It is the first Sunday of March. Maria and Matt came over to hangout at lunch time. If it is lunch time and it is a Sunday, there is a good chance there is going to be pizza. Even more so when Maria brings her own sauce:

Terri doesn’t like my sauce so I think she told Maria that her sauce was mandatory in order to participate in pizza day. They also brought over some fresh mozzarella:

I made enough dough for six pizzas since Zach and Ben were each interested in a pie for themselves. I have to admit that I did get lazy with the dough and used the stand mixer instead of kneading it by hand. I put the timer on for ten minutes and I stopped it a bit early because I could smell that the mixer was starting to struggle. I think that was too long. The dough was tougher than usual and I think it was overworked. I’ll try five minutes the next time that I’m lazy.

The first pizza was the standard cheese pizza. I’m not used to working with fresh mozzarella so I wasn’t sure exactly how much to put on. I thought this was enough:

The cheese is going to melt and spread? Well, it wasn’t quite enough:

Some slices turned out fine but others were just too devoid of cheese. I also pulled this out a bit early because the cheese was looking like it was done. It was done, but the crust wasn’t quite there yet. Maria’s sauce was good and was the highlight of this pizza. Everyone liked this one but with the overworked dough, the undercooked crust, and the splotchy cheese, I think they were just being nice.

The next one was the classic toppings pizza: pepperoni, onion, and black olives. More cheese went on this time. I forgot to get a photo before it went in the oven, but I did get a photo once it was in the oven:

That was a few minutes into the bake since the crust is looking puffy and well defined on the edges. The chunks of mozzarella get lost in those toppings but I guarantee it is there. Eight minutes later:

That is a pie that I was proud to serve up. Everyone at the table seemed happy with that one too:

What I wasn’t happy with was the first photograph that I took of that pizza:

Yes, that is the exact same pizza. What is different between the two photographs? The lighting. We have a microwave mounted above the oven and it has some lights which you can turn on to illuminate the stove top. I usually have it on the “low” light setting which is the good photograph that you saw first. The photo directly above was with the “high” light setting. Never underestimate the effects that lighting has on a photo. After all, a photograph is just light.

The pizza was delicious but a little soupy. Terri said it was because of the onions. Maria thought it was due to the sauce. I think it was from the abundance of fresh mozzarella. Anyway, the DOP pizza from 2 Amy’s is a bit soupy so I guess it is a good thing. The bake on the crust was much better this time.

The next pizza was a repeat but with some shredded low-moisture mozzarella mixed in with the fresh:

What I find interesting with this pizza is how the olives got submerged in the cheese at the bottom but not at the top. I wonder how that happened.

That pizza was actually the fourth. The first was a pepperoni pizza for Ben but the photograph was ruined by the lighting. The last and fifth pizza was another pepperoni for Zach:

I botched one of the doughs so that was all six dough balls for today. Overall, it was a good pizza day but I was a bit off my game. Every pizza is a new learning experience and that is what makes it fun.

Leftovers from last week I baked up on Wednesday. I pulled the frozen dough out of the freezer about two hours before bake time. I placed the frozen rock of dough in a pan and then covered it. I almost dropped that on my foot. I think I would have broken a toe if I did.

Two hours ended up being a good time. It may not have been warmed enough to stretch by hand but it was good enough for the rolling pin. Dressed up the pizza looked like this:

Out of the oven:

I also had pasta twice this week and I successfully used up the bottle of Ledo sauce. It is great on pasta too. A carb heavy week, but for me, most of them are like that.