fried pizza!!!!!!!

I was reading the NY Times the other day, and among other delights was an article on fried pizza...not deep fried, but a European approach to making cute little pizzas. The idea, of course, is to give the thick little pie a richer and crisper crust. I have always preheated my pizza dough in a hot oven for a few minutes before topping so I was like, to the wife "I wanna figure this out!". It was not a recipe article, but it is not hard to figure out how to fry pizza dough, and my recipe and instructions from Sunday follow the pics.....totally worthwhile, amazingly good pizza :)
The wife was my sous chef...and photographer....

Fried pizza, Gary style

-into one cup warm water, add one teaspoon yeast, one tablespoon sugar, let sit 5 mins, until foamy
-add 2 tbs oil, like olive, some shakes of oregano, basil, dried hot pepper flakes
-stir in 2.5 cups white flour, adding more flour if needed, so it is not sticky, then turn out onto floured board
-knead a few minutes until lovely and elastic, place into oiled bowl to rise covered with a tea towel, about one hour
-preheat oven to 400 and if you have a pizza stone, get it in there (if you don't have a stone, rather than doing 2 small pizzas in a row seperately, you can prepare them both at once and bake together on a cookie sheet)
-punch dough down, divide in half, and knead one of the halves leaving the second aside for now--put some oil, like olive oil, into fry pan (ours is iron and what, about ten inches wide?) and turn the pan to high at first...when the oil is shimmery and hot, turn back to medium, pat and push and pull the dough into a thick round that fits your fry pan, so like, 8-10 inches wide, and place into hot pan, frying each side about 2-3 minutes until there is a nice crisp bit of crust developing on each side, then remove from pan (turn stove top off) with spatula and place onto paddle (or if frying 2 at once and using a cookie sheet, add a little more oil again and fry the second dough and set them side by side)
-coat the dough with a little tomato sauce and some things like some chopped bell pepper, olives, cheese, onion, (soy for us) sausage, (vegan) cheese over the top of it all, then slide it into the oven, bake until the crust is browning nicely and top looks good, 15-19 minutes
-pull that one out, set it on a rack to cool, start the next half of dough, etc

Goodness its tasty!

In other news, I am firing many things today, including this Godzilla eating a car sculpture, which I LOVE...happy Monday!