Pizza Night

It has been snowing pretty non-stop for the past couple of weeks. The roads are bad and all we can do on the weekend, really, is stay in and watch movies. So for the past couple of weekends, we have been experimenting with homemade pizza. It is so much fun! The best part is, we had everything we needed for all kinds of fun combinations at home. There is something to be said for a well-stocked pantry, I guess.



The dough was super easy. Thank you, whoever invented bread machines. Do you own one? You should. Because in less than 3 minutes of prep time on your end, you can have fresh, preservative-free (whole wheat) bread for like $0.75 a loaf. We've been using ours pretty much exclusively since we moved here. I think we've bought maybe 6 loaves of bread since we moved to WV, all fancy ones for special times. Anyway, the bread machine has a setting just for pizza dough type stuff, it does all the kneading and rising and everything and it only takes about an (unattended) hour. We made a soft and lovely whole wheat dough. We noticed that the thinner you can roll it, the better it is.
On to toppings. One thing I really miss about Boston is good food. Specifically, Aaron and I really struggle with the pizza situation here. We were used to good pizza. Brick oven, interesting toppings. There is something to be said for a classic, cheap pizza, but as far as I know, there is only one place in town that sells unique toppings, New Day Bakery. And they only recently started making pizza. Also pretty sure that the water makes the dough different here, which is sad.
Anyway, one place I really miss is Cambridge's Veggie Planet in Harvard Square. Holy pizza! This place rocks. It's all in the dough: whole wheat, chewy, crusty. And they have such amazing toppings. My all time favorite is Dinner for Henry: roasted butternut squash, caramelized onions, rosemary, sage and goat cheese. Oh mama. We decided to make our own.
Let's take one more look:
Here is what we found: you need to really slather on the squash and use enough onions. The more the better. I would say at least two big ones. The key to caramelizing is a steady temp, not too hot, and a lot of time.
This is insanely good. Actually, it was so good that we've made it twice already. It was like tasting home.

As for other toppings, we mixed it up, doing different things on each 1/3 of the dough. We made a simple red sauce with crushed tomatoes, garlic and herbs. One of the best was pesto with sundried tomatoes and fresh mozzarella.

I'm pretty sure pizza making is our new favorite thing. There are just so many things to try.