Skillet Pizza - Skip the freezer AND oven and make quick pizza with minimal energy!
It's Friday night and I'm ready for some bubbly pizza! But...I'm also pooped from the work week and looking for a simple kitchen prep. The temptation is to head to the grocery frozen food section and pick up a frozen pizza ..... processed miles away ...... wrapped in single use plastic ...... transported to the grocery store in energy guzzling frozen trucks .... kept in the freezer of the grocery and my kitchen until ... I pop it into my 400 degree oven to bring it back to life. Impressive embodied energy before it ever reaches my plate!
And, admittedly, sometimes I crumble to the convenience of this frozen pre-made pizza, BUT I am happy to report that this skillet pizza recipe below will get a pizza to your plate in the SAME amount of time it takes you to heat your oven and cook the frozen 'za! Oh, and it's SO delicious.
I recently submitted this article to Radiations Magazine (see pages 28-29) which highlights this recipe and the benefits of giving it a try..
Once you've done it a few times, it's fast food redefined - with much less wasted energy!
Give it a try and share it with friends! Each pizza takes under 6 minutes to cook!
Enjoy!
Skillet Pizza
(Dough recipe updated August, 2020 to yield a softer crust)
This is for an 8-inch pizza cooked in a 10-inch cast-iron skillet.
1. Bring skillet to medium heat.
2a. Sauté desired veggie toppings, such as onions, mushrooms, and black beans, on a cast-iron skillet. Remove the toppings and set aside, then wipe out any remaining scraps.
2b. While the veggies cook, make the dough. Mix together:
• 3/4 cup flour
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/3 teaspoon salt
• ~1/4 cup water
• 1 teaspoon olive oil
• After the dough is roughly combined, turn it out onto a floured surface and knead the dough until it stays together, adding more flour or water as necessary to form a smooth ball.
• Roll or press into an 9-inch round.
3. Heat the cast-iron skillet to medium high and coat it with a thin layer of canola oil.
4. Place the 8-inch dough round on the skillet and turn the burner down to medium low. Let the dough cook for a couple of minutes.
5. Spray the top (uncooked) side of the dough with oil and flip the dough over so the uncooked side is on the bottom.
6. Quickly top with sauce, veggies, and cheese.
7. Put a lid on the skillet, turn the burner off, and cook for 2–3 more minutes to allow the bottom to cook and the cheese to melt.
8. Remove from skillet, cut, and enjoy!
Radiations Magazine link (see pages 28-29): https://www.sigmapisigma.org/sites/default/files/files/publications/radiations/2019/Radiations-Spring-2019-web.pdf
Note: the dough recipe was updated 8/2020 to include baking power rather than yeast for a quicker rise for this fast pizza recipe
