Pizza Shells

Take a batch of previously chilled pizza dough and dust with flour to prevent sticking. Spread the dough out flat and place on a baking pan (use a round perforated pan 16 inches in diameter). Lightly cover with olive oil or cooking spray. Work the dough on the pan until evenly spread on the full surface of the pan. Lightly cover the dough with the cooking spray.

Set a second pan on top of the dough to prevent air pockets and place on the lower rack of an oven preheated to 450 degrees. Bake for 10 minutes.

Remove the baked shell and lift off the top pan. Let the shell cool for about 19 minutes, then remove from the pan. The shell is now ready for the desired pizza ingredients.

Comments:

This is a recipe from the "Briguglio-Pernicaro-Cucco Cookbook". The shell may be used for a standard Italian cheese pizza, a Sicilian Escarole Pizza, a Genovese Onion Pizza or a South Beach "Alici" Pizza. This recipe for making pizza is known to three generations of the Briguglio-Pernicaro -Cucco family. First in Brooklyn, then Staten Island, and later in Newark, Delaware and Rockville, Maryland. In Brooklyn, Friday night was pizza night but later pizza night became Saturday night. Standard tomato/cheese pizzas were always made and then one or more grass (escarole), onion, or alici (anchovy) pizzas were made according to the ingredients at hand or the tastes of the family members present.