The Real LC: pizza night

If you were to ask most Gainesville residents what the best pizza joint in town is, most of the time they'd say, without hesitation, Satchel's. If not Satchel's then Blue Highway. It's a definitely a tough decision., but for whatever reason veryone in Gainesville seems to be obsessed with Satchels. It's a funky little place with an old van you an sit in to eat and a junk shop in the back with random trinkets. They make a delicious salad dressing, which we always buy a bottle of to bring home, and they're pizza is fantastic loaded with toppings and a flavorful sauce. We don't go too often because it's pretty far away from where we live, but it's a really fun and quirky place to go when visitors are in town for an unique experience.

Blue Highway's first location is out in Micanopy, so it's pretty rural and out of the way, but it just opened a second location next to us and I am so glad it did, because we've been able to try it a few different times, and it's not as expensive as Satchel's. Big plus in my book. And they serve Sangria, so extra credit points. I even got a free glass last time while I waited for our carry out. It definitely wins for me as the best pizza in Gainesville. Plus they have a lot more variety on the menu, rather than just pizza and the one salad at Satchel's, appetizers, salads, flatbreads... We got the Verdura Arrostito pizza the other day with roasted zucchini, squash, eggplant and red onion, and I was craving it, so we made it last week for din. We had enough dough for 2 pizzas, so we made my roasted veggie pizza and we made a second one with broccoli, green pepper, red onion and pepperoni for DC.

Here's what I did for my Verdura Arrostito (aka Roasted Veggies)
Thin & Crispy Pizza Crust for 2 9-inch pizzas
1 tsp active dry yeats
3/4 cup + 1 1/2 tbl warm water
1 3/4 cup bread flour (you probably can use all-purpose, but bread is best)
2 tbl whole wheat flour
1 tsp sugar
1 tsp salt
2 tbl olive oil

Dissolve yeast in water and set aside. Make sure water isn't too hot so it doesn't kill the yeast.

In stand mixer with paddle combine flour, sugar salt and 1 tsp olive oil and mix by hand. Add the dissolved yeast and mix on low speed, increasing speed slightly for 2-3 minutes until dough is smooth and elastic. don't over beat!

Spread other tbl of oil in a bowl, halve the pizza dough and place in the bowl covering in the oil. Cover the bowl and allow to rise until doubled in size.

Roll out the dough on a floured surface, start pressing with your fingers in the middle, spreading it out. When it has doubled in width, you can roll it out with a rolling pin really thin like a flatbread.

Poke holes in it with a fork so it doesn't get airbubbles, and transfer to a pizza pan. I precooked mine for 5 minutes so it'd be extra crispy.

Now Roast the Veggies. Slice eggplant, zuchhini and squash, toss with oil and S&P and roast on a baking sheet at 400 for 20-25 minutes, until eggplant starts to brown.

If you want some roasted garlic, lop of the top of the garlic head, put it in some oil and roast with the veggies about 35 minutes. Remove it, and when it's cooled, squeeze out the cloves and mush together in a garlic paste. We'll spread that all over the crust.