Cast-Iron Skillet Pizza
If you are an authentic pizzeria snob like I am, then you have been on a quest to achieve that crisp pizza crust. You will know that it can be a challenge. However, with a few modifications and the addition of the right tools, you’ll have a homemade pizza that will outshine what you might have in the deep freeze and certainly stop overpaying for delivery.
The key is a thinly rolled out pizza dough, and then gently pressing it into a cast-iron skillet or a cast-iron pizza pan. Either cast-iron approach will allow you to heat the pizza dough on the stove that will help give the crust a jump start before heading to the oven. Once you place the dough in the oven, the skillet will serve as a pizza stone and it will crisp up the crust perfectly.
In this application, we just made a simple Margherita pizza.
- 1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil
- 1 pound pizza dough, room temperature
- 1 cup pizza sauce
- 12 oz mozzarella cheese, shredded
- 2 tablespoons chopped fresh basil
- Preheat your oven to 500 degrees F and adjust your oven rack to the upper-middle position in the oven. Prepare your cast-iron cooking skillet to pizza pan with 2 tablespoons of oil.
- On a lightly floured counter, place your dough and divide in half, and cover with plastic wrap that has been greased. While keeping the remaining dough covered, begin to press and roll one piece of dough into about a 12-inch round. Transfer this dough to your skillet and gently nudge it into the corners of the pan. Then top with 1/2 cup of the pizza sauce so it covers the surface of the dough, you should leave 1/2-inch border around the edge. Top it with 1/2 of the mozzarella.
- Set the cast-iron over a medium-high heat on your stove and allow to cook until the outside edge of the pizza do is set, the pizza will look slightly puffed up, and the bottom starts to show a spotty brown when you lift it with a spatula, this should take about 4 minutes. Then transfer the cast-iron to the oven to allow to bake until the pizza is a golden brown and the cheese is completely melted, this should take no more than 10 minutes.
- Using hot-pads, remove the skillet from the oven and slide your cooked pizza onto a wire rack to cool by using a spatula; let it cool slightly. Sprinkle with 1 tablespoon of the basic, and then cut into slices, and serve.
- Be mindful of the very hot cast-iron skillet.
- This recipe will yield 2 pizzas.
