How to Prepare Your Half-Baked Pizza

• Preheat oven to highest setting with a pizza stone (if you have one) in it.
• If you don’t have a pizza stone, place a cookie sheet large enough to fit your entire pizza on it in the oven for 10 minutes.
• Unfold edge of pizza box and slide pie on to cooking surface.
• Bake for 4 - 5 minutes, until golden brown and crispy.
• Cut pie and consume vigorously!

Frozen Pizza Heating Instructions

If your pizza arrives defrosted, put it in the freezer immediately until you're ready to bake it.  Do not defrost your pizza before baking. 

• Position one of your oven racks so that it's in the middle of the oven. Preheat oven to 450 (if you have a convection oven, turn on the fan).
• Remove packaging, including cardboard liner and place the pizza directly on the wire oven rack.
• Bake for 7-10 minutes or until edge of crust is nicely browned, the center of the pie and all toppings are hot and cheese is melted.
• Remove from oven, Cut and serve. Buon Appetito!

Pasta Kit Instructions

• Thaw sauce in microwave or overnight in refrigerator.
• Bring a large pot of salted water to boil. Once boiling, add pasta and cook till a little bit less than al dente, 8 minutes.
• Set a colander and a coffee mug in the sink. Drain pasta in the colander and fill the mug with some of the pasta water.
• Combine the defrosted sauce with some of the reserved pasta water in the empty pasta pot. Add the pasta and simmer, stirring with a wooden spoon, until the pasta is finished cooking and the sauce coats the noodles. Add more of the reserved water as necessary.
• Pro tip: Stir-in a little knob of whole butter (for theBolognese) or drizzle-in some extra virgin olive oil (for the spaghetti) at the very end if desired- that’s what we do.
• You can either grate and stir the cheese into thepasta before plating or grate over the top.
• Buon Appetito!

Lasagna Cooking Instructions

• Defrost the Lasagna at room temperature for three hours or in the refrigerator for a full day. 
• Position oven rack to center of oven and preheat oven to 425°. If you have a convection oven turn the fan on.           
• Set the partially defrosted lasagna on top of a baking sheet pan and set in the oven. 
• Bake for 45 minutes, remove from oven and carefully remove lid. 
• Test for doneness with a thermometer, it should read 165°. Or, insert a butter knife into center of lasagna, hold in place for 45 seconds, remove and feel the flat part of the knife where it was imbedded in lasagna to determine whether it’s hot enough to serve.  The top should be lightly browned and caramelized.      
• If it's ready, allow to rest at room temperature for 5-10 minutes before cutting and serving. If it's not ready, return it to the oven and bake a little longer until done.                 
• Buon Appetito!

• Preheat oven to 350 degrees
• Set the lid-on tray of frozen meatballs on a baking sheet and place on the middle rack of the preheated oven.  Bake for 50 minutes, until heated all the way through.
• Remove from oven and carefully remove lid. 
• Grate pecorino on top and serve.
• Buon Appetito!

• Put gnocchi in the freezer as soon as you get home with them. Do not defrost the gnocchi ahead of time.
• When you’re ready to cook, bring a large pot of well-salted water to a boil. If you plan to cook the entire pound at once use a pot with six-quart capacity or larger.
• When water is at a rolling boil, drop in the gnocchi all at once. Immediately give them a gentle stir with a wooden spoon or paddle, making sure they don’t clump together or sit on bottom of pot. Give them a second and third stir if necessary, until they come to a boil.
• Cook for a total of five minutes - which will be beyond the time they begin to float. If you drain them before the full five minutes is up they will be undercooked and gummy.
• While the gnocchi is cooking, heat your sauce* in a saute pan until it comes to a boil. Turn off flame.
• Once the five minutes is up for the gnocchi, drain them, reserving some of the cooking water in a coffee mug.

• Add the gnocchi to the saute pan of sauce and turn flame to high. Bring the sauce and gnocchi to a boil and cook for a few minutes, adding a little of the reserved cooking water along with finishing ingredients - butter and cheese are especially tasty.
• When gnocchi and sauce appear to have transcended the sum of their parts, slide contents of pan onto a platter or into a bowl and serve.
• Buon Appetito!    

• *As the ultimate sauce partner may we humbly recommend Delfina’s Pomodoro, Amatriciana or Ragu Bolognese for your gnocchi.

                                     

• When you receive your pizza kit, refrigerate all ingredients if you don’t plan to use within two hours. If you plan to use within two hours, leave dough out to proof at room temperature. If you've refrigerated the dough, remove from refrigerator and allow to proof as described above before using. 
• Ideally, dough ball will be 60° and have doubled in size before using.                           
• Preheat oven with pizza stone or baking steel to 500° for one hour. Use an inverted cookie sheet or cast iron pan if you don’t have a pizza stone/steel.
• Dust the counter with a little bit of flour and set a dough ball on top. Dust the top of the dough ball with flour. Flatten your fingers and press the dough ball from the middle out, pushing the air in to the crust. Do not press on the crust area.
• Gently lay the dough on the back of your hands and slowly stretch the pizza, letting gravity do most of the work. Stretch the pizza till it is 10- 12 inches.
• Lay the pizza on a floured pizza peel or on the back of a floured sheet pan.
• Top pizza with:
  3 ounces of pizza sauce, spread almost to the edge of the stretched dough
  3-4 pieces of torn, fresh mozzarella
  Some of dry mozzarella
  1 basil leaf torn in two pieces and a sprinkling of salt
• This will give a basic margherita. You can cook as is or add/omit whatever you want.
• Once the pizza is topped gently shake the peel to make sure it isn’t stuck and shake loose if it is. Gently launch the pizza in to the oven and bake until edge of crust is puffy, brown and crispy, roughly 5-6 minutes.
• Remove pizza from oven with pizza peel or carefully with tongs pull the pizza on to a sheet pan.
• Cut and serve. Buon Appetito!

Tips for storing dough

• Dough left at room temperature should be used within two hours after the dough has proofed and risen. 
• Refrigerated dough should be wrapped in plastic wrap to prevent drying and should be used within 24 hours.
• Any dough you plan to use more than 24 hours from receiving should be frozen. The best way to freeze the dough balls is in a lightly oiled deli container (one-per) or frozen on a parchment paper-lined sheet pan (once frozen it can be transferred to a zip lock bag for easier storage in your freezer). 
• When you're ready to use the frozen dough, unwrap and set in a lightly oiled bowl covered with plastic wrap or a damp kitchen towel. Thaw as room temperature for 4-6 hours or 12-24 hours in the refrigerator.