We always make pizza with our fresh heirloom tomatoes. We’ve done it on a pizza stone in the oven and outside, on the grill. Both are wonderful! But, I came across an idea to bake them in a cast iron skillet, which I had to try. When I bake on the pizza stone, it takes a long time to bring the stone to temp, and the whole process usually makes a big mess. This recipe only baked for about 20 minutes, in a cold skillet, once the oven came up to temperature.
I will be honest: the crust does not come close to the crust I get following my usual recipe. But, the delicious sweetness of the heirloom tomatoes makes this dish a winner for quick summertime suppers!
To make the crust:
-
- Dissolve 1 Tbl yeast in 1 cup warm water.
- Combine 2 cups flour and 1-1/2 tsp salt. Add the water and yeast mixture and 1-1/2 Tbl olive oil.
- Form a ball and knead, adding an additional 1/2 flour, or more, as needed, until dough is smooth and elastic.
- Cover and let rise for about an hour.
- Cut in half to make 2 pizza crusts.
- Preheat oven to 500 degrees.
- Lightly grease a large cast iron skillet. Roll out 1/2 the dough to fit.
- Add toppings, as desire.
- Bake 18-20 minutes. Cool 5 minutes before slicing.
What I did:
- Brush crust with olive oil infused with crushed garlic.
- Top with some freshly grated Parmesan cheese.
- Slice a variety of fresh heirloom tomatoes on top and sprinkle tomatoes with Italian seasoning.
- Top with an Italian cheese blend, some hot pepper flakes, another sprinkle of freshly grated Parmesan and some fresh basil.
- Bake for 20 minutes.
These were so good that we ate them many times throughout the season!
When I was canning this year’s pizza sauce, I had enough left over to try the skillet method using my own sauce. It was delicious! I did precook the crust a little bit, because I’m not happy with the doneness of the crust after only 20 minutes in the oven. I’m still experimenting with the crust, but I’m sold on this method of having fresh, homemade pizza in less time than I can send out for pizza delivery!
