Student Budget Pizza
Suitable for piss poor university students of all ages and disciplines.
STEP 1: Big ass dough ball. I’m a fan of fluffy, puffy deep dish dough. First and foremost, in a large bowl, mix up 22g of dry yeast (~3 tsp) with 2 dL/1 cup rather warm whole milk (42ish Celsius/110 in freedom units) and a tablespoon of honey. You should see some bubbles forming as it reacts; give it 10 or 15. Blend in slowly:
9ish dL/4ish cups flour
60ish mL/4ish tbsp olive oil
Good pinch of salt
I say -ish a lot here because I never, never measure when I make dough for anything which kind of makes these instructions terrible. SORRYYYYY. Alternate adding your portions of flour and oil, and play with it until it’s elastic and looks like something out of an Italian movie, sing a few arias, let it rise (and double in size) loosely covered in a warm place.
In my house, warm place = sauna room. Ah, Finland.
STEP 2: Toppings. This is the fun part, and also where I confess to committing what has to be a cardinal sin in pizza making; cutting the mozzarella with cottage cheese (raejuusto, which is just dirt cheap here). When the goal is to truly dazzle my guests, I’ll smooth out the cottage cheese with fresh mozzarella in the blender and actually layer things properly. Today, I gave approximately -4 fucks, and mixed it all up in one big bowl. The main constituents of any good veggie pizza are as follows:
300g (give or take) smashed up tomatoes in any form; fresh, canned, boxed? Finland boxes them^
About 400g mild cheese; mozzarella, cottage cheese, provolone, even cream cheese if you’re pairing with salmon or something neat. Get wild with that mild.
300ish g stronger flavored cheese; today I used feta. Bleu cheese, parmigiana, cheddar, smoked gouda; depends on your other toppings and I highly advocate experimentation.
Veggies, fresh or frozen. I chopped up fresh yellow bell pepper and red onion, and defrosted some leaf spinach (lovely with feta).
Flavorbomb; I always dump in some Italian herbs, salt, fresh garlic, and a pinch of black pepper.
STEP 3: Preheat to 220C/425F, grease up your hands with some olive oil, and punchdance out your rage in a wooded glen punch your dough down and work the air out of it.
More arias. Stretch it out over a big greased pan, and use your hands to smooth it out with a bit more olive oil (I really just hate rolling it out). Allow to rest for about 10 minutes at room temperature, and if you prefer a crispier crust, prebake for 10 minutes or so. Either layer your toppings nicely or just dump it all out like an apathetic grad student. Bake for 30-40 minutes, until the cheese is all melty and glorious and the veggies have browned.
STEP 4: Tutti mambo Italiano, no speak Americano.
