Sense and senses

What sense does it make to drink a tisana before going to bed, the one that's supposed to make you sleep better and rest better during the night, only to wake up at 5 am because you need to go to the toilet (all that liquid you drank just before going to bed °__°), and you can't go to sleep again until about 15 minutes before your alarm clock goes off?
And the little sweet monster senses with her radar that you are awake and shouts to tell you that she wants to come to your bed just for a while and then she'll go back to her bed ^__^, leaving you not more than 30-40 cm space on which to try and get some blessed hour of sleep.
I guess the same sense that buying cookbooks or food magazines and then forgetting them on your bookshelf makes.
Months and months ago I bought (couldn't resist as usual) a special edition of Sale & Pepe magazine dedicated to Pizzas and Focaccias. I did nothing else but admire the pictures and drool over them. But, when making pizza (and it's a regular activity once or twice a week at my home) I always went with a plain Margherita. It is the best pizza in the world after all, but why desiring a change if you never get to see what it's like?
So, the other day, I was making bread, the Kefir bread you probably remember I made last month, and keep making now regularly every week, I decided to try using that dough to make a pizza. Just slightly modified the bread recipe, added a little extra virgin olive oil, to make the dough more elastic and went with a direct addition of kefir to the flour (it's the store bought kefir and it doesn't ferment anyway, so I just shorten the process now).
I happened to have some friggitelli, green sweet peppers, in the fridge that were desperatly calling to be used and I remembered that the previously mentioned edition of Sale & Pepe magazine had a pizza with friggitelli that I bookmarked as I was sure I'd love it.
I just switched my dough for the dough in the recipe (which was a plain pizza dough recipe) and ta-da!!! my pizza was ready just in time for lunch.
You have no idea how much I struggled to leave just one tiny slice for my husband to try, as I know perfectly well how much he loves friggitelli peppers (his grandma used to fry them for him). It was that good. Apart from the topping, that I found superb, I really loved the dough. And I'm definitely making it this weekend again.
Of course, you're free to use any pizza dough recipe that you like. Lately, I've been using the No knead pizza dough which is also very good, but produces a crunchy, thin pizza dough, so it's different from this dough, that was soft and slightly chewy, which I apreciated extremely.

P.S. I have a question for whoever is orchestrating the weather, What sense does it make to make the sun shine so strong this morning and make me pull out my long forgotten sunglasses, only to hide it behind heavy grey clouds half an hour later?!?



Pizza with Friggitelli Peppers


Dough (for 3 round pizzas):
150 ml kefir
3 cups(450 g) strong bread flour (I use "0" type Italian flour)
15 g dry weat sourdough starter or 7 g active dry yeast or 20 g fresh yeast about 200 ml lukewarm water
1 and 1/2 teaspoons salt
1 TBspoon extra virgin olive oil


Topping:
250 g fresh mozzarella
350 g friggitelli (sweet green peppers)
250 g cherry tomatoes
extra virgin olive oil
shaved Parmigiano reggiano cheese

If preparing the dough with the sourdough starter, start preparing it at least 3 hours ahead. If using yeast, 2 hours will be enough.
Sift the flour into a large mixing bowl. Add the salt and dry sourdough starter/dry yeast (if using the fresh yeast dissolve it in the warm water first). Mix well and make a well in the middle. Add the kefir (room temperature) and the olive oil, start mixing them into the flour with a hand or use a spoon, and gradually add the lukewarm water (you may need more or less than 200 ml). When you have incorporated all the flour, knead the dough in the bowl first, adding a little flour at a time if too sticky, then move it to a floured kneading board and knead until the dough is smooth (throw it against the surface several times).
Divide the dough into three equal parts, shape each into a ball and place them on a well floured tray, cover with a clean cotton cloth and keep in a warm, draft free place (my advice is always cold, closed oven, the dough will rise perfectly and won't get dry in surface. No need to preheat the oven or turn the pilot light on). As I said, if using the sourdough starter, let it rise at least 3 hours, if using the yeast 2 hours will be enough.
Turn the oven on 250°C.
Clean the friggitelli peppers, cut them in half, remove the stem and seeds and fry them in a skillet with a few tablespoons of olive oil OR fry them first and then cut in half and remove the seeds. Salt them to taste.
I bake pizzas in a pizza pan, so I slightly oil it first and then flatten a ball of dough with my hands to cover the whole pan (if using the pizza stone, do what you normally do).
Drizzle the dough with a swirl of olive oil and then distribute sliced mozzarella, halved cherry tomatoes and halved friggitelli peppers on top.



Give it one more swirl of oil and bake in a very hot oven. Serve the pizza topped with the shaved Parmigiano cheese.
Enjoy!

