“Being in this band in the early 1980′s made you feel like you were part of a pizza.” -Roger Taylor, drummer of English 80′s superband Duran Duran

A chef pal of mine once threw a great dinner party where everyone was asked to bring a pizza topping of their choice, and in return they’d see to it that a mass quantity of homemade dough was ready to rock.  We’d all hang out and have drinks and make pizzas together.  There were a few grumblings and moans and groans about being invited over only to be put to work singing for your supper, but what a fantastic icebreaker it turned out to be!  In a room full of strangers I didn’t know, everyone instantly fell into casual, friendly dialogue about what they’d brought to share, everyone worked together to make a huge feast to share, and everyone tried everyone else’s creations.  And the more drinks we had, the more interesting the pizzas became.  (I said interesting.  Which does not necessarily equal good.)  Anyway, it was great fun, and I really got a sense of just how versatile a pizza really is.  The possibilities and combinations and permutations are as vast as your imagination when it comes to a big disc of homemade dough.

If you’ve been following along with me recently, you know I’m very interested in the pursuit of excellent bread-making at home.  You also know that I’m kind of scared of it, want to start slowly, and wasn’t totally thrilled with my first attempt.  I figured I could handle some pizza dough with a little bit of research.  What I found was that all the “bread snob” books and even my pastry chef wanted me to use fresh yeast, but all I ever have around is the regular little packets of active dry yeast from normal grocery stores.  I’m sure the fresh yeast stuff is great and all, but I’m discovering that it’s rather hard to find, so my recipe is adapted for use with active dry yeast so that it’s a bit more accessible.

So now that the dough is out of the way, what about the topping?  Well, the answer came to me while perusing “Well Preserved,” a wonderful book dedicated to applying the old-school arts of food preservation to more modern and sophisticated food.  Author Eugenia Bone provides a master recipe for some type of preserved item, and then a small series of recipes using that item.  Everything in her book looks mouth-wateringly good, but her green olive tapenade pizza practically jumped off of the page and into my mouth.  I had to get in the lab and tinker around.

The recipe that follows is the result of 2 separate attempts at nailing it, as well as research from several different books.  The beauty of this recipe is that virtually the entire thing takes place in the food processor, and you get breaks in between tasks that are just long enough for a glass of wine or a cocktail.  (That, and your reward for all of your hard work are 2 delicious, fresh, hot, homemade pizzas.)  Worth it, much?

Ingredients:

For the pizza dough:

1 envelope (1/4 oz.) active dry yeast (NOTE:  I used Fleischmann’s Active Dry Yeast)

Pinch sugar

1 1/2 cups warm water (not over 125ºF, or the heat will kill the yeast)

4 1/2 cups bread flour, plus extra bench flour (NOTE:  I used Gold Medal’s Better For Bread bread flour)

1 1/2 tsp. kosher salt

2 tbsp. olive oil

For the tapenade & topping:

8 oz. (drained weight) green olives, such as Cerignola, Sicilian, or Picholine, pitted

1 tbsp. nonpareil capers

1 large clove garlic, washed & peeled

Juice of 1/2 lemon

1 tsp. anchovy paste or 1 whole anchovy fillet, small bones removed

Handful of fresh parsley leaves (preferably “Flat Leaf” or “Italian” parsley), washed & dried well

1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil

1 ball (approx. 1 lb.) of fresh buffalo mozzarella, unsalted

Kosher salt & freshly ground black pepper

Fleur de Sel or Sea Salt, for sprinkling

Instructions:

1.  Set up a food processor with the dough blade attached.  (Blade should be labelled as such.)  Also, make sure you have a very clean counter surface on which to knead and shape the dough later.

2.  Empty the active dry yeast packet into a small stainless steel or glass bowl and add a pinch of sugar.  Pour 1 cup of the warm water over the yeast and sugar and set the remaining 1/2 cup aside.  Allow the yeast to activate for 5 minutes.  If the bowl smells like yummy fresh bread and there are bubbles on the surface of the water, it worked.  The yeast is ready to use.

3.  Dump the bread flour, yeast mixture, and salt into the food processor and pulse until just combined.  Run the food processor fully and stream in the rest of the warm water and allow to process for 30 seconds, or until a rough ball forms.  Turn off the machine for 2 minutes, allow dough to rest, and then process for 30 more seconds.

4.  Turn the dough ball out onto a lightly floured and clean counter, and knead by hand for about 5 minutes.  You want to develop the glutens and wind up with a very smooth, soft, round ball.  (This is totally the fun, Play-Doh part…..)  If the dough starts to stick to the counter at any point, just sprinkle out some more flour as needed.  After kneading, place the dough into a glass or stainless steel bowl coated with a very thin layer of olive oil and cover with a slightly damp towel.  Allow to rise in a relatively warm place until doubled in size, about 1-1 1/2 hours.

5.  When about 30 minutes are left in the rising time, get the oven going.  Make sure there is a rack in the middle of the oven, and place an upside-down sheet pan on top of the rack, or a baking stone if you have one.  Set the oven for 500ºF and allow to preheat.

6.  Clean out the food processor and switch to the regular chopping blade in order to make the tapenade.  Dump the pitted olives, capers, garlic, lemon juice, anchovy paste or fillet, and parsley into the food processor, and pulse until the mixture is finely minced but still has some texture to it.  Slowly stream in the olive oil while continuing to pulse until incorporated and combined.  (NOTE:  You will not use up all of the olive oil here.  Just use enough to bind the mixture together and make it spreadable and shiny, and reserve the rest for the dough.)  Season the tapenade to taste with salt and pepper and set aside at room temperature while you finish the dough.

7.  When the dough has properly risen, turn it out onto a lightly floured counter.  Cut into two even pieces, shape each into a smooth, round ball (working quickly), and wrap each ball with plastic wrap.  Allow to rest for 20-30 more minutes.  Working with one ball of rested dough at a time, press out onto a sheet of parchment paper with fingertips until you have a disc roughly 1/2″ thick.  Place the palm of one hand in the center of the disc, and use the other hand to stretch the dough out gently in all directions until you have a a diameter of 10-12″.

8.  Slice the mozzarella cheese into even slices, roughly 1/8″ thick.  Arrange half of the the cheese slices evenly around the stretched pizza dough, leaving a border about 1/2″ thick around the edges of the disc.  Spread half of the tapenade evenly around the disc over the cheese slices.  Using a pastry brush, brush the edges of the disc liberally with olive oil and sprinkle the edges generously with Fleur de Sel or sea salt.  Slide the whole pizza and the parchment paper onto the overturned, hot baking sheet or baking stone in the oven and bake for about 10-12 minutes, or until the crust is puffed and golden and the mozzarella melts and begins to bubble and turn brown in patches.  Remove from oven and allow to cool on a rack before dividing and serving as desired.

9.  Repeat step 8 for the other ball of dough.

Yield: 2 10-12″ pizzas.  Pizza Pizza!