A failed Italian

I'm Italian. I take pride in my father's heritage of being Italian. I can't really tell you why I identified more with that side than I did with my mom's English-mutt side, but I did. Who am I kidding. I identified with it because I love pasta, secret family recipes and being stubborn.

Anywho, last night before David and I went to see Inception (more about that later), I got a craving for pizza. David and I are trying to spend a little less money on eating out, so I decided to try to make pizza from scratch. Here starts the adventure:


I didn't have yeast. I've never worked with yeast. Ever. So, this was worrying for me. I needed to make dough. So, I resorted to looking up a yeast-free dough on the Internet. I found one and set off to trying to make pizza. This is what the dough looked like after my Kitchen-Aid mixer took to it. "Looks like dough," I said to myself. I thought I was in the clear.


Another reason I wanted to make pizza was I wanted to make, what I call now, leftover pizza. I had a lot of random veggies that I wanted to use before they went bad. First up? Green pepper. I felt badly because David's not usually a fan. Secondly? Some leftover tomato sauce that I had made for another recipe. Thirdly? Some canned, stewed tomatoes. Lastly? Some mozzarella cheese I needed to use before it went moldy. In other words, this is how I assembled our pizza. After sprinkling on some Italian Seasoning, it was all looking so promising.


I put it in the oven for 25 minutes on 425. Mistake 1. I should have lowered the temperature and cooked it slower. I also forgot we owned a pizza stone (we store it in the oven) so once I had the pizza assembled, I opened the oven and was like, "Crap." Mistake 2. I took it out sooner than I should have because the cheese started to brown faster than I wanted it to. Unfortunately, the dough wasn't quite done when I took it out. I didn't know until both of us bit into it and got a mouthful of undercooked dough. Mistake 3. In other words, the pizza was not exactly a success. I give it a 2 out of 5. We ended up toasting the pizza slices in the toaster oven. That improved it greatly. However, I should have used that green chile I had left over. That would have made it a bit better.


Next time, I'll try yeast. Next time, I'll lower the temperature. Next time, I'll test the middle to make sure it's cooked all the way through. Next time, I won't use as much green pepper. Next time, I might add some actual protein. Next time, I'll use the dang pizza stone. Next time, I'll be a better Italian girl. I just hope my father isn't reading this.