Pizza. Anyone who has Celiac Disease or who is gluten intolerant understands the significance of the word pizza. Before being diagnosed as having Celiac Disease, I would eat regular gluteny pizza and would always get sick. I thought it was the acid in the tomato sauce burning my mouth and leaving my tongue raw for days afterward. Oh how I loved pizza.
I was diagnosed with Celiac Disease in 2008. I had gone to my family doctor to see if I could find the root of my constant fatigue. He told me it was normal to be exhausted mothering three kids and offered me antidepressants. I knew what I was feeling wasn’t normal and I knew I wasn’t depressed so I sought out a second opinion. I crawled into the new doctor complaining of constant headaches and extreme fatigue. One look at me and he told me he highly suspected I had Celiac Disease. A wildly positive blood test and subsequent small intestine biopsy confirmed his suspicions: eating gluten was slowly but surely killing me. Solution: stop eating gluten.
The “cure” for Celiac Disease is to eat a gluten free diet for life. If you eliminate the gluten, you eliminate the symptoms and the gut heals. According to Columbia University’s Celiac Disease Centre, “Celiac disease is an autoimmune disorder that causes damage to the small intestine, which can lead to malabsorption of nutrients. A genetic intolerance to gluten, a protein found in wheat, rye and barley, triggers this destructive reaction of the immune system.”
Once I knew what I was dealing with, I researched gluten free eating and recipes with a vengeance. I sifted, I baked, I ate. Pizza, however, was something I could not perfect. Searching for pizza nirvana is a common theme among Celiac Disease sufferers. The stretchy nature of gluten makes pizza dough work. Without the stretchy gluten protein, gluten free flours just don’t stretch and make dough the same way which is fine for cakes and cookies. It makes making pizza a very difficult proposition.
I have spent the better part of the last four years, trying to make a good gluten free pizza. I have had limited success. I dreamt of having a good pizza once again.
On a recent trip to New York City, I found it: divine gluten free pizza. When I sat down at a table at Risotteria on Bleeker Street, I knew I had hit when I was served the most AMAZING gluten free bread sticks. The pizza, made with fresh tomato sauce, was virtually indistinguishable from wheat dough pizza.
Sadly, I do not live in New York or even close to it, so this wonderful pizza was an extra special treat. After much experimentation, I happened upon this recipe for gluten free pizza crust. It passes when I am having a pizza craving. Hopefully it will curb your gluten free pizza craving too.