Popeye Pizza Recipes

Steps:

• In a large bowl, combine flour, 1/4 teaspoon salt, yeast, and 1/2 cup water. Stir until blended; dough will be shaggy and rough. Let dough rest in a warm place (about 72 degrees) until doubled in volume, about 3 hours.
• Turn dough out onto a lightly floured work surface and cover with a clean, damp kitchen towel. Let stand until doubled in size, 30 minutes to 1 hour.
• Place a pizza stone on the lowest rack of oven and preheat to 550 degrees for 25 minutes.
• Flatten dough into a disk that is thicker in the center than at the edges. Using your fingers, gently pull on the edges of the dough to form a 6- to 8-inch circle; dough should still be thicker in the center. Drape dough over both hands, and using your knuckles, work dough out from the center into a 12-inch circle.
• Carefully transfer dough to hot pizza stone. Working quickly, top dough with cheeses, pepper, garlic, and spinach; season with salt. Bake pizza until spinach is wilted and slightly browned, about 10 minutes.
• Using a pizza peel, remove pizza from oven and drizzle over olive oil; serve immediately.

Steps:

• 1 Place the pizza stone in a gas oven on the middle rack. Preheat the oven on bake at 500°F for 30 minutes. Switch to broil for 10 minutes and then back to bake at 500°F. (For an electric variation, see Cooks' Note.)
• 2 With the dough on the peel, sprinkle the surface evenly with the garlic. Distribute the pecorino, Gruyère, and mozzarella evenly over the dough. Sprinkle evenly with pepper.
• 3 With quick, jerking motions, slide the pie onto the stone. Bake for 2 minutes.
• 4 Pull the rack partially out of the oven. Quickly add the spinach in what will look like a big mound (the spinach will reduce, the mound flattening, as spinach always does when it cooks). Sprinkle evenly with salt. Return the pie to the oven for 3 1/2 to 4 minutes in a gas oven (somewhat longer with an electric oven; see Cooks' Note), until the crust is charred in spots, but not as deeply as with the other pizzas in this book.
• 5 Using the peel, transfer the pizza to a tray or serving platter. Drizzle evenly with oil. Slice and serve immediately.