Pizza

There's a lot I don't know, but I'm excited about Alton Brown's pizza recipe. For one its a tasty crust and AB's notion of pizza is to 'decorate' a tasty crust...not bury it. So we add a bit of sauce, a bit of herbs, a bit of cheese (we like asiago and a bit of feta, but you can use almost anything). This is a bit of a revelation in the land of _____-Lover's pizzas where the crust is merely a vehicle for toppings. AB's pizza tends to be much lighter on the cheese and toppings which tends to make the 'pizza is healthy' idea a lot more plausible.

Something else that inspired me was the refrigeration step. After AB makes his crust he pops it into the fridge for 18-24 hours. It will change very little in volume during this phase but as AB points out, we're not looking for volume, but flavor. What I like is that you can make it ahead of time. In fact, as of this post I've used dough that has sat in the fridge (covered) for over a week! So you could whip up a batch on Sunday and then if you're feeling like a pizza night, you're all set.

Some notes: From the fridge, it takes 15-30 minutes for it to loosen up. Try shaping it too soon and it'll tear. Also, realize that the pizza cooks at 500 degrees and it takes a while for the oven to reach that temperature. So once you decide that its a pizza night, set your oven to 500 and take the dough out of the fridge. Half an hour later shape it, dress it up and cook it for 7 minutes. So all in all I'd say you can have pizza (on homemade crust) within 45 minutes.