Ecstasy

My new thing is to make a small pizza for lunch. I only use a cup of flour; the pizza is about ten inches or a foot wide.

I just made one. After I ate it, I couldn’t get up from the chair. I just sat there, marveling at how good it was. I would marvel for a while, and then I’d think about something else, and then suddenly I’d say, out loud, “DAMN that was good.”

These are the little moments a cook lives for.

One of the most important parts of making a pizza with commercial sauce is forcing yourself to add enough water. You have to have a sauce that won’t hold a peak after you pull a spoon out. It seems counterintuitive, but trust me, it’s crucial. That’s what I did today. And I went easy on the cheese. I used King Arthur bread flour, without oil. I smeared oil on the outside while it rose, but there was no oil inside the dough.

I wish I could have another, right now. But lunch is behind me and I have to go back to poisoning the yard.