Tim Danner

I’ve always loved pizza. From Papa John’s late at Rice (delivering till 2 A.M.!) to Collina’s to Two Rows, all pizza is good (except Mr. Gatti’s). But my favorite is the stuff I can make myself. Tonight’s was especially tasty, though Carrie may dispute that once she reads the topping list.

Dough

Mix 3½ cups of all-purpose flour with 1 cup bread flour and 1 tablespoon of kosher salt in a stand mixer with the dough hook attached.

Proof 1 tablespoon active dry yeast in 1½ cups 100°F water with 2 tablespoons of sugar.

Add 3 tablespoons of olive oil to the yeast and pour it slowly into the flour with the mixer running.

Let the mixer run for ten minutes, then pull the dough off of the hook, put it back in the bowl, and let the mixer run for a couple more minutes. Make the dough into a ball and put into an oiled bowl. Cover with plastic. Let it rise for one hour. Divide it into three chunks using a bench scraper and put each one into a plastic container. Put the containers into the fridge overnight.

Toppings

Toppings vary, of course. Tonight’s pizza had:

• Boboli pizza sauce, since I didn’t bother to make the real stuff.
• “Polly-O Gourmet Mozzarella Cheese” — the best I can find for pizza. It comes shrink-wrapped in 8 oz. balls. I slice up about half a ball per pizza.
• A roma tomato, sliced thin.
• A few pitted Kalamata olives, sliced.
• One garlic clove, sliced.
• One slice of Black Forest Ham (like for a sandwich), chopped.
• A little bit of kosher salt (not much, since the olives and ham are already fairly salty).
• Fresh ground black pepper.
• A drizzle of olive oil around the edge of the crust. (On pizzas that don’t have any meat among their toppings, I also add a light drizzle over the whole thing.)
• A few basil leaves, chiffonade. This doesn’t get added until after the pizza has been baked.

Baking

Preheat the oven as hot as it will go (mine goes to 550°F) well in advance of making the pizza so the stone has time to heat up too. If the dough was refrigerated, give it at least half an hour to come to room temperature before trying to stretch it. Put some cornmeal on the pizza peel, stretch the dough, and put it on the peel.

Top.

Slide it into the oven and bake for 5–10 minutes. You have to keep an eye on it. Pull it when the cheese starts to bubble and the crust starts to darken around the edges.

For a party on Saturday I reconstructed an appetizer Carrie and I had at the Gage Hotel in Marathon, Texas, a few weeks ago.

Take 20 fresh jalapeños, cut the tops off, and remove the seeds and ribs as best you can. This can be a bit tricky. I found the 1/4 t. measuring spoon to be helpful in cleaning them out.

Put an 8 ounce package of room temperature cream cheese in the food processor with a handful of cilantro leaves (about 1/4 cup) and a generous shake of cayenne (at least a teaspoon). Run the food processor until it’s all combined. If it isn’t pink, add some more cayenne.

Put the cream cheese mixture into a plastic bag and cut one corner off. Use the bag to squirt cream cheese into the jalapeños. Cut 10 slices of bacon in half and wrap half a slice around each filled jalapeño. Stick a toothpick through the bacon and pepper to hold it together.

Place the stuffed and wrapped jalapeños in a muffin pan, two to a cup so they mostly stand upright. Cover and refrigerate for a couple of hours. Broil in the oven for 10 minutes until top of the cream cheese starts to brown and the peppers just begin to blister.