revised 24 August 2011

Meals for One

Stovetop Pizza

On previous day -- or several days before -- remove a one-roll lump of dough from the freezer and put it into the fridge. (If you give it more than one day to thaw, you can start filling the crust as soon as it's formed.)


The dough was five cups of white-wheat whole-grain flour, two cups of water, a teaspoon of yeast, a heaping teaspoon of granular lecithin, and salt to taste. I divided it into nine lumps. Since I regard half a cup of flour as a serving, it should have been ten, but it's easier to divide the dough into eight pieces. But the first division was asymmetric, so after dividing the smaller half into four pieces, I pulled a roll's worth of dough out of the mass before dividing the remainder into four pieces. It was frozen as soon as it was mixed up and divided; no rising time at all (rising puts antifreeze into dough and it will keep on rising in the freezer.)

I used fold-lock sandwich bags and twist-ties so I could squeeze all the air out of each package. (If you can find small twist-tie type bags, that's better.) The dough was sticky (the recipe was meant for red-wheat flour) so I lightly oiled the balls before putting them into the bags.

Don't worry too much about kneading the dough once it's thoroughly mixed; the gluten develops in the fridge.


Pour a little sesame oil into a six-inch cast-iron skillet (antique; the new ones are nutmeg graters). Tip the skillet until it covers the bottom -- or spread it out with your fingers; you are going to get them greasy anyway.

Press dough out until it fills bottom of pan, turn over so that the greasy side is up, continue pressing until the skillet is lined with a uniform layer of dough. Make it come a little above the edge of the skillet, as it will pull back some.

If the dough was freshly thawed, cover it with another skillet turned upside down onto this one and wait fifteen minutes. If the dough had bubbles in it, proceed to the next step at once; the chopping time will allow enough rising time.

Fill the shell with whatever is available. Meat should be pre-cooked, raw veggies should be sliced thin. Dot the top with dabs of canned salsa until nearly covered. Cover with the other skillet, nudging to be sure the edges align perfectly.

Turn on the gas, then turn it as low as you can without putting the fire out. After fifteen minutes, add a deli slice of mozzarella. Cook for another fifteen minutes, check that it isn't cooking too fast, cook fifteen more minutes. Turn out fire, set the cover skillet beside the cooking skillet, lift pizza so that it balances on their edges and the bottom doesn't get soggy (you can use a cake rack instead), wait five minutes, transfer pizza to a seven-inch paper plate, and serve.


«»«»«»«»«» «»«»«»«»«» «»«»«»«»«»

Table of Contents
Back to my home page.