Stove top pizza

The worst thing about making pizza, in my opinion, is firing up the oven. To avoid that, I learned how to make pizza on BBQ. Which also has to be fired up. And is somewhat messy if one is not super careful. But the BBQ pizza inspired me to try baking pizza on the stove top, and when I had adopted cast iron pans, that became a real possibility. When I have the dough prepared in the fridge, it takes me likely under 20 minutes to have a simple pizza on a plate. You can do it too :)

Dough

This is the same dough that I used in my old post about pizza:

• 1 cup firm sourdough starter
• 1 cup flour
• 1 TBS drier oregano (optional)
• 1 tsp salt
• 1-2 TBS olive oil
• water, as needed, likely just a few TBSs

In a food processor, using a kneading blade, knead all the ingredients. Add just enough water to get a soft dough, but don't go too far to make it super sticky. The kneading time in my food processor is about 5 minutes.

Take the dough out of a food processor, fold it repeatedly to form a ball, and place the ball into an oiled bowl. Cover with plastic wrap.

You can use the dough right away, or let it rise a bit, or keep it in a fridge for up to a week.

Pizza

Take about 1/2 to 3/4 cup of dough, or whatever quantity works for you - I like pizza with a pretty thin crust, and your taste may be different. Important: The dough should be at a room temperature. Cold dough is hard to roll out and it doesn't rise that nicely when you bake it, and you risk your pizza to be super hard.

Take a clean, dry, well seasoned 10 inch cast iron pan, and set it on medium heat for 5-15 minutes, just before is smokes. While the pan is heating up, roll out the dough on a lightly floured surface. Making a lip is your choice. I tend not to bother.

Place the dough in the pan, cover the pan with a lid, and bake for about 4-5 minutes on medium to medium low heat .The time really depends on the thickness of the dough, and on your stove, so this is one place where you have to experiment. When the top of the dough starts looking dry and shows bubbles, and the bottom starts to develop brown blisters, flip the dough over. 

What you put on the pizza is up to you. I like to spread some good tomato sauce, sprinkle it with capers, and add a few slices of mozzarella. Take it easy with the quantity of the toppings - this is a thin pizza that does not need much.

Cover the pan, and cook until the sauce is hot and the cheese is melted, for about 4-5 minutes. It is OK to check before that.

With tongs, slide pizza on a cutting board, make your slices, optionally decorate with pesto, and enjoy. It turns out this pizza goes very well with smoked salmon. This is how we consumed it.

Smoked salmon pizza

Here is my variation on the famous Wolfgang Puck's recipe: Use sauteed onions as your only topping. When the pizza is baked, cool it off a bit on a cutting board. Then spread over some sour cream that you mixed with a few TBSs of lemon juice and optionally some dill, dry or fresh. Finally, spread over thin slices of smoked salmon. If you have some caviar, use it to decorate the pizza.