This evening, we stopped-by a locally owned grocery store that I haven't been into in a very long time. As we were perusing the aisles, we turned the corner and on an end cap was a cooler set-up as a "Pizza Station." The single refrigerated case had pre-baked pizza rounds from a local company, shredded cheese, pepperoni, marinara...everything you'd need to go home and quickly put-together your own pizza.
I thought this was a great idea. Pizza's one of those things you just pick up the phone and order or, worse yet, pull out of the freezer and heat. And, it's incredibly easy to make at home--especially when someone else has already made the shell for you. Plus, you have more control over what goes into or onto it AND it's a meal you can let your family customize to their own liking. Heck, it can be a hands-on family meal in the middle of the week!
With all the hub-bub about obesity in America and the sheer amount of ready-made food so many people consume, I think this is a great solution. You can't expect people to go from frozen dinners to from-scratch overnight, but you can provide the tools to "assemble meals" and still keep them reasonably healthy. In the process, I think they'll see that it's not as hard as they thought.
Kudos to the local market for a great idea!
Sunday, August 29, 2010
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Yup, we make pizzas almost every Friday night. It's great and easy too.
ReplyDeleteWe make pizza a few times a month using refrigerated dough from the grocery store. Ours carries Portland Pie Co's beer dough, which crisps up really nicely.
ReplyDeleteDo you use a pizza stone? I have one, but haven't used it since I discovered that I could get a crispy crust by sprinkling my sheet pan with corn meal before baking.
The beer dough sounds awesome. :-)
ReplyDeleteWhen using fresh dough, I do use a stone. It took me quite awhile to realize that you have to get your oven as close to 500+ degrees as you're comfortable with in order to actually achieve a brown crust in the time that it takes to melt the cheese. It's also difficult to get the pizza on and off of the stone unless you have a real pizza peel. Corn meal or semolina does help a lot for mobility and crispness. In the summer, a lot of times I switch to grilled pizza.
The pre-made shells, on the other hand, come out fantastic stone or no stone. Supreme (or is it Superior?) bakery in RI puts out a sheet pizza shell. All you do is oil the underside and you get pizza that you'd swear came from a good Italian pizza place.