PIZZA NIGHT KATE McMILLAN PHOTOGRAPHS BY ERIN KUNKEL CONTENTS INTRODUCTION ANATOMY OF A PIZZA PIZZA PRIMER DOUGHS Thin-Crust Pizza Dough Deep-Dish Pizza Dough Gluten-Free Pizza Dough Whole-Wheat Pizza Dough Cauliflower Pizza Dough SAUCES Tomato Sauce Olive Tapenade Basil Pesto White Pizza Sauce Roasted Red Pepper Pesto PIZZAS VEGETARIAN Shaved Asparagus & Herb Pizza with Egg Margherita Pizza Wild Mushroom, Kale & Fontina Pizza Artichoke, Spinach & Olive Tapenade Pizza Spicy Eggplant, Basil & Tomato Pizza Leek, Potato & Rosemary Pizza Broccoli Rabe, Garlic & Smoked Mozzarella Pizza Four Cheese Pizza Zucchini, Red Pepper, Olive & Teleme Pizza Feta, Cherry Tomato & Olive Tapenade Pizzettes Roasted Squash, Smoked Mozzarella & Sage Pizzettes Asparagus & Goat Cheese Pizza with Red Pepper Pesto Pesto, Ricotta & Cherry Tomato Pizza Deep-Dish Pizza with Mushrooms, Red Onion & Kale MEAT Mushroom, Salami & Black Olive Pizza Mini Meatball & Red Onion Pizza Bocconcini & Prosciutto Pizza with Arugula Pancetta & Caramelized Onion Pizza Ground Beef, Green Olive & Asiago Pizza Fig Jam, Gorgonzola & Prosciutto Pizza Pepperoni, Roasted Pepper & Mozzarella Pizza Chorizo & Sautéed Greens Pizza Fully-Loaded Deep-Dish Pizza Fennel Sausage, Ricotta & Fresh Tomato Pizza Caramelized Pineapple & Sopressata Pizza Kale, Chicken & Smoked Cheddar Pizza Five-Spice Chicken, Chinese Eggplant & Thai Basil Pizza Brussels Sprouts & Bacon Pizza SPECIALTY Spicy Kalamata, Anchovy & Caper Pizza Smoked Salmon & Red Onion Pizzettes Brie & Apple Pizzettes with Rosemary & Shallots Eggplant, Mozzarella & Basil Calzones Sausage, Peperoncini & Mozzarella Calzone Three-Cheese Stromboli with Pesto & Red Peppers Grilled Pizza with Mozzarella, Prosciutto & Peaches Shrimp & Feta Pizza with Roasted Red Pepper Pesto Andouille, Shrimp & Fontina Pizza White Clam Pizza Chicken Caesar Piadine EASY SIDES & SALADS Chopped Salad with Tarragon-Buttermilk Dressing Grilled Vegetables with Balsamic Vinegar & Thyme Antipasti Salad Caprese Salad with Balsamic Syrup Spinach, Pear, Red Onion & Bacon Salad Squash, Dried Cherry, Walnut & Arugula Salad Haricots Verts & Cherry Tomato Salad Kale, Chickpea & Ricotta Salata Salad Zucchini Ribbons with Parmesan, Lemon & Mint MENUS INDEX PIZZA FOR DINNER Everyone likes pizza night. And if there’s anything better than pizza night, it’s homemade pizza night. Making pizza at home that is the equal of some of the best pies you have tasted in pizzerias is surprisingly easy. Indeed, all that’s needed for even the novice cook to master pizza making at home is a little planning, a few hours of practice, and a collection of great recipes. With this book in hand, you can gather family and friends for a pizza dinner whenever the inspiration or the craving strikes. Here, you’ll find simple recipes for doughs, sauces, pizzas, salads, and sides, as well as tips and timelines for ensuring that pizza night is a delicious, wholesome, and fun meal everyone will enjoy. One reason pizza is wildly popular is because it boasts countless variations. For example, a crust can be gluten-free or whole wheat, cracker thin or deep dish. It might be spread with a traditional tomato sauce or with a heady basil pesto and then topped with nearly any cheese imaginable, from mozzarella to ricotta to feta, along with a vegetable, meat, or seafood. It is easily geared to dietary restrictions, too, whether diners are vegetarians, gluten intolerant, or just watching calories. Doughs and sauces can often be made in advance and frozen, a time-saver for busy cooks. Toward that end, each of the dough recipes that follows yields two crusts, so you can use half of the dough the day you make it and freeze the rest for another night. With the dough and sauce already on hand, a whole pie can come together in less than a half hour. When you pair it with an easy vegetable-based side dish, pizza night becomes a balanced dinner. Making your own pizza also saves money, and you can control the quality of the ingredients and what and how much goes on each pie. Pizza night might feature a classic offering, such as a margherita, or be an excuse to use up leftovers in the fridge, like cooked chicken or last night’s grilled zucchini. For weekend entertaining, it’s easy to dress up pizza with special toppings. You might even arrange the options on a buffet and invite guests to assemble their own pies. Once you dip into the following pages, impatiently awaiting a pizza delivery or sliding a supermarket-bought frozen pie into the oven will be forever in the past, and pizza night will mean only one thing: pizza made just the way everyone likes it.