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Pizza con friggitelli

Pasta:
150 ml di kefir
450 g di farina
15 g di lievito madre di frumento secco o 1 bustina di lievito di birra secco o 20 g di lievito di birra fresco
1 cucchiaino e mezzo di sale
1 cucchiaio di olio EVO


250 g di mozzarella
350 g di friggitelli
250 g di pomodorini freschi
olio EVO
scaglie di Parmigiano


Per la pasta:
Setacciate la farina in una ciotola grande e unite il sale e il lievito madre secco/o lievito di birra secco (se usate il lievito fresco, scioglietelo prima nell’acqua) e mescolate bene per distribuirli uniformemente. Create una fontana al centro e aggiungete il kefir a temperatura ambiente, l'olio EVO e poi cominciate a impastare con la mano o con un cucchiaio di legno aggiungendo gradualmente l'acqua fino a incorporare tutta la farina. Impastate per qualche minuto dentro la ciotola aggiungendo, se necessario, altra farina se l'impasto dovesse risultare troppo appiccicoso. Trasferite la pasta su una spianatoia infarinata e impastate energicamente e sbattendola qualche volta sulla spianatoia fino a ottenere una pasta liscia e morbida.
Dividetela in tre parti uguali e formate delle palline. Mettetele su un vassoio infarinato, coprite con un canovaccio pulito e lasciate lievitare in posto caldo e privo di correnti (io consiglio sempre il forno, freddo e spento, per un risultato migliore), per circa 3 ore se usate la pasta madre, 2 ore se usate il lievito di birra.
Accendete il forno a 250°C.
Pulite i friggitelli, tagliateli a metà e togliete i semi, e rosolateli in una padella con 2 cucchiai di olio EVO e un po' di sale. Oppure, rosolateli interi e poi divideteli a metà e togliete i semi.
Stendete la pasta nelle teglie unte d'olio. Distribuiteci sopra la mozzarella tagliata a fettine piccole, i pomodorini tagliati a metà e i friggitelli. Completate con un filo d'olio EVO e fate cuocere nel forno molto caldo.
Servite le pizze cosparse con le scaglie di parmigiano.

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Pizza s papričicama


Tijesto:
150 ml kefira
450 g brašna
15 g suhog pšeničnog kvasa ili 1 vrećica suhog kvasca ili 20 grama svježeg
1 i pol žličica soli
1 žlica maslinovog ulja


Nadjev:
250 g mozzarelle
350 g friggitelli papričica (slatke zelene papričice)
250 g cherry rajčica
maslinovo ulje
na listiće nariban Parmigiano Reggiano


Za tijesto:
Prosijte brašno u veću zdjelu i umiješajte u njega sol i suhi kvas/ili kvasac (ako koristite svježi, prvo ga otopite u mlakoj vodi i dodajte u sljedećem koraku). Napravite udubljenje u sredini i u njega stavite kefir i žlicu maslinovog ulja. Počnite lagano dodavati okolno brašno miješajući rukom ili žlicom, a onda postepeno dodajite i mlaku vodu, dok ne umiješate sve brašno. Zamijesite tijesto prvo u zdjeli, dodajući po potrebi još brašna ako je tijesto previše meko i ljepljivo. Nakon toga ga premjestite na pobrašnjenu radnu površinu i čvrsto mijesite i bacite nekoliko puta od stol, dok tijesto ne postane glatko i podatno. Podijelite tijesto na tri jednaka dijela, i od svakog oblikujte kuglicu.
Smjestite kuglice tijesta na dobro pobrašnjen pladanj, pokrijte ih čistom pamučnom krpom i ostavite da se dižu na toplom mjestu zaštićenom od propuha (ja uvijek savjetujem zatvorenu, hladnu pećnicu za najbolji rezultat) oko 3 sata ako ste koristili prirodni kvas, 2 sata ako ste koristili suhi ili svježi pivski kvasac.
Uključite pećnicu na 250°C.
Papričice očistite - prepolovite ih i izvadite sjemenke, pa ih popržite u tavi s 2 žlice maslinovog ulja, ILI ih prvo popržite cijele, pa onda prepolovite i izvadite sjemenke.
Rastanjite tijesto u malo nauljene okrugle tepsije za pizzu da u tankom sloju pokriju dno. Sasvim malo nauljite tijesto, a onda rasporedite po njemu mozzarellu narezanu na komadiće/listiće, prepolovljene rajčice i polovice papričica. Polijte s još malo ulja i pecite u jako toploj pećnici.
Na pečenu pizzu dodajte na listiće narezan parmigiano e poslužite.