Daring Bakers October Challenge: Pizza Like a Pizzaiolo

For the second month in a row, the Daring Bakers have a savory challenge. I'm not complaining though! Well, it didn't have to be savory, but that is what I decided to go with. This was brought to us by Rosa of Rosa's Yummy Yums and was chosen by Sher of What Did You Eat before she suddenly passed away in July. Rosa wanted to stay true to Sher's desires so she picked the pizza dough recipe from Peter Reinhart's The Bread Baker's Apprentice. This is actually the recipe I tried last month, but at the time, I cut out about half the steps. This time I did all the steps (Kind of). One of the rules was that we had to get a picture of ourselves tossing the pizza so a couple of weekends ago, my dear friend agreed to let me come over and make pizza and photograph me doing it. The other rule was that we had to have some kind of sauce. I am not a saucy pizza kind of gal so this was actually a little difficult for me to come up with a combination that I would enjoy and still be different from other pizzas I have had recently. At first I thought I would do some kind of garlic oil with a few herbs, but I remembered I had some pomegranates so I thought they would be interesting on the pizza. Once at the store, my friend suggested that maybe a pomegranate reduction would be good so I picked up some juice. This was the idea that inspired the pomegranate sauce for the chicken and waffles. I also got some fresh mozzarella. I like arugula on pizza so I decided to add that and then at the last minute I thought of adding the prosciutto because I really like the combination of arugula and prosciutto on pizza. We ended up making this combination of pizza two different ways. The first time, I tossed the dough (rather unsuccessfully) and then topped it with the mozzarella. Baked that for about five minutes and then layered on the rest of the toppings. This was the prettier pizza. The second pizza I rolled out. We brushed it with olive oil, then a little of the pomegranate syrup and then we added the mozzarella. We baked this for a few minutes and then added the prosciutto and arugula and baked it for another two or three minutes. Then we topped it with more of the syrup. This was the tastier (and messier) pizza. In both cases, the dough didn't get quite as crispy as I wanted, but it was ok. Both were delicious with my favorite part of each being the salty prosciutto with juicy bites of pomegranate seeds. I have a lot of dough left over since I made the full recipe and I am looking forward to making several more pizzas in the coming months...but without the hole-y dough tossing. To get the dough recipe visit Rosa's site and to see if the other Daring Bakers pizzas didn't end up on the floor (or with big holes in the middle), visit the blogroll.





Toppings

Extra-virgin olive oil
Pomegranate syrup (recipe below)
Fresh mozzarella, thinly sliced
Baby arugula
Prosciutto, sliced
Pomegranate seeds from one POM Wonderful pomegranate


Pomegranate Syrup

8 ounces POM Wonderful pomegranate juice
1 tablespoon balsamic vinegar
1 or 2 springs fresh thyme
1 teaspoon sugar
Dash each of kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper

In a small saucepan combine the pomegranate juice, balsamic vinegar, thyme and salt and pepper. Bring to a boil and then reduce to a simmer. Let the mixture reduce by 3/4 and then add the sugar. Simmer until thickened and the sauce can coat the back of a spoon.