We’ve been experimenting with Whole Foods fresh pizza dough (you can buy it from the chefs at the pizza station in the ready-to-eat section of the market; it’s only $2.99 for a ball of dough big enough to make two sizable pizzas with). We froze some when we overbought a couple of weeks ago. Somehow, suddenly, this weekend, we had 6 kids total in our house. I was on duty. Kids were hungry. I thawed the frozen dough in the microwave and employed two staples in our refrigerator: homemade marinara (pureed san marzano tomatoes simmered in olive oil and garlic for 20 minutes, with a pinch of sugar tossed in for background sweetness) and grated mozzarella. Stretch the dough out on two sheet pans drizzled with olive oil, then bake in a 425 degree oven for 25 minutes or so. The dough did pretty well. It wasn’t as lively tasting or puffy as it is before it’s frozen, but the 6 kids made quick work of the two pizzas.
The reviews weren’t raves, a la Mozza2Go, or even my usual fall-back sage, prosciutto, and quattro fromaggio (you can get the recipe for this in our forthcoming Gastrokid Cookbook: Feeding a Foodie Family in a Fast Food World)——but for a meal that came from virtually nothing, the kids were alright.
—Hugh
Oh… you thawed the dough first. Maybe that was what I did wrong with my pizza. =) Great post!