A pizza stone is a wonderful addition to an oven when one wants a perfect pizza crust. The heat is distributed more evenly. Frankly, most folks like the pizza better off a stone. Think of the Italian restaurant on the corner that slides pizza onto the stone surface of the oven. Yum, yes??

But, what if you don’t have a pizza stone? I bet you have something that works equally as well. A cast iron skillet the approximate size of your pizza makes a perfect heat catalyst for your pizza.

We had frozen pizza because I forgot what day it was. I thought we were grilling with the neighbors, but I also thought it was Wednesday. Somehow, Monday was 2 days long. We also are suffering from a water well issue this week, and I’ve been looking for ways to use a fewer cooking utensils and dishes that have to be washed. Frozen pizza was on hand for just such an occasion and for my calendar confusion. Haha.

Frozen pizza can be great. Doctor it up a bit if you want and make it your own. The problem I find with frozen pizza is that it wants to be cooked on the bare oven rack, and the bottom gets too brown and crunchy before the top gets cooked properly. The black skillet corrects that issue.

So, how do you use your skillet as a pizza stone?

Choose a skillet or griddle that is the approximate size of your pizza.

Unless you have a huge skillet the pizza will not fit inside. Simply turn your skillet over so that the bottom is facing up. Preheat the skillet as you preheat the oven, the same as you would a pizza stone. It’s okay if the edge hangs over just a bit as ours did. Then, follow the baking directions on the frozen pizza.

You can also build a home cooked pizza in the skillet. I’ll save that for another post.

You must try this at home. Pizza (even frozen) was the perfect end to a less than perfectly planned day.

Sometimes you just need to laugh, and eat pizza.

Hope your day is wonderful and blessed.

Until next time…Buon Appetito!

Kim Orsini

Iron Maiden – Black Skillet Cooking