PW’s Pizza Crust, Kind Of

We love making pizza at home. For the longest time I’ve been using the Olive Oil dough recipe from Artisan Bread in 5 Minutes a Day, which is good and easy to make. But this time around I decided to try Pioneer Woman’s pizza crust recipe, which she raves about, and when have I ever made anything of PW’s that’s been less than stellar? Answer: never.

So I got started and I wasn’t too far into the recipe when I realized it called for 1/3 cup of olive oil, and I had… none. There was no going back at this point, so I used regular ol’ vegetable oil. Did it make a difference? No idea. The crust was awesome. A definite winner over the crust I’ve been making. But I shouldn’t have been surprised. When has PW ever steered me wrong? Answer: never.

This was supposed to be a pepperoni and olive pizza. Unfortunately as I started to put the pepperoni on, I realized they’d been in the fridge a little too long and had mold on them. Sad 😦 So we had olive pizza. And it was delicious! I really didn’t miss the pepperoni at all. You can use whatever toppings you like, of course. Even if it’s just olives.

Pioneer Woman’s Pizza Crust (from her cookbook)

• 1 tsp or 1/2 packet active dry yeast
• 4 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 tsp kosher salt
• 1/3 cup olive (or vegetable) oil, plus more for drizzling

Pour 1 1/2 cups warm water into a bowl. Sprinkle the yeast over the water.

Combine the flour and salt in a mixing bowl.

With an electric mixer on low speed, drizzle in the oil until just incorporated. Or, you can use a spoon. Which is what I did.

In a separate bowl, gently stir the yeast/water mixture, and drizzle it into the flour/oil mixture. Mix until the dough forms a ball. You can use your hands if you like, which I did here, until the dough comes together.

Drizzle a little oil into a clean bowl, or mist with cooking spray. Toss the ball of dough in the bowl and turn over to coat in oil.

Cover the bowl with a moist kitchen towel and set in a warm place for 1-2 hours, or cover with plastic wrap and store in the fridge for up to 2 days.

To prepare the pizza, preheat oven to 500 degrees. Divide the dough in half. Lightly drizzle olive oil on a pizza pan or baking sheet. Or use parchment paper and no oil.

Using your hands, stretch the dough to the desired shape. Spread sauce and/or desired toppings over the dough and bake for 8-10 minutes, until the edges of the crust are golden brown.

The other half of the dough may be wrapped tightly in plastic wrap and refrigerated up to 3 days before use, or frozen for up to 6 months.

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Marinated Shrimp Pasta

This isn’t a low-cal meal, but if you want to make yourself feel better about eating it, it does contain quite a bit of olive oil, which is high in the “good” fats (monounsaturated). As per some of the reviews of this recipe, I decreased the amount of olive oil by half, as well as the salt content, and was happy I did.

The marinade is originally intended for grilling the shrimp, but I used the broiler instead and used the leftover marinade to toss with the cooked shrimp and pasta. It was delicious.

My intention was to serve this with a really good salad, but it ended up being a mediocre salad because the cucumbers I thought I had in the fridge turned out to be zucchini, which unfortunately doesn’t works quite as well in a salad.

Marinated Shrimp Pasta (Original recipe here)

• 1/2 cup olive oil
• 1/4 cup chopped fresh parsley
• 2 tablespoons hot pepper sauce
• 3 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 tablespoon ketchup
• 2 teaspoons dried oregano
• ½ tsp salt
• 1 teaspoon ground black pepper
• 1 lemon, juiced
• 1 pound large shrimp, peeled and deveined
• 1/2 lb (8 oz) linguine pasta

In a mixing bowl, mix together olive oil, parsley, hot sauce, garlic, tomato paste, oregano, salt, and black pepper. Pour marinade into a large resealable plastic bag with shrimp. Seal, and marinate in the refrigerator for 1 1/2 to 2 hours. During last 15 minutes, add lemon juice.

Cook pasta according to package directions.

Remove shrimp from marinade, place on greased baking sheet, and broil 3-4 minutes each side, until done (shrimp can be grilled instead if desired). Pour leftover marinade into a small saucepan or skillet and boil 5 minutes, stirring occasionally.

Combine shrimp, pasta, and boiled marinade and toss to coat. Serve immediately.

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