In October, many home cooks turn their thoughts toward the entertaining soon to come, from Halloween to Thanksgiving to Hanukkah to Christmas to New Year’s. While such advance planning can be both fun and sensible, it can also have a serious drawback: It shortchanges opportunities for more casual entertaining.
But I’d like to propose one solution that will work well for all your more off-the-cuff parties with friends and family during the coming months: Throw a pizza party.
Of course, I do have some expertise when it comes to pizza, as a chef known for my contemporary, sometimes gourmet takes on the Italian favorite. But I’m no elitist when it comes to the popular flatbreads. Yes, you sometimes might find me serving them topped with smoked salmon and dill-flecked creme fraiche, but I’m also equally happy when they come with a good old-fashioned tomato sauce and shredded cheese. What’s important is that pizzas start with delicious homemade pizza dough, have good-quality toppings, and are prepared and cooked the right way. All of that is easy to achieve for home cooks with even a little bit of kitchen experience.
And the great thing about having a pizza party is that you can do most of the work in advance. The dough can be made a day in advance, ready to pull out of the
refrigerator to come to room temperature an hour or so before guests arrive. All the toppings can also be prepped ahead of time, to be arrayed in bowls around the counter space where you — or your guests — will put the pizzas together. That leaves simply preheating the oven, in which you should ideally also have a pizza stone — available in any good kitchen-equipment store or online — to give you the intense, radiant heat that helps a pizza bake and crisp up the way it should.
For a small, simple gathering, you can feature just a single topping combination, such as the following recipe that calls for fresh Italian sausage, onion, a tomato medley and a trio of cheeses. When you invite more people, it can be fun to offer a greater variety of options for the meats, vegetables, cheeses and sauces they can use. Regardless of your party’s size, the fact that you can only bake one or two pizzas at a time in most home ovens means that
everyone has the opportunity to join in the fun, putting together whatever creative assortments of ingredients they like.
Please give it a try. You may even find these pizza
parties so enjoyable that you’ll want to break out the dough and toppings during the holiday season itself.
ITALIAN SAUSAGE-AND-ONION PIZZA
Makes 2 pizzas, about 10 inches each
Ingredients:
4 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil, plus more for serving
10 to 12 ounces fresh Italian sausage, casings removed
1 recipe Wolfgang’s Pizza Dough (recipe follows), or good-quality store-bought dough
4 ounces fontina cheese, shredded
3 ounces mozzarella cheese, shredded
1/2 cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese, plus more for garnish
1 tablespoon fresh oregano leaves, or 1/2 tablespoon dried
1 dozen cherry tomatoes, cut in halves
8 pieces oil-packed sun-dried tomatoes, patted dry, cut into strips
1 cup thinly sliced red onion
1/2 cup good-quality store-bought tomato sauce or pizza sauce
4 leaves fresh basil, torn
Directions:
Heat 2 tablespoons of oil in a skillet over high heat. Add the sausage, and break into small bite-sized pieces with a wooden spoon. Saute until cooked through and browned, 3 to 4 minutes. Spoon onto a plate, and set aside.
Place a pizza stone or baker’s tiles on the middle rack of the oven. Preheat the oven to its highest setting. On a lightly floured work surface, stretch or roll out a ball of dough into a 10-inch round with a slightly thicker rim. Transfer to a lightly floured pizza paddle, rimless cookie sheet or the back of a baking pan.
Brush the dough inside the rim with 1 tablespoon oil. Sprinkle with half each of the fontina, mozzarella and Parmesan. Sprinkle with half the oregano, and then scatter half of the sausage on top. Dot the pizza with half of the cherry tomatoes, half of the sun-dried tomatoes and half of the red onion. Drizzle with tomato sauce.
Slide the pizza onto the hot pizza stone or tiles. Bake until nicely browned, 7 to 12 minutes.
Use the paddle or cookie sheet, helped by a spatula if necessary, to remove the pizza from the oven. Transfer to a cutting board. Lightly brush the crust with oil. Garnish with basil and more Parmesan. With a pizza wheel or a large, sharp knife, cut into wedges. Repeat steps with the remaining dough and toppings.
WOLFGANG’S PIZZA DOUGH
Makes 2 individual 10-inch pizzas
Ingredients:
1 cup warm water 105 to 115 degrees, plus extra as needed
1 packet active dry yeast
1 tablespoon honey
3 cups all-purpose flour, 15 to 16 ounces in weight, plus extra as needed
1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil
1 teaspoon kosher salt
Directions:
In a 2-cup measuring cup, combine the water, yeast and honey. Stir until the yeast dissolves.
In a food processor, pulse together the flour, oil and salt. Still pulsing, slowly pour in the yeast-water mixture; then process until a ball of dough forms. Pulse in a little more flour if the dough seems too sticky, or a little more water if too dry.
Transfer to a lightly oiled bowl, cover with plastic wrap or a damp towel, and let rise at warm room temperature for 2 hours.
Divide the dough into two equal balls. Work each into a compact, even shape by pulling the dough down around its sides and pinching it together at the bottom. On a smooth, unfloured surface, roll under your palm until it forms an even, smooth, firm ball, about 1 minute.
Place the dough balls on an oiled baking tray. Cover with plastic wrap. Let rest up to a day in the refrigerator, or store in the freezer, to be thawed in the refrigerator for 24 hours before use.