever seen coming out of the oven, with golden edges and gooey cheese. It was, however, a smidge soggy (my usual problem). I used fresh spinach and drained the tomatoes within an inch of their lives. I put extra cheese to keep the tomatoes from oozing into the crust. We ate it, of course. I mean, it’s pizza!

Perhaps I must accept the truth: that Pinsky is a magical pizza fairy possessing secrets beyond my comprehension. But you never know – maybe you are, too!