Recipe: Refrigerator Pizza Dough, and a Pizza Recipe

The perfect lover is one who turns into a pizza at 4:00 a.m. – Charles Pierce 

Perfectly risen pizza dough, made in the refrigerator.

Now you have no excuse to not make pizza through the week. Here’s a crust recipe that rises for the day in your refrigerator. Yes, that’s right – the refrigerator.

You can get pre-mixed crusts at the grocery –  add water and wait a few minutes. What you get (in my lowly opinion) is "passable," but it’s not a “real” pizza crust. Not one I would take credit for making anyway.

But it takes time to make a proper crust and therefore your weeknight pizza either has to arrive late to the table, bear up to the less-than-stellar crust, or not happen at all. Or does it have to?

You can successfully prepare a dough while you're at work. In the time it takes to have your morning coffee, you can mix this dough together and have it ready for the oven when you get home after work. This is my spouse’s recipe, not mine. So the thanks belongs there.

This crust was puffy and wonderful after the 8 hours cool rise, and made an excellent base for our pizza. I’ve also included a recipe for the toppings that I used. It was a great combination, and used up an overabundance of flat leaf Italian parsley I purchased a few days ago!

Of course this dough would be just as good for calzones. I would suggest you could divide the dough to make at least six, depending on the size.

Refrigerator Pizza Dough

Makes one 12 x 20 pizza

2-1/4 tsp yeast

1-1/2 cups warm water (110°F)

4 cups flour

1-1/2 tsp salt

2 tbsp olive oil

1 large sealable plastic bag

Proof the yeast in the water until it’s creamy, about 15 minutes. 

Mix the yeast together with the remaining ingredients. Knead for a couple minutes. Put it in a sealable bag and place in the refrigerator for 8 hours. The dough will be ready when you get home.

Sausage & Parsley Pizza

1 lb loose chorizo sausage*

1 large onion

4 garlic cloves, chopped

1 lg bunch flat leaf parsley

1 tsp salt

1 tsp pepper

1 cup black olives, sliced

1 cup pizza sauce

1 tsp dried basil

1 tsp dried oregano

1-1/2 cups provolone, grated

1/2 cup parmesan, grated

Sauté the sausage, onion and garlic with some salt and pepper until the meat is no loner pink. Mix together with the parsley, olives and pasta sauce. Bake at 425°F for 25 minutes.

*For homemade chorizo, see yesterday’s post

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