Once again I haven’t been to the grocery store for almost six weeks, down to stems ‘n’ seeds, but still managed to come up with a pretty good pizza.

Pandemic considerations aside, I decided to keep the flavors simple, a basic sauce with just garlic and a bit of dried basil, ricotta, and three seasons of goodness.

Step 1: Make the Dough

Stir together 1-1/2 C. sourdough starter, 1-1/2 C. flour, one Tbsp. olive oil and 1 tsp. salt. Add water or flour as needed to make a pliable but not sticky dough.

IMPORTANT!: Chill the dough in the fridge for an hour.

My ginormous 16″ non-stick pizza pan has now become sticky, so I used a piece of parchment paper, lightly oiled.

(Not in the pan, on a flat surface) place the dough on the parchment paper, then roll it out to the size of the pan. Put the paper/dough back into the pan, and roll back any extra edging:

Bake at 525 for ten minutes or until lightly browned.

Step 2: Make the Sauce

While the dough is chilling, make the sauce. Very simple, just some sautéed garlic, tomatoes, and dried basil.

I like my tomato sauce a little bit chunky, so this is perfect:

It’s “Signature,” which is Safeway’s generic brand. Usually very reliable, but this time it was pretty bland, so I added in some of their Crushed Tomatoes, which has a much more tomato-y flavor.

Simmer for at least 20 minutes.

Step 3: Make the Rigot‘ (Ricotta)

(Note: I made a double batch) Heat 2 quarts of milk to 200 degrees (if you don’t have a thermometer, heat it until it’s steamy and just starts to bubble up). Remove from the heat, then add 1/2 tsp. citric acid dissolved in 1 Tbsp. water, or 1/3 C. lemon juice or 1/3 C. white vinegar. Stir, then leave undisturbed for 10 minutes. You should get a curd like this:

If you don’t, add some more of the coagulating agent, and wait again.

Strain it through cheesecloth for a couple of minutes, then tie the corners of the cheesecloth and allow it to drain for 30 minutes or so:

Now you’re ready! Spread the sauce and ricotta on the crust.

Now add the toppings. I did three sections, mixed cheeses; chicken, sautéed onion and corn; and breakfast (bacon and an egg). Eggs on pizza are so good!

Bake for 20 minutes, then rotate the pan and bake for an additional 10 minutes, or until done to your liking.

But . . .

The crust was done and crispy, but the top wasn’t done, so I put on the broiler for 4 minutes.

Disaster, it was burnt. I did manage to salvage some of it by picking off the burnt bits, but it wasn’t great.

So, determined, I made basically the same pizza the next day. I had leftover sauce and the ricotta, so that saved a lot of time.

What could possibly go wrong?!?

It’s always something. 🙁

It was fine yesterday, but my oven died. Even after two hours, it never got above 200 degrees or so.

It’s on its three-hour “clean,” cycle, which I’m hoping will fix it.

So my only choice was to use this:

. . . which is significantly smaller, so I had to divide the pizza into four:

That meant, of course, that I had to pre-bake each section separately, and again bake each section separately after the toppings were added, which took forever. I did make some upgrades, more sauce, tossed the chicken in some hoisin and added some scallions, added blue to the cheese, and since I had a new section, devoted that to broccoli.

The counter oven doesn’t get above 450, so the edges didn’t get properly brown, but even so, the crust was both crispy and a bit chewy, and this turned out very good, one of my best pizza attempts so far.

Yum!

-R