Indulge in Cheesemonger Mia's TCPGR Homemade Pizza featuring the delightful kick of Basil Jack. Crafted with love and expertise, this recipe yields two delectable 10-inch pizzas that promise to tantalize your taste buds. The dough, made from scratch with a blend of yeast, sugar, warm water, and flour, forms the perfect foundation for your culinary masterpiece. Brushed with olive oil and topped with a savory sauce infused with balsamic vinegar, shallots, garlic, and fragrant herbs, these pizzas are then generously adorned with grated Kickaas Jack with Basil, adding a burst of fresh flavor to every bite.
Makes approximately 2 - 10” pizzas
Dough
2 ¼ teaspoons active dry yeast
½ teaspoon granulated sugar
1 cup warm water
1 teaspoon salt
1 ½ tablespoons olive oil
2 ½ cups all-purpose flour
Instructions
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Preheat oven to 450°F
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Pour warm water into a mixing bowl, add sugar, olive oil, and yeast. Let the mixture sit for about five minutes. The mixture should begin to foam and bubble, indicating the yeast is activated. If this does not happen, either the water was too hot, or the yeast has expired.
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Add in salt
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Add flour little by little, stirring with a wooden spoon or the bread hook on a stand mixer.
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Knead for about five minutes, until the dough comes together into a smooth, dense ball.
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Divide into two. At this point, you can store the dough in the refrigerator for up to five days, or the freezer indefinitely.
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Roll dough out on a floured counter into two approximately 10” circles.
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Brush crusts with a thin coating of olive oil
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Cover with sauce (see below), leaving about ½” of crust free around the perimeter of the pizza. If you don’t have the time or ingredients to make a pizza sauce from scratch, store-bought is fine.
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Top pizzas with grated Kickaas Jack with Basil, roughly ½ pound per pizza.
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Using a pizza peel or spatula, transfer pizzas to a preheated oven. (If you have one, use a pizza stone for best results!)
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Allow to bake for roughly 12-15 minutes, until the cheese begins to turn a golden brown, and color appears on the crust. This may take more or less time depending on your oven and pizza stone, so it’s best to keep an eye on them!
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Remove from heat, allow to cool for approximately five minutes before serving.
Cheesemonger’s tip! Bring out the light, fresh flavor of the Kickaas Jack with Basil by serving pizzas with a rich, dry Cabernet Sauvignon.
Sauce
5-6 Roma tomatoes
1 tablespoon balsamic vinegar
2 tablespoons olive oil
2 finely-diced shallots
3 cloves fresh garlic
Oregano, red pepper flake, and salt to taste
Sauce Instructions
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Pour olive oil into a large saucepan on low heat, and add garlic. Let the garlic “sweat” to bring out flavor, keeping heat low to ensure that it does not burn.
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Add shallots, continue to simmer on low heat
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Purée tomatoes in a blender or food processor, and add to the saucepan, allow the
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mixture to partially reduce, stirring periodically.
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Add balsamic vinegar and other seasonings to taste, continue to reduce until the mixture reaches the consistency of a marinara sauce.