Perfect pizza, pronto - includes recipes - Cover Story

Vegetarian Times, June, 1996 by Nancy Ross Ryan

It's no secret that pizza pizza is one of America's favorite foods, an Italian invention that we have creatively made our own, much to the distress of some pizzaiolos (pizza makers) in Italy. Why, just last summer the Naples Pizza Association sent three ambassadors to die United States to educate Americans about "true" pizza, and to protest our departure from proper pizza-making traditions. But they didn't put a damper on our enthusiasm for pies of every conceivable variety.

Although pizza eaten at home represents 80 percent of all pizzas consumed, most of that is restaurant pizza (delivered or carryout) and frozen pizza from the supermarket, according to Harry Balzer, vice president of The NPD Group, a consumer market research company in Rosemont, Ill. Only 10 percent of households make their pies from scratch. What's more, "from-scratch" can mean refrigerated or frozen prepared dough, packaged mixes or pre-baked crusts. These options may be speedy, but they're not always the best nutritional choice or the most economical.

In the recipes that follow, convenience and speed do not depend on prepared crusts. Anyone can make a fresh, wholesome and hearty pizza for eight with from-scratch dough and fresh vegetables in 45 minutes flat. Convenience products such as fast-rising yeast, prepared pizza sauce, pre-shredded cheese, diced canned tomatoes and pre-washed, ready-to-eat vegetables trim at least an hour from standard preparation time.

Another technique that trims time from any recipe is used by every professional chef in America. It's called mise en place - French for having all the ingredients and equipment that you're going to use lined up, literally "put in place," before you begin. (The alternative is chercher les choses - that's more or less French for running around the kitchen frantically finding everything you need ingredient by ingredient.)

Carefully chosen products can trim not only time but also fat. For starters, die Fast Pizza Dough uses no oil. Wheat germ provides texture, flavor, fiber and only 1 gram of fat per tablespoonful, whereas 1 tablespoon of oil contains 14 grams of fat. If you wish, you can prepare the pizza crusts using a mixture of half unbleached white flour and half whole wheat flour, but the crust will not be as light.

Very little fat is used for cooking the vegetables for the toppings, and the pregrated low-moisture, part-skim mozzarella cheese is lower in fat than its full-fat counterpart, as is mozzarella-style soy cheese. And here's a reason to read labels: Some brands of canned pizza sauce contain only .5 grams of fat per 1/4-cup serving, but most contain double that much, and some as much as 3 grams of fat per 1/4-cup serving. Speaking of fat, one medium slice of a new popular stuffed pizza introduced this year at a pizza restaurant chain contains 20 grams of fat - ouch!

If you've been wondering about the freshness and vitamin content of those ready-to-eat supermarket vegetables in the bag, the news is good. According to a recent issue of The Tufts University Diet & Nutrition Newsletter, University of Kentucky researchers found the vegetables keep fresh longer and lose less vitamin C and beta carotene than unwrapped vegetables because die kind of plastic wrap used regulates the amount of water, oxygen and carbon dioxide inside the bag.

Ready-to-eat vegetables make for waste-free preparation too. And all the recipes that follow employ that philosophy. Mushroom stems are used, along with mushroom caps; juices from canned tomatoes and chilies are reduced and used for sauce; even the skin of the eggplant is used. Doesn't that sound virtuous?

Don't be fooled. The main reason to make pizza at home is pure pleasure: It smells, looks and tastes absolutely wonderful. The varieties are virtually endless. Start with the pizza recipes and their variations below, then develop your own vegetable combinations. Some suggestions: Try topping basic tomato-sauce pizza with two cups of coarsely grated potatoes sauteed with three cloves of minced garlic. Substitute cauliflower florets for half die broccoli in the Broccoli Pizza. Or substitute jalapeno jack or jalapeno-style soy cheese for mozzarella in the Black Bean Chili Pizza. Go ahead and give the Naples Pizza Association a few more examples of American pizza to fret about.

THE PIZZA

CLOCK

MIX AND KNEAD DOUGH:

4 to-5 minutes

Fix TOPPINGS WHILE DOUGH RISES:

15 minutes

ROLL OUT AND TOP PIZZA:

4 to 5 minutes

BAKE PIZZA: 20 minutes

TOTAL TIME: 45 minutes

Fast Pizza Dough

Fast-rising yeast and one-bowl mixing and kneading has this dough ready to roll, top and bake in 20 minutes. Hot water - 120 to 130 degrees - gives fast-rising yeast its get up and go. The water will feel hot to the touch. Until you've memorized the feel, use a thermometer. Do not knead dough for pizza after first rising; it will be harder to roll out.

1 1/4 cups hot (120 to 130 degrees) water 1/4-oz. packet rapid-rising active dry yeast 1 tsp. salt 3 Tbs. toasted wheat germ (see glossary, p. 118) 3 cups all-purpose unbleached white flour, leveled but not sifted, plus additional flour for kneading