Nick's Pizza & Pub: Gluten Free Pizza

Being gluten and lactose free in a big city like Chicago is great - I can easily find restaurants that can create something delicious for me. And if they can't there is always another restaurant across the street that would love my business. But my family is from the suburbs. And when I go home, it is hard to think of where we can go where my dietary needs can be met in one stop, rather than driving around town. When I first went gluten free, my mom excitedly called me to tell me that the local newspaper had an article about how Nick's Pizza & Pub (locations in Elgin and Crystal Lake) had gluten free pizza.

Clearly, I had to try this.

My dad was going to pick up the pizza and I don't think he has had to order gluten and dairy free for me before this pizza. He's seen me gluten-sick plenty of times, but we had not gone out to eat since my dietary change. There was a little bit of panic because I get excited about things being gluten free and totally forget about the dairy free portion of my diet. A call to Nick's earlier in the week confirmed that their crust was also dairy free. So all I had to do was tell my dad what pizza to order - no cheese - and we were good. When we went to pick up the pizza, panic really set in: I saw a lot of people working with pizza dough and using large knives to cut the pizza into slices. I confirmed with our cashier that my pizza was gluten-free and nervously asked about the knife they used to cut it. The cashier said they have a special knife they use for the gluten free pizzas and the pizzas are even cooked in their own tin. Cross contamination fears minimized!

I had the Margherita Pizza - sans mozzarella cheese. The crust was a delicious thin crust with a nice crunch and the olive oil made it super tasty. And it was a truly beautiful pizza with large pieces of basil and slices of tomato for extra flavor. This pizza is one to keep in my back pocket when I go home!

Pizza with Teese

During my recent trip to the Whole Foods Amusement Park (as my friends and I affectionately call the Whole Foods mega-store in Lincoln Park), I found Teese - vegan cheese. It is a dairy and gluten free vegan version of mozzarella cheese. The package claims it is great to shred on to your pizza. Soft goat cheese crumbles, so I have just been putting clumps of cheese on my pizza. It seemed a little foreign to me to use my cheese shredder to add freshly grated cheese to pizza, like the rest of the world does. I was giddy with excitement when I saw the perfect pieces of mozzarella cheese gracefully fall onto my pizza. I think it tasted like normal cheese, but then again, it has been over two years since I last had mozzarella...

For my dough, I used Hodgson Mill's box version again. I cheated and opened a can of pizza sauce and after adding Teese, I sprinkled some sundried tomatoes on top. I need to get more creative with my pizza toppings, but sundried tomatoes are one of my current favorite foods.

Pizza!

Growing up, I loved making pizza. Take an English muffin, some spaghetti sauce and sprinkle some shredded mozzarella cheese and nuke it in the microwave or put it in the oven for a few minutes! Easy! As an adult, I still fell into that habit for making my own pizzas instead of buying a frozen one. I recently discovered pre-made pizza dough that was dairy free in the bread section of stores. I loved the more grown-up version of pizzas. I have two stand-by lactose-free pizzas: sun dried tomatoes, basil & goat cheese, and a Hawaiian - pineapple, ham, & goat cheese. Finding pizza dough that is gluten and lactose free is pretty easy. I have a bunch of different mixes and already made doughs that are ready for taste testing! On Thursday, my Pampered Chef pizza stone and basting brush arrived so I was anxious to break those in. Since I have never mixed my own pizza dough, I cannot say how gf dough compares to traditional dough. From a traditional bread making perspective, it is really similar.

For my first ever gf pizza, I used Hodgson Mill's pizza crust mix. It is billed as "Light Crispy Delightful". My "gently spread the dough to fit the pan" skills are a little rough (the box makes two 12" crusts) so my dough was a little uneven and an inch or two smaller than recommended. After mixing the dough and letting it rise on the pizza stone, you cook the pizza dough for a several minutes and then take it out of the oven and brush oil on it before adding the toppings and cooking it for several more minutes. For the sauce, I used can tomato sauce mixed with basil and a little oregano. I added cooked ham, canned pineapple, and crumbled up goat cheese on top. Delicious! Since my pizza was smaller than recommended and I cooked it for the minimum time, it was very soft - just the way I like it! Hands down, it was the best pizza dough I have ever had! It was fully cooked, but still had a light doughy texture. Needless to say, this was a great start to my pizza adventures! I was concerned that I would need to keep some traditional pizza dough at home for when I'm cooking for friends (covering my pan with tinfoil for an easy clean-up, of course) but this is a dough that I can make for friends without any food allergies and they will never know the difference!