Squash Blossom, Burrata & Tomato Pizza July 17, 2007

I conclude making homemade pizza is great! Even though this was only my third time… There was a huge gap of time between the first pizza making (last year sometime) and second pizza making (a few weeks ago), during which I proclaimed dough is my enemy! and moved onto other stuff. But I gave myself another chance at homemade pizza and I think I’m hooked now.

I absolutely love watching the yeasty dough rise, the way it smells, and my favorite part, gently punching down the risen dough with my fingers. At that point the dough has become a spongy airy mass and sticking my fingers into the cool dough feels so pleasant. Haha, I know it sounds a little weird. I feel an addiction coming on.

Making the pizza dough is a cinch too, especially if you have standing mixer. But I just used a bowl and hand-kneaded mine though using Marcella Hazan’s recipe. Kneading can get tiring but the whole dough making process is quite enjoyable. Who woulda thunk I would ever say that?

This pizza came about because I had burrata leftover from making the heirloom tomato salad in the last post. While perusing the web I came across a few reviews of Mozza that mentioned its Squash Blossom, Burrata and Tomato Pizza. I’ve never tried that one but thought I would assemble my own version for my dinner.

I stretched out the pizza dough then brushed it with olive oil, topped with homemade tomato sauce (canned roma tomatoes processed and cooked with garlic, olive oil and dried oregano), then sprinkled with pregrated mozzarella cheese, topped with squash blossoms that had been trimmed on the bottom to remove the stamen and any pointy leaves cut off. Lightly drizzled olive oil just over the blossoms and seasoned the whole thing with a pinch of salt and black pepper. Popped it into a 500 degree oven onto a preheating pizza stone for about 7 minutes. Then topped with spoonfuls of cool burrata with a light drizzle of olive oil, salt & and pepper, shredded basil, and voila… a delicious pizza straight from my own oven.

On the side of course I needed some vegetable. Red Butter Lettuce Salad with Sweet Pimenton & Buttermilk Dressing. I ended up picking each leaf up with my fingers and eating them as if the lettuce cups were edible spoons. The buttermilk dressing was simply some buttermilk, mayo, scallion, white vinegar, salt, pepper. I didn’t really have time to jazz it up nor did I measure anything because Boy and I were running late to watch Ratatouille.

Ratatouille was great by the way. The animation and the food was amazing! Good thing we had a good dinner before we watched or we would be starving by the end.