Pizza with Grilled Vegetables

Pizza with Grilled Vegetables 
adapted from Peter Reinhart's The Bread Baker's Apprentice

4 1/2 cups (20.25 ounces) unbleached bread flour or all-purpose flour

1 3/4 teaspoons salt

1 teaspoon instant yeast

1/4 cup (2 ounces) olive oil

1 3/4 cups (14 ounces) cold water

Semolina flour OR cornmeal for dusting

Grilled vegetables of your choice - zucchini, red pepper, onion, eggplant, mushrooms

Tomato sauce (recipe follows)

Mozzarella cheese, grated

Stir together the flour, salt, and instant yeast in a bowl of an electric mixer. Stir in the oil and the cold water and mix on low speed with the paddle attachment until the flour is absorbed.  Switch to the dough hook and mix on medium speed for 5 to 7 minutes, or as long as it takes to create a smooth, sticky dough. The dough should clear the sides of the bowl but stick to the bottom of the bowl. If the dough is too wet and doesn't come off the sides of the bowl, sprinkle in some more flour just until it clears the sides. The finished dough will be springy, elastic, and sticky, not just tacky, and register 50 to 55F.

Transfer the dough to the counter dusted with flour. Prepare a sheet pan by lining it with baking parchment and lightly oiling the parchment. Using a metal dough scraper, cut the dough into 6 equal pieces. Sprinkle flour over the dough. Make sure your hands are dry and then flour them. Lift each piece and gently round it into a ball. Transfer the dough balls to the sheet pan, Mist the dough generously with spray oil and cover with plastic wrap.

Put the pan into the refrigerator overnight to rest the dough, or keep for up to 3 days in the refrigerator or transfer to individual zip top bags and freeze.  Place frozen dough in refrigerator the night before you plan to use it.

On the day you plan to make the pizza, remove the desired number of dough balls from the refrigerator 2 hours before making the pizza. Place the dough on a floured surface and dust the tops with flour. Gently press the dough into flat disks about 1/2 inch thick and 5 inches in diameter. Sprinkle the dough with flour and cover the dough loosely with plastic wrap and let rest for 2 hours.

At least 45 minutes before making the pizza, place a baking stone either on the floor of the oven (for gas ovens), or on a rack in the lower third of the oven. Heat the oven as hot as your oven will allow.

Generously dust a peel or the back of a sheet pan with semolina flour or cornmeal. 

Stretch the dough out to about 9 to 12 inches in diameter for a 6-ounce piece of dough, lay it on the peel or pan, making sure there is enough semolina flour or cornmeal to allow it to slide. Lightly top it with sauce and then with grilled vegetables and cheese.

Slide the topped pizza onto the stone (or bake directly on the sheet pan) and close the door. Bake for about 5 to 8 minutes or until the cheese is bubbly and the crust is sufficiently browned.

Remove the pizza from the oven and transfer to a cutting board. Wait 3 to 5 minutes before slicing and serving, to allow the cheese to set slightly.

Homemade Pizza Sauce

28 oz can crushed tomatoes

2 T red wine vinegar

salt and pepper, to taste

1 tsp dried oregano

3 garlic cloves (or more to taste), minced

Mix all ingredients together in a bowl.