Skillet Pizza

Although Luke and I try to eat a paleo diet, there is one addicting non-paleo food we always find ourselves craving. Pizza! Once I discovered this fool-proof method to making pizza at home, I vowed never to order gross, greasy pizza again. With this method you will get a deliciously crispy crust every single time, and you can control the quality of all the toppings. I make a homemade dough and then top it with homemade pizza sauce (my mother-in-law's recipe), preservative-free pork sausage, chunks of part-skim mozzarella, and occasionally black olives. I haven't found a good recipe for paleo pizza crust, but I would love to try it using this method, so if you have one let me know! 

Skillet Pizza:

Dough:

(makes two skillet pizzas)

Ingredients:

3 cups all-purpose flour

1 (.25 ounce) package active dry yeast

2 tablespoons vegetable oil

1 teaspoon salt

1 tablespoon white sugar

1 cup warm water (110 degrees F/45 degrees C)

Directions:

Combine flour, salt, sugar, and yeast in a large bowl. Mix in oil and warm water.

Sauce:

(makes two to three skillet pizzas)

Ingredients:

Olive oil
2-3 crushed garlic cloves
1 can tomato paste

Water (1 tomato paste can)
1 teaspoon oregano

1 teaspoon parsley
1 teaspoon basil
1 teaspoon balsamic vinegar

1 teaspoon salt
Ground pepper

Jelly or sugar to taste

Directions:

Heat olive oil in a cast iron skillet, add crushed garlic, cook 1-2 minutes. Add tomato paste and cook for 4 minutes until color changes slightly. Add remaining ingredients and simmer for a few minutes.

Directions:

Heat oven to 400 and place a well-oiled cast iron skillet in for about 5 minutes or until it is hot. While it is heating up, divide your dough in half and work it into a circle, roughly the size of the skillet. Remove the skillet and press dough into bottom. Work quickly to get all the toppings on, and then return to the over for about 15-20 minutes, or until cheese begins to brown. Remove from the oven and slide onto a cutting board to cut. Alternate method of cooking: set the oven to broil, and the pizza will brown much quicker. In my oven the pizza still took about 10 minutes on broil, but if you have a better oven, yours will cook even faster.

Dough recipe from allrecipes.com: http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Pizza-Dough-I/Detail.aspx

Skillet pizza adapted from Bev Cooks: http://bevcooks.com/2012/12/skillet-pizza/

Click here to download a PDF of this recipe.

A double batch of dough, left in the fridge over night, and then used the next morning. Saved time in the morning!

Roll the dough out before putting in the pan. I added Italian spices to this dough.

Pizza assembled before cooking. Make sure you don't touch the pan while assembling it!

I wrapped the pizza in foil and it traveled perfectly to the beach.

Pizza picnic at the beach! Bro approved.