Eggplant and Anchovy Pizza

I LOVE bread.  If I could only eat three things for the rest of my life I would choose prosciutto, fresh baked bread, and real parmesan cheese... I think I might actually be Italian at heart.

So when my aunt Laura gave me a cookbook called Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day, I got super excited.

My first experiment from the book was the neapolitan pizza with eggplant and anchovy.  I also decided to make a mushroom, prosciutto and goat cheese pizza.

They both used the olive oil dough:
2 3/4 cups lukewarm water
1 1/2 TBLS granulated yeast
1 1/2 TBLS salt
1 TBLS sugar
1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
6 1/2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour

1. Mix the yeast, salt, sugar, and olive oil with the water in a 5-quart bowl, or a lidded (not airtight) food container.

2. Mix in the flour without kneading, using a spoon, a 14-cup capacity food processor (with dough attachment), or a heavy-duty stand mixer (with dough hook).  If you're not using the machine, you may need to use wet hands to incorporate the last bit of flour.

3. Cover (not airtight), and allow to rest at room temperature until dough rises and collapses (or flattens on top), approximately 2 hours.

4. The dough can be used immediately after the initial rise, though it is easier to handle when cold.  Refrigerate in a lidded (not airtight) container and use over the next 12 days.

Misshapen deliciousness

1 lb (grapefruit-size portion) of dough above.
1/2 cup canned italian-style chopped tomatoes, strained and pressed of liquid
1/2 small eggplant, sliced, cut into bite-size pieces, and brushed with olive oil
4 canned or jarred anchovy fillets, chopped
1/4 lb sliced fresh mozzarella cheese
1 TBLS grated parmigiano-Reggiano cheese
cornmeal for covering the pizza peel

1. Twenty minutes before baking time, preheat the oven with a baking stone at 550* (or 500* if that's your oven's maximum).  Shelf placement is not critical for pizza.

2. Prepare and measure all the toppings in advance.  The key to a pizza that slides right off the peel is to work quickly- don't let the dough sit on the peel any longer than necessary.

3. Dust the surface of the refrigerated dough with flour and cut off a 1 lb piece.  Dust the piece with more flour and quickly shape it into a ball by stretching the surface of the dough around to the bottom on all four sides, rotating the ball a quarter-turn as you go.

4. Flatten the dough with your hands and a rolling pin on a wooden board to produce a 1/8-inch-thick round, dust with flour to keep the dough from sticking to the rolling pin and board.  A little sticking to the board can be helpful in overcoming the dough's resistance to stretch, so don't overuse the flour, and consider using a dough scraper to "unstick" the dough from the board.  You may also need to let the partially rolled dough sit for a few minutes to "relax" to allow further rolling.  At this point, stretching by hand may help, followed by additional rolling.  Place the rolled-out dough onto a liberally cornmeal-covered pizza peel.

5. Distribute the tomatoes over the surface of the dough.  Do not cover the dough thickly.

6. Scatter the mozzarella over the surface of the dough, then the eggplant, anchovies, and parm.  No further resting is needed prior to baking.

7. If you have an exhaust fan, turn it on now, because some of the cornmeal on the pizza peel will smoke at this temperature.  Slide the pizza directly onto the stone.  Check for doneness in 8-10minutes; at this time, turn the pizza around in the oven if one side is browning faster than the other.  It may need up to 5 more minutes in the oven.

8. Allow to cool slightly on a cooling rack before serving, to allow the cheese to set.