Pizzeria Filippo

All last week, Todd and I looked forward to hitting Eastern Market on Saturday to buy flowers for this year's garden. So when Saturday morning arrived, we headed straight down to the city.

First, a requisite stop at Avalon Bakery for coffee and almond brioches. They've become my current obsession: rich, buttery, flaky brioche dough surrounding a generous filling of sweet almond paste. For a while, Todd had me hooked on Avalon's date bars, with their sticky date filling between layers of crumbly oatmeal crust. Unfortunately, as with most things, I indulged one time too often, and finally retired it from the repetoire. It'll return soon enough.

When we arrived at the Market and realized it was still too cold for the flower vendors to be out en masse, we considered momentarily to turn around and go home. But the call of the fresh produce was much too loud, and we decided to stay and see what struck our fancy.

What I love most about the Market is that you can get so much for a fraction of supermarket prices. I picked up two pounds of yellow and orange bell peppers for $2, which I later saw at my local grocery store for $3.99/lb. In addition, I grabbed a couple of heads of broccoli, a bunch of asparagus, and loads of garlic.

At Todd's suggestion, I decided to make homemade pizza with the bounty of vegetables that had made it into the shopping bag. Homemade dough has never really been at the top of my culinary repetoire: the yeast, the kneading, the rising, and the forming always seemed such a chore, so I relied mostly on store-bought dough whenever the mood for homemade pizza struck. However, after talking recently about the delicious pizzas turned out by Todd's mom, I decided to give it another whirl, and quite enjoyed it!

I found a recipe in my Martha Stewart cookbook and adapted it slightly to suit my needs--I doubled the recipe to make multiple pizzas and substituted some of the all-purpose flour with whole wheat for a twist on the traditional crust. It made enough dough for three pizzas--I made two last night, and stored the remainder in a zipper bag in the refrigerator, to make breadsticks later in the week.

Pizza #1 was topped with my homemade roasted-tomato marinara, sauteed mushrooms, bell peppers, asparagus, broccoli, and three cheeses: mozzarella, fontina, and parmigiano. Pizza #2 (pictured) was topped with the same marinara, sauteed baby spinach, toasted pine nuts, and four cheeses: the same as #1, plus crumbled gorgonzola. John, who joined us for dinner, suggested drizzling Pizza #1 with white truffle oil, which added a pungent, earthy flavor that I'm still not completely sold on.

So, for future reference, here's the dough recipe I used, with my adaptations:

WHOLE-WHEAT PIZZA DOUGH
2 pkgs. yeast
1 c. plus 1-1/2 c. lukewarm water
4 c. all-purpose flour
2 c. whole wheat flour
3 t. salt
2 T. olive oil

In a large bowl, dissolve yeast in 1 c. water. Let proof 10 minutes.

Add flours, salt, oil, and remaining water. Mix well and knead until dough is smooth, approximately 10 minutes.

Place dough in an oiled bowl, cover with plastic wrap, followed by a towel, then set aside in a warm place to rise until it doubles in bulk (approx. 1 to 1-1/2 hours). Punch down dough and let rest another 10 minutes.

Divide dough form into crusts of desired sizes and shapes. This recipe makes 3 pizzas of medium thickness or 4 thin-crust pizzas.

Top pizzas as desired, drizzle with olive oil, and bake at 375 degrees on a cornmeal-coated sheet pan until crust is browned and cheese is golden.