The Best Pizza...

This weekend I had a go at my "to do list" by planning a cooking day with my friend Claudia. She saw my previous post and offered to tackle some of the things on it with me including taking a cooking class. We're signed up for an Hors D'Oeuvres class next month. At the same time we were discussing taking a class, she offered to host a cooking day at her home. Here's the list I sent her of some of the things I want to try this year...

✔ Risotto
✔ Shrimp & Angel Hair Pasta with Lemon Caper Cream Sauce
✔ Tuscan Garlic Chicken
✔ Dessert Crepes (and/or savory crepes)
✔ Homemade Pizza
✔ Tiramasu
✔ Spicy Tangerine Beef
✔ Chicken Pot Pie
✔ Green Chile & Cheese Tamales
✔ Stuffed Chile Rellenos

Well, we decided to get together on Sunday and Claudia said she had a great easy recipe from one of her favorite cookbooks - "The New Best Recipe" by the Editors of Cook's Illustrated - for pizza! Yesssss! So simple. Yeast, Flour, Salt and Water... mixed in a food processor.

The pizzas came out perfect - exactly the way I like them (I'm not a pizza girl normally - Pizza Hut and Dominos kinda gross me out). I like a thin crust, with easy sauce, kind of New York Style....

We made a few different kinds -

* Three Cheese: Mozzarella, Parmesan and Blue Cheese
* Caramelized Onions, Sautéed Mushrooms and Bacon with Mozzarella
* Spinach, Ricotta, Mozzarella and Parmesan
* Spinach, Caramelized Onions, Sautéed Mushrooms and Bacon with Mozzarella

And probably because I mentioned I wasn't crazy about tomatoes, we made them all without sauce. Just a drizzle of Olive Oil and a Garlic rub on the crust...

Another great thing about the day was while we waited for the dough to rise, we had plenty of time to talk!

I cannot wait to try this recipe again! Thanks Claudia!