Do you love pizza?…I know, who doesn’t?
If by a small chance there is a person out there in this huge world who does not like pizza, they are no friend of mine.
I mean, how could you not? It contains all the important food groups; yummy, tasty, gooey, finger licking, lip smacking, and most importantly, just plain delicious!
Lately, I am kinda obsessed with making pizza in a cast iron pan. I know, crazy, right? I tried this out one day when I forgot to heat the pizza stone. Handsome was coming home any minute {I know, I have this weird fixation of making sure I have dinner on the table when Handsome walks in the house. It’s my thing not his.}, the kids were hungry, and I wasn’t going to wait 30 minutes! I heated the cast iron pan on the stove {took about 1 minute}, added about a tablespoon of olive oil, and plopped in my pizza dough and I was off and running making a heavenly pizza that would change my life.
I have not used the pizza stone since. The pizza stone must be lonely just sitting in my top oven all by it’s lonesome. But, each time I have made pizza {like, every weekend} I have used the cast iron pan. It just comes out so darn good!
Here are a few things I learned about making a cast iron pan pizza.
1. It could not be easier. You can use homemade dough, recipe here or you can use a store bought dough {Trader Joe’s has a good one}. Homemade marinara, recipe here or a store bought marinara sauce.
2. The crusts comes out just like a pizza that was cooked in a pizza oven.
3. It gives you a wonderful thick crust! Crispy on the outside and tender on the inside.
4. You will never want the delivery guy to drop off a cardboard box of cold, cheese stuck to the cardboard pizza again.
5. And the obvious, 1 pizza is just never enough!
- Olive oil, 2 tablespoons, for the bottom of the cast iron pan
- Olive oil, to brush the edge of the pizza
- Homemade Pizza Dough or Store bought dough
- Homemade marinara sauce or store bought marinara
- Goat cheese or whatever cheese you like
- Pepperoni
- 3 or 4 leaves of brush basil, chopped
- Roll the dough out to the approximate size of your cast iron pan.
- Heat a cast iron pan on the stove over high heat.
- Place the rack in your oven just below the broiler and turn the broiler on to high.
- Add 2 tablespoons of olive oil to the cast iron pan, once the pan is hot.
- Reduce heat to a medium high.
- Drop your dough into the hot pan and brush olive oil around the edges of your pizza.
- Add the sauce to within an ½ inch of the edge of the dough.
- Add cheese and pepperoni.
- Turn the burner off.
- Make sure the bottom of the pizza is golden brown.
- With a pot holder place the cast iron pan under the broiler. Watch it carefully as it could burn the pizza very quickly.
- Once it is done to your liking, remove and place on the stove to let cool for about 5 minutes.
- Top with the fresh basil.
- Remove the pizza to a cutting board and cut in to pieces.
Enjoy!