With the busy lives that many of us lead, getting a healthy, home-cooked meal on the table can be a challenge. One of my favorite stress-relieving tips is to turn the kitchen over to my husband, Aaron, and our son, Matthew, every Sunday night.
In fact, Sunday night has become family pizza night – with the boys making the pizza from scratch.
I have always had a weakness for pizza, and it was one of my biggest cravings when I was pregnant with my children. So, it’s no coincidence that both of my children love it, too. Our problem is that we like to eat healthy foods and we found that you can’t order a pizza with whole-wheat crust and not a lot of grease. The solution? Make it ourselves.
I make sure that our pantry and refrigerator are always well stocked with pizza ingredients and then I sit back and enjoy the laughter and fun coming from our kitchen. When Aaron tells 3-year-old Matthew it’s time to make the pizza, he immediately stops what he is doing and runs to get his Learning Tower. A great addition to our kitchen furniture,the Learning Tower is an adjustable wooden platform that raises children up to countertop level, so they can get involved in baking and meal preparation. Railings on all four sides guard against slips and falls, unlike my kitchen desk chair that our preschooler always wanted to drag over to the sink.
With Matthew safe in his Learning Tower, he helps Aaron knead the dough. They even flip it up into the air as if they are working in an Italian pizzeria. Then they roll it out together onto the pizza stone and Matthew gets to spread Daddy’s special pizza sauce and all of the toppings onto the dough.
I’ll admit that our kitchen standards might not pass an official food inspection as Matthew has been known to lick a little sauce as he spreads it and to swipe a few black olives before they make it onto the pizza.
While Matthew is finishing up the first pizza, Aaron is often working on the second so we can have plenty of leftovers for lunch. We find that doubling the recipe and saving leftovers helps us eat more meals at home and saves us from running to the nearest fast-food restaurant for weekday lunches.
When I asked Matthew what he likes best about making pizza with Daddy, he said, Olives! I like to eat all the olives that Daddy lets me.”
Aaron’s whole-wheat pizza recipe
adapted from “The Pizza,” a recipe in “Dad’s Own Cookbook,” published by Workman Publishing, New York, 1993. Makes 2 pizzas
Recipe for dough
Ingredients:
2 cups lukewarm water (105-115F)
1 teaspoon sugar
2 packages active dry yeast (4½ teaspoons)
¼ cup olive oil
2 teaspoons salt
4 3/4 cups whole-wheat flour
Method:
Mix the water, sugar and yeast together. Let them set for 7 minutes. Then add oil, salt and 4 ½ cups flour. Add ½ to 1 cup at a time. Mix thoroughly. Pour the last ¼ cup flour over the dough and form it into a ball with your hands. The dough should be slightly sticky. Let the dough rise for 1 hour. Then divide the dough in half to make 2, 16-inch pizzas.
Recipe for sauce
Ingredients:
1 tablespoon olive oil
2 cloves garlic
1 28-ounce can crushed plum tomatoes
1 6-ounce can tomato paste
1 tablespoon dried parsley
1 teaspoon dried oregano
1 teaspoon dried basil
1 teaspoon salt
Method:
Sauté the olive oil and garlic in a sauce pan for 1 minute. Add crushed tomatoes, tomato paste, herbs, and salt. Let the sauce simmer for 20-30 minutes until it begins to thicken.
Pizza ingredients
One recipe of pizza dough
2 cups pizza sauce
16 ounces mozzarella cheese, grated
Assorted toppings of your choice (sliced tomatoes, sliced mushrooms, hamburger, spinach, sliced olives, sliced onion, sun-dried tomatoes, strips of red, yellow and green peppers, Italian sausage, anchovies, artichoke hearts, extra cheese, etc.)
Method:
Position a rack as low as possible in the oven and preheat to 450 degrees. If using baking sheets, lightly grease them. (We use a pizza stone.) Lightly dust a work surface with flour. Punch down 1 ball of dough and use your fingers (or rolling pin) to push it out to half the desired size, roughly 8 inches across. Lightly flour both sides of your hands. Drape the edge of the dough over your fists and use your knuckles to turn and stretch the dough until it is about 16 inches across. It should be slightly thicker around the edges. Lay the dough on the pizza stone or screen or fit the dough into the baking sheets. Assemble and bake 1 pizza at a time, as follows: Ladle 1 cup tomato sauce in the center of the dough and spread evenly to cover. Sprinkle on half the grated mozzarella in an even layer. Arrange your choice of toppings over the cheese. Bake the pizzas, 1 at a time, on the lowest rack of the oven, until the cheese bubbles and the bottom of the crust is crispy, about 10-15 minutes. Use a large spatula to slide the pizza from the stone or baking sheet onto a cutting board. Let the pizza cool for 1 minute before slicing with a pizza cutter or large knife. Assemble the second pizza while the first one is in the oven, then put the second one in the oven as you sit down to eat the first.
Tips: Make sure there are no holes in the dough. If any holes appear while you are stretching the dough, patch them up by folding the dough over the hole and stretching again.
Stretching the dough over the backs of your hands assures that the crust will be light and crispy, but it takes a little practice. After 3 or 4 pizzas, you should get the hang of it. If necessary, roll the dough out fully with a rolling pin. To make a lip around the pizza, fold the dough over itself around the edge.
Send questions/comments to the editors.
