pool time

Today and tomorrow feature more recipes from the weekend with Marissa’s friends visiting from Tucson. When they arrived late on Friday afternoon, they promptly hit the pool to cool off and play volleyball and basketball.  There were also some wicked ping pong matches happening under the patio. I took a dozen pictures of the guys doing the “jump shots” at one end of the pool… showing off for the ladies and for each other. In every single photo, you can see the guys (John, Will, and Chris above – not pictured: Albert, Kevin, and Shoaib) totally enthralled with their moves – while the girls, (Paige, Astrid, and Marissa) at the other end of the pool, are completely oblivious of them… cracks me up!

There are two ingredients here that you may or may not be familiar with. If you’re not sure what either Nduja or piquillo peppers are, just click on their name and a link will take you to a previous post all about them. With all the young men to feed, I, of course, doubled the recipe.

Pool Time Pizza

Dough
1 cup warm water
1 tablespoon yeast
1 tablespoon honey
1 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon olive oil
3 cups flour

Pizza
1 cup marinara sauce
3 large balls of buffalo mozzarella, cut into small cubes
1/4 cup crumbled Nduja
3 roasted piquillo peppers, thinly sliced
1/2 cup shredded Parmesan cheese
2 tablespoons olive oil
Fresh basil leaves
6 slices prosciutto, thinly sliced

Dough: Place water and yeast in the bowl of a standing mixer and dissolve yeast. Add honey, salt, and olive oil and stir well. Slowly add flour until dough forms. Remove from the bowl and knead on a lightly floured surface until smooth, about 5 minutes.

Place in an oiled bowl covered with a towel and allow to rise for about 1 hour.  Divide dough into 8 balls. Let dough rest for another 10 minutes before forming into 8 individual pizza crusts.

Place a pizza stone in an oven and preheat to 500 degrees for at least 20 minutes.

Pizza: Spread marinara sauce evenly over the dough leaving a 1/4-inch border, sauce-free, for a crust. Distribute mozzarella cheese evenly over pizzas followed by the Nduja, peppers, and Parmesan. Drizzle the olive oil over the top.

Place pizzas on the preheated pizza stone and bake until the crust is golden brown and the cheese has melted and begun to brown, about 5 to 7 minutes.

Remove from oven and top with basil and prosciutto.

Makes 8 individual pizzas