There was no plan for dinner. Then, the plan was to order two pies from Pizzeria Locale to go, but I had just stocked up on produce at the Boulder farmers’ market, so ordering pies felt wasteful. And then the lightbulb went off- Why not buy their dough and make pizza at home? I tell almost all of my tour guests who get a taste of Locale that you can buy their dough to make pizza at home, yet I’d never tried it for myself. The results- a successful experiment in home cooking that I highly recommend.
I picked up two perfectly mixed, kneaded, and proofed balls of pizza dough that Locale sells for $2.50 per ball. Each is measured out to make one pie at Locale, so I decided to make two different pies.
Locale provides you with some simple instructions, so even novice pizza makers can make a pie at home. The biggest difference in your pie versus their pie is the oven temp. The Stefano Ferrara oven at Pizzeria Locale burns around 1,000 degrees and cooks each pie in 75-80 seconds. That was NOT happening in my house, so I turned my oven as high as it goes (450) and let it and a pizza stone heat up for an hour.
Meanwhile, I caramelized a yellow onion, crumbled Humboldt Fog cheese, sliced a local pear and apple, grilled an eggplant and garlic, and nibbled non-stop until I was ready to roll out the dough.
And let me tell you something about this dough- It feels amazing in your hands. I used to pride myself on making pizza dough from scratch at least twice per month for years and it never felt like this. Granted, I wasn’t using Caputo brand 00 flour, so if I REALLY want to experiment, I suppose I can pick up a bag of that at il Caffe and start from scratch… but I’ll leave that until another day.
I made two pies- The first was caramelized onion, kale, apple, pear, and Humboldt fog. It baked for close to ten minutes, and though not “wet” in the middle like at Locale, the crispy crust was perfect for slicing.
The second pie had a layer of heirloom tomatoes with grilled eggplant, garlic, and parmesan cheese. I can’t say which I preferred, as they were both really good, simple pies.
This was a fun and easy dinner, and I’ll definitely repeat it. Living around the corner from Locale actually makes it a little too easy on me now that I know I can make a fantastic dinner in a snap.