Confessions of a Pizza Junkie, Recipe Confessions of a Pizza Junkie

Posted the 11/11/2008 06:26:22 By Peppercorn Press (Visit website)

They say that the first step on the road to recovery is to admit you have a problem. So okay, I confess. I am a junkie. A pizza junkie. A big one. I don?t know about you, but I can?t seem to go for more than a few days, okay maybe a week, without getting my pizza fix. In this respect am like a junkie.

With this in mind it shouldn?t surprise anyone that while on our Mexican vacation, while surrounded by delicious Mexican food, I had to have a pizza, and of course one with a Mexican twist. Heaven on a platter came our way in the guise of the Cinco de Mayo Pizza from The Bistro, one of the restaurants at our resort, Pueblo Bonito ? Sunset Beach.

On this day the weather was fantastic, so we elected to take our pizza to-go and moved up one floor to enjoy it on the veranda outside the Lobby Bar so that we could enjoy the light breeze off the water along with the scenery. Of course we had to share my prize pizza while being watched by pigeons. The junkie in me felt certain that the feathered banditos were just waiting to grab a slice and take flight, but as fortune would have it, we were able to keep it all for ourselves.

The Cinco de Mayo pizza is very simple in its construction. Its toppings are: chorizo, crispy bacon, and jalapeños. Paired with ice cold Arnold Palmers’ (sparkling lemonade and iced tea), it made for a very satisfying lunch.

Here is our version of the Cinco de Mayo Pizza. Hopefully, this will satisfy your craving for a pizza fix as well as it did mine.

Ingredients

Pizza Dough (recipe below)

1/2 cup tomato sauce (recipe below)

1/2 lb chorizo (recipe below)

3/4 cup grated mozzarella cheese

4 slices smoked bacon, chopped to bite size pieces and fried

2 jalapeños thinly sliced lengthwise and seeded

Place the dough on a pizza pan sprinkled corn meal. Top with sauce, cheese chorizo, bacon and jalapeños. (For safety, the raw chorizo must be on top of the cheese, not under it.) Bake at 400° F. until the crust is light brown and the cheese is melted.

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Pizza Dough Recipe

1 cup warm water

2 tablespoons honey

2 tablespoons yeast

3 1/2 cups flour

1/4 cup olive oil

1/2 teaspoon salt

Instructions:

Pour warm water into a bowl. The water should be about 85 to 115° F. Add the honey and salt. Stir until well blended. Add the yeast and stir. Let this mixture sit for about 5 minutes. Add the olive oil and 1 cup of flour a little at a time and stir until mixed well. Add the rest of the flour and mix well. The dough should turn into a ball. If the dough does not ball up it’s too dry, add water one tablespoon at a time until it does. Place the ball of dough on a floured board and knead for about a minute. Place the dough in a bowl and covered with a damp dish cloth and store in a warm, dry area to rise for about 45 minutes. The dough should double in size. Push the dough ball down to deflate. Allow dough to rise for another hour.

Place the dough ball on a well floured board. Using your hands, press from the center of the dough outwards to start stretching it out, turning the dough as you go. When the dough is about 1/2″ thick, use a rolling pin to flatten it out to about 1/4″ thick, turning it over once or twice while rolling. Once it is rolled out flat use a fork to poke holes all over the dough. This will keep the dough from getting expansion bubbles in it while baking.

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Roasted Tomato Sauce Recipe

1/2 cup chopped onion

1/4 cup finely chopped carrot

1 tablespoon vegetable oil

2 pounds Roma Tomatoes ? roasted & peeled

1 tablespoon coarsely chopped fresh basil leaves

2 teaspoons sugar

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon ground red pepper

Cook onion and carrot in oil over medium heat, stirring occasionally, until tender. Cut tomatoes into fourths; drain. Place onion, carrot, tomatoes and remaining ingredients in food processor work bowl fitted with steel blade, cover and process until the tomatoes are the size of peas. Makes about 3 1/2 cups sauce.

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Chorizo

1/2 pound Ground beef

1/2 pounds Ground pork

3/4 teaspoon Salt

1 1/2 teaspoons Oregano

1/2 teaspoons Pepper

1/2 teaspoon Garlic

1/3 cup Vinegar

1/2 cups Chile Powder

1/2 teaspoons Cumin seed

Add a small amount of water to chile powder and mix to make a paste; add garlic. Crush oregano and cumin seed together. Combine meats in a large bowl and add the oregano-cumin seed mixture, salt and pepper mixing well.

Add the vinegar and mix. Add chili-garlic mixture and mix well.

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Find other great Mexican recipes in our newly released Mexican Recipe Collection.