Bacon pizza recipe with green garlic

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When I think back to the first times my kids and I cooked together, I always think about pizza.

I remember both kids as toddlers, standing on a chair at the kitchen counter, poking their sticky fingers into a wad of pizza dough and rolling their little pieces into odd shapes.

I remember little hands holding big spoons as they spread tomato sauce around on the uncooked pies.

I remember cringing when more shredded cheese ended up on the tray and the floor than on the pizza.

But most of all I remember their delight when the hot pizzas came out of the oven and they took the first bite of their pizza, the dinner they created and decorated all on their own (more or less).

Wordless Wednesday: New Haven pizza

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Dinner at Modern Apizza in New Haven, CT: Top, white clam pizza; above, artichoke and bacon pizza

Pictures of homemade pizza

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[Scroll down for luscious pizza photos]

We go through phases with pizza. I made it a lot when the kids were much younger - such a novelty for them, playing with the dough, spreading the sauce, sprinkling the cheese. And then, I don't know, we kind of forgot about it.

But it's reappeared in the past few months, maybe because our kids' tastes in pizza toppings is finally catching up with ours. Michael and the boys always want bacon on their pizzas. I can take or leave the bacon, but I love bitter greens. We've all been enjoying the green garlic pizza I wrote about in my LA Cooking Examiner column last week. And when I found chanterelles for $10 a pound at the farmers market last week, I knew mushroom pizza was on the menu for lunch.

I would give you a recipe for my pizza dough, but I do it by feel now. It's more or less two teaspoons of yeast, three cups of flour, a healthy teaspoon of sea salt, and a slosh (maybe a quarter cup) of olive oil. Water until it's the right consistency. Let the mixer go, with the dough hook, a good 10 minutes, or even 15 if you've got the patience. Rise, divide, roll or stretch, done.

The pizzas below have no sauce; I spread a thin, thin layer of anchovy paste on the dough before adding the toppings and cheese. And another recently discovered technique seems to be working for me: I preheat my baking sheets in a blazing hot oven. I don't own a pizza peel, so I roll and top the dough on parchment. When I'm ready to bake, I carry the parchment to the oven (carefully), slide out the rack, and place it on the baking sheet. Or I bring the hot baking sheet to the counter and slide the parchment from there.

So, without further ado, pizza pictures, as promised.

Pizza with bacon and green garlic - my somewhat picky younger son preferred this one

  

I roasted the chanterelles in a hot oven before putting them on the pizza to intensify their flavor

 

Pizza with bacon and chanterelles - Michael's favorite

 

Sauteed chopped purple Russian kale

 

Pizza with green garlic and kale - this one was all mine