Pizza party

Here's how we go about cooking some damn tasty pizza. It's far from perfect -- for perfection you need a much hotter oven -- but it's quite fun to do it and the result is good enough.

We make the dough with the help of a bread machine. It's not a big deal to make it by hand, but this way not only we keep the machine from gathering too much dust but it's also much cleaner to do it this way.

For the dough for two pizze (the plural of pizza), we need

• 300 g of flour
• 1/2 tsp of yeast
• 1 tsp sugar
• 1 tbsp of olive oil
• 1 tsp of salt
• 200 ml of water

and it takes 45 minutes to make this amount of dough in the machine, so we must plan ahead. At the end of the cycle, remove the dough from the machine and tip it onto a lightly floured surface, kneed it to remove the air bubbles, and let it rest, covered with a tea towel, for about 20 minutes.

When it comes to the toppings, here's what we did this last time:

• mozzarella, one 200 g ball per pizza, minced
• 1 small tin of peeled whole tomatoes (400 g) (enough for 3-4 pizze)
• cherry tomatoes, washed, dried and cut in half
• rucola, washed and dried
• mushrooms, stems removed and sliced very thinly  (say, chestnut mushrooms)
• good quality prosciutto, thinly sliced
• cooked ham, thinly sliced (for the kids)

but in the past we have also used tuna fish (with oregano and olives), blue cheese, anchovies etc. The key is to go light on the toppings, otherwise the pizza will become soggy.

The tomato sauce is made by blending the tinned tomato with a stick blender, seasoning it with salt, pepper and olive oil. Make sure to use only the tomato and not any of the liquid. You want the tomato sauce to have very little water. Have all the topping prepped before you move on the to next step.

Heat the oven to the highest temperature possible, and do this well in advance. We do this by setting the heat to come from both the top and the bottom of the oven, and by turning on the convection.

Next, with the help of a rolling pin, your hands, extra flour and plenty of patience, roll out the pizza disks. It does not harm to let the disks rest for  a few minutes. Lightly oil the pizza pan and place the disc on it. We use a pizza pan very similar to the one bellow, and it works out ok.

With the help of a spoon, spread a thin layer of tomato sauce over the disk, then sprinkle on the mozzarella evenly. Add anything else except for the ham, prosciutto, cherry tomatoes and rucola. Those toppings should be added to the pizza immediately as it comes out of the oven.

Before putting the pizza in the oven, you can add a sprinkle of coarse salt, a slug of olive oil, which can be massaged in the outer crust of the pizza for a better golden look, and pepper.

Put the pizza in the oven and monitor it closely. It takes about 7 minutes for it to cook. The outer crust should be a light golden brown and the cheese should be bubbly.

The fact that the oven is never as hot as it should be results in a pizza crust that is a bit soggy. That's one of the reasons why we should go easy on the amount of toppings we put on the pizza; mushrooms, for instance, are mostly water...

Rice and Beans

Quick, tasty, healthful, and cheap! Quite simple as well, although one could imagine a few variations. This serves two, with plenty of leftovers:

- 1 cup of pinto beans, soaked overnight in cold water
- 1 small onion, chopped
- 2 garlic cloves, smashed with the back of a knife
- 1 bay leaf
- 1400 g can of whole tomatoes
- salt and pepper to taste

Start by cooking the beans: drain the beans, put them in a pressure cooker, cover with cold water, add a pinch of salt and a slug of olive oil. Close the pressure cooker and place it over medium-high heat. Once the cooker reaches pressure, lower the heat to low and let it cook for 15 minutes. Reserve the cooking liquid.

Meanwhile, sweat the onion, garlic and bay leave in olive oil in a large saute pan. Once soft, add the tomatoes, crushing them with your hands. Slowly cook the tomatoes until a nice sauce forms. Season with salt and pepper. You may add a bit of the cooking liquid if it becomes too dry.

Add the drained beans along with some cooking liquid. Bring to a boil and them reduce to low. Let it cook slowly, being careful not to burn or to let it become dry. Once all the flavors have melt, serve at once with a green salad and white rice. Hot sauce goes quite well with this. Alternatively, add a teaspoon or so o chilli flakes when frying the onion and garlic.