All Dressed, please!

dressing your pizza is, less is more! What I mean by that is that the more you pile onto your crust, the more likely that it won’t bake properly, you’ll end up with a soggy bottom crust and a liquidy puddle on the top. Less toppings will ensure a firmer bottom crust, will allow for a more even cooking, eliminate a watery top and generally allow for the flavours to be enhanced.

So what is the right way to dress a pizza? Once your dough has been rolled and is ready to be dressed here are a few tips and tricks that I have learned over the years:

Sauce: Traditionally, pizza sauce is a tomato base. The difference between using a prepared spaghetti sauce and a pizza sauce is that the spaghetti sauce is cooked and the pizza sauce is raw, spiced, crushed tomatoes pure and oil.

You can also use tomato purée or here is a quick and easy sauce recipe. Add a can of water or wine to a 156ml can of tomato paste, a third can of olive oil, a clove or two of fresh garlic, a teaspoon each of basil and oregano, a pinch of rosemary and salt and pepper to taste. Other sauces I use are extra virgin olive oil with spices, Alfredo sauce, mustard, spicy salsa and even a good brown gravy works, but that certainly is not an exhaustive list.

Meats: Pepperoni probably remains the all time favourite, but there are so many other choices: sliced or cubed ham, chicken or turkey breast, cooked chicken breast, smoked meat, and just about any sliced deli meat. I try to stay away from meats like salami that have a higher fat content as it makes the pizza too greasy. For those of you who are vegetarian or vegan, there are meat alternatives that give that meaty flavour and texture, like tofu or seitan sausage. But honestly, pizza is not limited to meats by any means.

Vegetables: I have tried quite a variety of vegetables. Some of my favourites are green peppers, mushrooms, onions, and zucchinis. I like to liven up my pizzas by making “confetti pepper”, which are diced red, green, yellow, and orange peppers, it makes for such a pretty display of colour. Other vegetable choices are sliced cherry tomatoes, Kalamata olives, asparagus, eggplant and, whether you agree or not, pineapple. Also, adding a few fresh basil leaves after taking the pizza out of the oven adds such a delicate flavour.

Cheese: Mozzarella is the go-to cheese for pizza because it is not as oily as, say, cheddar. Provolone and Parmesan are great choices too. Sometimes I like to add feta or a good blue cheese for flavour, in smaller quantities. There is nothing wrong with experimenting with your favourite cheeses to see what you like best on your pizza.

The big question is “Cheese on the bottom or cheese on top?” That really depends on the toppings. Some vegetables hold more water and if you put them on top, they may tend to become dry. I used to always put the cheese on top, but if you have different sorts of pizzas at the same meal, it can be difficult to distinguish which one is which, as they will pretty much all look the same. In more recent years, I have chosen to put the cheese over the meat but under the vegetables, which makes the pizza look spectacular. Small cut pepperoni can go over the cheese as well.

Another option is to chop and mix all the ingredients together in a bowl including the cheese before topping the pizza. The benefit of this is that you will be able to dress more pizzas with a smaller amount of toppings. The coverage will be more homogenous without compromising on flavour.

That’s pizza dressing in a nutshell. Have fun experimenting with topping your pizzas.

If you would like to try Brad’s Gourmet Pizza dough mix, visit www.bradsgourmet.com.

I would love to hear your feedback and answer any pizza related questions.