I first saw the foolproof pan pizza on the SeriousEats subreddit and it has been on my to-do list for the past month. Written by J. Kenji Lopez-Alt, this recipe has been boasted by many to be minimal work for maximum reward. I was eager to experience this for myself. To go with the pizza, I got inspiration from a friend’s Instagram to find a recipe to try making Lou Malnati’s copycat salad. Apparently, the salad is as good as the pizza there. Welp, let’s see if it’s true.

Foolproof Pan Pizza

One attractive thing about this recipe was that the starter dough came together so easily in just 4 ingredients: yeast, water, (bread) flour, and salt, and there is no kneading involved. The recipe did asked for bread flour (8-12%), which usually has a higher protein content than all-purpose flour (12-15%), probably for the sake of a chewier crust but I’ll work with what I have.

People during SIP went through a breadmaking phase and there were yeast/flour shortages. Somehow, I missed the memo but I’m glad that I got into working with yeast when there wasn’t a national shortage. I have some friends who are really into making focaccia bread and locked down their recipes during SIP. Maybe this is my version of foraying into the “savory yeast” season.

Anyway, I was reading a bit on no-knead recipes. Kenji had some helpful insight on it, comparing what went on during kneading vs not kneading at all. So the purpose of kneading dough was to break down the proteins present in flour and allow it to reform into a stronger gluten matrix that allowed it to be shaped and stretched without breaking. No-knead takes advantage of the fact that flour already contains enzymes that can slowly break down those proteins while the yeast consumes the sugars in the flour and allow the dough to rise via CO2 bubbles and stretch the dough to allow the chopped up protein pieces to align into a stronger gluten network over time. One key thing to keep in mind is that hydration important; there should be at least 60% water to your dough.

Putting together the dough took a grand total of 5 minutes before I dumped it into a bowl and proceeded to forget about it until the next day. As seen below, it definitely increased in size after 20 hours later.

I then oiled up my cast iron and left it to sit there for the second rise. In that meantime, I made the salad and prepared the pizza toppings. Though the recipe said to let it sit for two hours, I became impatient and decided to call it after the first hour. It didn’t quite reach the edges of the pan but after some stretching, I made it sort of work.

I slathered the top of the pizza with pizza sauce, then with grated mozzarella, followed by pepperoni, then added some cheddar/parmesan cheese and basil. I let it bake at 525F for around 15 minutes before taking it out. The reason for this high baking temperature was to make the pizza dough as airy as possible with air bubbles expanding the dough, as well as crisping the bottom. I let the pizza cool in the cast iron for about 5 minutes and took it out with two spatulas. It was a little hard to loosen some of the edges since some of the pizza sauce spilled over the edges and burned/merged with the sides but with some effort, I got it out.

It looked beautiful.

The bottom was lightly browned (I think it could have even baked for longer) and the inside was light and airy.

The pizza itself tasted pretty good! The crust was crisp on the outside and pretty chewy on the inside. It was definitely pretty foolproof where it was pretty forgiving, even though I didn’t use bread flour and cut the second rise time short. It was pretty satisfying to make this and definitely lived up to its namesake. Given enough time in advance, this could be an easy recipe to plan ahead and execute.

Lou Malnati’s Copycat Salad

I’ve tried this salad once during a visit to Chicago. I don’t remember what it tasted like, which could be a testament of how good I found the salad at the time. Anyway, I’ve heard good things about it so I decided to give it another try since I was making pizza anyway.

Putting together this salad was pretty short work. After rinsing the respective vegetables and chopping up some cherry tomatoes and romaine lettuce, I was already 50% done. While I didn’t have any salami, I reserved and diced a couple of pepperoni slices and pan-fried them till crispy on the stove. Instead of adding blue cheese, I elected to add grated cheddar/parmesan cheese. I then added some canned olives and white mushrooms. It was interesting to add white mushrooms (raw) to a salad but hey, I’m open to trying out new things. I also couldn’t remember if I liked or disliked olives–well, there was no time like the present to check.

I made short work of the dressing, mixing together olive oil, lemon juice, pepper, honey, garlic, and a bit of parmesan cheese.

Anyway, the salad was not bad. I don’t think it left an amazing impression on me but it tasted very fresh and complimented the salad. It was also from this experience that I realized once again that I don’t like olives. Nor am I big fan of raw mushrooms in salad.

Felt like a casual pizza night but this was fun to execute!