OK, I’m pretty proud of this recipe. Yes, it’s like a little kid being incredibly proud of tying their shoes: it might not be that praise-worthy in the grand scheme of things, but I was REALLY excited to have figured out a way to make pizza WITHOUT a fully-functioning oven. BTW — we now DO have an oven (yaay!), but 2.5 weeks without one was cause for some creativity… which you may be seeing here for the next little bit.
Now, I don’t know why I didn’t realize it earlier, but even with the broken/exploding oven, I finally realized I could still BROIL! Oh hallelujah. I did a bit of research on how other people cook their skillet pizzas, and discovered I could totally make a pizza without having a normal oven. It would just take a bit more coordination than I actually have.
This was attempt number one, which was a bit sloppy and lopsided. I’ll show you attempt number two soon, but trust me when I say it was much better and turned out much less lopsided! The basic approach to this skillet pizza is: heat up a heavy cast-iron skillet on the stove-top for a good 10 minutes. Get it ridiculously hot. Prepare your pizza on a pizza peel (or cookie sheet, if you’re me), generously sprinkled with cornmeal. This is where I got in trouble. Once the skillet is hot, and your pizza is all assembled, slide the pizza into the ridiculously hot skillet (without ruining your perfectly assembled pizza).
You cook it on the stove for just a little bit, then broil it for a few minutes. Voila! You now have a wonderful QUICK pizza!
As for the flavors here, I just couldn’t resist combining everything in our fridge… which included goat cheese, smoked salmon, and some veggies! Why not, right? Right. Get on it!
- ½ recipe of pizza dough
- corn meal
- 2 Tbsp olive oil
- 1 tsp salt
- ¼ cup fresh basil leaves, torn
- ¼ cup chevre, in large crumbles
- 4 slices smoked salmon, torn into smaller pieces
- ¼ zucchini, very thinly sliced
- ⅛ onion, very thinly sliced
- 6 cherry tomatoes, halved
- 1 handful of arugula
- Heat a large cast-iron skillet the stovetop on high for 10 minutes. Turn it down a little bit if it starts to really smoke - but it should be VERY hot.
- Generously sprinkle a pizza peel (or back of a cookie sheet) with cornmeal. Toss the pizza dough into a circle roughly the same size as your skillet. Place on the cornmeal and make sure it can slide around easily.
- Spread the olive oil over the crust, then a thin sprinkle of salt, then add the basil, chevre, smoked salmon, zucchini, and onion. Make sure your vegetables are VERY thinly sliced, so they'll actually cook.
- Turn on your broiler.
- When the skillet is very hot, quickly and carefully slide the pizza into the pan. Cook on the stovetop for 30 seconds, then (using an oven mitt!) move the pan into the oven, just under the broiler. Broil for 2-3 minutes, or until the top is bubbly and blackening.
- Remove, add the tomatoes and arugula, and let cool for 5 minutes before removing from the skillet and serving.
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