Cooking for Zo

Taste Level: GR
Cost: $20 and over
Serves: 4
Prep Time: 40-45 min.
Cook Time: 25-30 min.
Difficulty: 2

The crew was hungry for some pizza so I whipped up this meaty delight. We have two friends that we scooter with and I like to think of us as the crew. Believe me I even laugh when I think it. I created about 10 new pizzas and these are two of them. We are slowly making them and testing them so that hopefully we can cook up a bunch of pizzas for a Big Brothers, Big Sisters charity event. I decided I needed an all meat pizza on the menu and this one really fits the bill. All the deli meats pushes it over the 20 dollar mark but it is totally worth it! While not my favorite pizza I have ever made it really fills that all meat pizza slot with flying colors and everyone thought it was great enough that there were no left overs. If you love meat pizzas try this one out and make sure you get smoked Gouda! It really adds a wonderful deep layer of flavor.

(For instructions on how to make your own sourdough pizza skin check posting dated 7/7/09.)

Ingredients:
Toppings
3 slices pancetta Italian style dry cured bacon
9 Slices Hot Calabrese
9 slices Pepper Salami
9 slices Hot Capocollo
10 oz fresh mozzarella (shredded about 1 1/2 cups)
1/4 cup sharp cheddar cheese (shredded)
1/4 cup Smoked Gouda (shredded)

Sauce
6 oz tomato sauce
1/8 tsp brown sugar
2 slices prosciutto (diced)
1 green onion (diced)
2 tbsp shallots (diced)
2 cloves garlic (minced)
kosher salt (to taste)
fresh crack pepper (to taste)
2 1/4 tsp olive oil

Crust
1 portion of sourdough pizza dough check posting for 7/7/09 or pre-made crust cornmeal

Crust Brushing Sauce
fresh crack pepper (to taste)
1/2 tsp red pepper
1/4 tsp ground oregano
1/2 tsp garlic powder
1/2 tsp Parmesan (grated)
1/2 tsp Romano (grated)
1 tbsp 1 tsp olive oil

Preheat oven to 450 degrees.

Tossing dough
What works best for me is I strongly throw the ball of dough down on a solid flat surface covered with a piece of wax paper until it is large and flat enough for me to easily balance on top of both of my fists. Then I make an X with my arms keeping my fists close together (backhand to back hand, the dough atop of them both) and I fling the dough upwards with my fingers as I simultaneously bring my arms quickly parallel (palm to palm) about 3-4 inches apart. As the dough falls I remake my fists and catch the dough atop them again in the X position and repeat until the dough has formed a 12-14 inch crust.

(Alternately you can lay dough on a solid flat surface covered with wax paper and squish flat with hands. Roll into a ball and slam the dough down onto your solid flat surface covered with a piece of wax paper. Using your fist mush the dough down repeatedly as if you were punching it softly but firmly (this helps get any air bubbles out of it.) Now using your finger tips press and stretch dough until you have formed a 12-14 inch circular pizza skin (you can also make an easier rectangle skin.)

Brushing Sauce
In a small bowl use a whisk to vigorously mix brushing sauce ingredients.

Sauce
Heat olive oil in small sauce pan over medium heat. Saute procuitto, garlic, shallot and green onion in oil until garlic is golden (3-5 min,) add the rest of the ingredients and bring to simmer stirring frequently. Let simmer 10-20 minutes.

Pizza
Sprinkle corn meal onto a baking sheet and lay skin on to it. Use a basting brush to coat the crust with your brushing sauce and then pour the prosciutto marinara into the center of crust. Spread sauce evenly up to about an inch and a half away from the edge of the crust (I find using a pastry spatula works great for spreading tomato sauce.) Evenly sprinkle mozzarella over sauce, then evenly spread out your slices of Salami, Calabrese and Capocollo evenly. Mix together cheddar and Gouda and sprinkle over the top.

Place pizza on baking sheet lightly coated with corn meal. Arrange your oven racks to where they are on the upper and lower thirds of the oven. If you are using a baking stone as we do place it directly onto the floor of a preheated oven for 45 minutes (but you will be less likely to ruin your pizza stone if you place it on a rack at its lowest position.) Place baking sheet with pizza on the lower oven rack and bake for 7-10 minutes, move pizza on baking sheet to upper rack and bake 7-10 minutes (if cooking a second pizza you can put it on the lower rack now on a separate baking sheet.) Slide Pizza off of baking sheet directly onto baking stone and cook for 3-8 minutes or until crisp and bottom is browning (if you were cooking a second pizza you would move it to the top rack on its baking sheet once you slide the first pizza onto the baking stone and of course you would move it to the baking stone once you have remove the first pizza and cooked the second one 7-10 minutes on the upper rack.)

Slide pizza onto a cutting board or baking sheet and use a pizza slicer to cut into 8-10 slices and serve hot with your favorite pizza sides, seasonings and sauces!