I've always wanted to make my own homemade pizza. I've also always found ways to put it off. Recently, I received a beautiful pizza stone as a gift and decided that the universe had finally said, give it up already, woman, and make your pizza!

So, armed with Whole Foods organic whole wheat pizza dough, I rolled out a great little pie and topped it with all local ingredients - local tomato puree that we received as part of our winter CSA last year, local mozzarella that I picked up at the Fulton Stall Market, fresh pecorino-style cheese from Valley Shepherd at the Borough Hall Farmers' Market, and garlic scapes, also from Borough Hall Farmers' Market.

I was aware of the issue one might have getting your topped uncooked pizza from the counter into the oven. I had thought through this issue and somehow, when the time came, I decided that I would wing it. I made a makeshift pizza peel out of cardboard, using copious amounts of flour to keep my dough from sticking. I didn't realize, however, exactly how long it would take to get my oven up to the requisite 500F, and so my little pizza sat on its little peel while the whole kitchen warmed up, softening the dough and rendering my flour useless.

In short, the pizza turned into a goopy mess and I hadn't even gotten close to the oven. I managed to slide the pizza onto a baking pan (apparently, I don't have a real cookie sheet with no edges) and force it into a vaguely-pizza shape. It was not so pretty.

Even though I did not win points for beauty, the pizza did come out tasting great. The dough was a little chewier than I would have liked considering the stone, but the toppings were the stars and the cheesy, gooey, garlicky mess made for a lovely dinner, even if it was a near-disaster.

To enjoy my pizza even more, I pulled out the 2007 Sobon Amador County Hillside Zinfandel which I picked up at Astor Wines. This is a fabulous weeknight zin that worked beautifully with the pizza. The dark fruit flavors took some time to open up, but once I'd gotten a chance to get into the wine, the fruit complemented the cheesy kick of the pizza and was very enjoyable. I definitely recommend this wine.

Farmers Market: mozzarella, pecorino-style cheese, garlic scapes
Winter CSA: tomato puree
Pantry Items: olive oil, red pepper flakes
Non-local items: pizza dough (from Whole Foods, ingredient origins unknown)