The simple secret to the best homemade pizza is…

April 19th, 2012

Appliance News

Confidence, practice and a food processor will make home made pizzas a crust above the rest, says The NY Times’ veteran food critic, Mark Bittman.

With those three key ingredients, Bittman thinks the home cook can make a better pizza than those found in highfalutin restaurants.

“Not only can you cook it at home, but you can likely cook it better,” Bittman says in his recent column.

That’s because a single food processor – a good one – has all the necessary functions and attachments to make a killer pizza.

A processor will mince garlic and hearbs with a can of tomatoes for the perfect pureed pizza sauce.

Sliced and diced toppings are a cinch with slicing discs and then a shredding disc is ideal for cheese, preferably mozzarella.

Some Breville food processors even offer adjustable slices for thicker bits of peperoni, or thinner slices of mushrooms.

As for the dough, Bittman says he keeps going back to the processor over kneading by hand.

“For ease, lack of mess and more-flexible timing, I’ve come to prefer the food processor. Still, make the dough however you like, because you won’t go wrong.”

“I love [the processor] for pizza because you can make the dough in five minutes. Although rushing isn’t ideal, you can start pressing or rolling out the pizza 20 minutes later. (Use the larger amount of yeast if you’re doing this.) Which means, in a pinch, start to finish in an hour.”

Blunt dough blades are available with many food processors, including popular brands such as Sunbeam and Breville.

Bittman’s choice of toppings include eggplant, zucchini, mozzarella, Parmesan, pepperoni, anchovies, sausage, chorizo, olives, onion, pesto, seafood, garlic, oregano and oil.

“I don’t wander far from those,” he says. “Which doesn’t mean you can’t. It’s all optional, and all good. Better, in fact.”

Now all you need is the beer.

Sofia loves to keep things clean. Vacuum cleaners, giant washing machines and jumbo dishwashers hum away in her abode daily. Obsessive? Maybe. Passionate about appliances? For sure! She has been writing about appliance trends and happenings since 2010.

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