So many of us enjoy making and dining on delicious pizzas but most of us probably don’t think of the important process involved with making and preparing the absolute perfect pizzas including their toppings and crusts.
Choosing Your Toppings
When it comes to choosing the various toppings you should use for your pizzas you will definitely want to use your imagination and creativity, as the choices are just about limitless. Make your pizzas with as few or as many toppings as you like ranging from the simplest to the most elaborate of ingredients.
Perhaps you crave the traditional type of pizzas made with tomato sauce, pepperoni, and mozzarella cheese. Alternatively, maybe you want to try something a bit different such as pizzas topped with prosciutto and toasted walnuts. Choosing the toppings for your pizzas can be really fun especially if you are creative and explore the cuisine of various other cultures.
Making Your Pizza Toppings Even Better
After you have selected the toppings of your choice, you will have to prepare and then assemble them atop of the pizzas. Remember that fresh, uncooked vegetables contain quite a bit of water and using them in their raw form will likely result in soggy crusts. Precooking vegetables such as tomatoes, mushrooms, peppers, onions, and olives will reduce their moisture content and help to prevent wet, soggy pizzas.
Besides vegetables, some greasier meats like pepperoni and sausage, two of the most popular toppings for pizzas, can also cause a soggy, wet crust. To avoid this from happening and possibly ruining your pizzas simply precook the meats and then dab the excess grease with a paper towel before putting them on the dough to bake.
Did you know that using pizza toppings in varying orders when assembling the dish can have a great effect on its taste? The very same ingredients layered in a different order can cause pizzas to have a different taste or even cook unevenly.
For example, if you put all of the cheese on your pizzas before other ingredients such as basil or similar herbs and seasonings the cheeses might not brown properly and the basil will likely burn. However, if you put fresh basil atop the sauce followed by a layer of shredded mozzarella, the basil will not burn and the mozzarella, which is a type of cheese with a relatively low amount of moisture, will brown as it should.
You will want to put the sauce on top of pizzas first and then usually most of the cheese followed by vegetables such as onions or peppers and the meats like sausage, ham, or pepperoni. Then another layer of grated cheese should be added to the top during the last few minutes of baking to brown and melt over the rest of the toppings. Also, use enough sauce to reach the edges of the dough to avoid a dry, hard crust.
Italian pizza history is fascinating. When you learn about how pizza evolved and became popular first with the peasants and later with royalty, you can see how this fabulous food we all love developed from its lowly beginnings. Start your own pizza history and make some at home!
