There are few single bites that can include as many flavors as pizza. A crispy crust, a fresh sauce with just-caramelized shallot and carrot, melted cheese, and any number of toppings makes a slice of pizza a complex, toothsome delight. That is, when it's done right. The ubiquitous pizza-by-the-slice parlors vary a great deal in quality, as we all know, and partialities for regional variations proliferate, with some favoring the floppy New York slice, while others tend toward the stuffed Chicago variety, or the Saltine-thin St. Louis interpretation. The West Coast, you'll notice, is left out. For whatever reason(s), it's hard to fathom ever ordering a "Los Angeles-style" pizza.
And that's a shame. For all of its claims to gastronomic supremacy, and vainglorious chest thumping about its wine, California owns no stake in the regional pizza debate, one of our nation's few territorial cuisines. Which isn't to say that good pizza doesn't exist in the Golden State; it does, but, in my experience, only in rare and isolated pockets.
I can't call my rendition particularly "Californian" (perhaps if it had a seemingly insurmountable budget crisis?), but it's pretty reliable. Pizza is a cheap and easy thing to make at home, even if you live in a Western zone devoid of pizza-loving (or more to the point, pizza-making) culture. The tomato sauce has already been explained on this blog, and the toppings are always up to you. So, I'll focus on the crust.
To make a crispy thin crust pizza, the key is to bake the crust before you load it up with toppings. That way, it gets crisp throughout, and not just on the exposed edges. Also, this reduces the overall bake-time: the crust today took about 10 minutes, and after adding the sauce, cheese and pancetta, it only took about 2 minutes more.
I keep the crust simple: water and flour (enough of each to form a soft but dry ball), yeast and salt. Let that rise for 90 minutes or more while covered in a bowl. Then, roll it out as thin as you can (while still being able to handle it) on a liberally floured surface. I use a baking sheet, as I don't have a stone, and you'll need to ensure that the doughy crust doesn't stick to the sheet while it cooks. This is easily accomplished by rubbing a stick of butter over the entire baking sheet, and then coating the butter with flour. As the crust rises, it will pull away from the flour/butter combo. I brush the outer ring of the crust with olive oil so that it will come out extra-crispy and golden brown.
Once you have the crust knocked out, slather on the sauce, toppings and cheese. I usually use a mozzarella (today I'm using smoked, but I've also used fresh) and some parm. Mozz is great because it melts better than harder cheeses. As for toppings, it's pretty much wide open. Today I'm using pancetta. You really only need to bake it until the cheese melts.
If you want to make an even better pizza, you can finish on the grill. After baking the crust, assemble your pie and transfer it onto the grill opposite the coals. If you do this, be sure to keep the coals on one side (12 o'clock) of the grill and the pizza on the other (6 o'clock); that way, your pie won't go up in flames. You want a pretty low heat for this, so be sure to allow the coals to die down. You can also add soaked wood chips if you're looking for a smoky flavor. This is as close as I've come to approximating the effects of a wood-fire hearth.
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