The best pizza dough!

So, besides jewelry, my next love is definitely food.  Eating it mostly, but making it is awfully fun too.  I spent about 5 weeks in Italy when I was in my early 20's and developed a true love for pizza.  And I mean pizza neapolitan style, not like delivered from a teenager.  Light, chewy crust.  Yum.  Anyway, I have a pretty darn good recipe to get that authentic crust.  I'll tell you right now that cake flour is the secret ingredient.

Ingredients

1 teaspoon active dry yeast

1 1/4 cups warm water (105 to 115 degrees F)

1 cup cake flour (not self rising)

2 1/2 to 3 cups all purpose flour (you can sub a cup or so of whole wheat if you don't want all the processed stuff)

2 teaspoons salt

Olive oil for the bowl

Directions

Sprinkle the yeast over the water and let stand for 1 minute, until the yeast dissolves.

In a large bowl, or in your Kitchen Aid, combine the cake flour, 2 1/2 cups of the all purpose flour, and the salt. Add the yeast mixture and stir until a soft dough forms and knead for about 10 minutes.

Lightly coat another large bowl with oil. Place the dough in the bowl, turning it to oil the top. Cover and place in a warm, draft free place and let rise about 1 1/2 hours.

Flatten the dough with your fist. Cut the dough into 2 to 4 pieces and shape the pieces into balls. You can go ahead and make your pizzas now, if you are impatient like me or you can let the dough rise another time for 60-90 minutes. 

Thirty minutes before baking the pizzas, place a baking stone  on a rack in the lowest level of the oven. Turn on the oven to the maximum temperature, 500 to 550 degrees F.

Shape and bake pizzas in desired fashion.  

So good!  We make pizza about once a week, but lately I've been making Carta De Musica - which is basically a salad on top of a pizza crust.  Now, I'm no food stylist, but isn't this pretty??!!  All vegies from my garden.  Use 1/2 the dough recipe above to make one of these guys.  First, add some fresh rosemary, a little olive oil, and crushed red pepper to the dough and bake it for about 12 minutes on 500 (or until golden brown), then top it with this yummy salad:

1 tablespoons olive oil

1 tablespoons fresh lemon juice

1 teaspoon finely grated lemon peel

1 cups baby arugula

1 cups baby spinach leaves

1 cups mixed baby greens

4 baby carrots, trimmed, peeled, thinly sliced lengthwise

4 Easter Egg radishes or breakfast radishes, trimmed, thinly sliced

1/2 cups stemmed edible flowers (such as pansies, violas, calendula, or marigolds)