Required Post

[AlwaysElegant]

Greetings,

After many years of satisfying cooking and eating, I am finally getting into pizza making.  The reason is that my father is dying of heart failure and can only eat small amounts of sodium.  One of his favorite foods is pizza but he told me this week (with a sad frown) that he had to give it up in the interest of staying alive longer.  My mom doesn't like cooking and never has so she's not about to hand-make pizza.  However, she is the only reason why my father has lived this long and, since he can't eat much sodium, they can't go out like they used to.  She's had to take up cooking on a daily basis and it's completely stressing her out.  So part of my contribution to dad's end of life care is cooking for both of them. 

I've started some dough this morning and will finish some pizzas tomorrow for their freezer.  Dad's favorite is Hawaiian followed closely by combination, so that's what I'm starting with.  If anybody has any suggestions for making sodium-free pizza taste good I'd sure appreciate hearing from you. 

Warm regards,

Melanie Herman
Sacramento, California

[Essen1]

Hi Melanie and welcome aboard.

I'm sad to hear what's going on with your Dad. It's a disheartening situation.

Regarding making a no-salt pizza crust taste good is actually not that difficult. First, I'd add only a tiny amount, maybe less than a 1/8 of a tsp of sea salt to the dough and add some garlic powder to it to give it a bit more flavor.

Second, choose fresh toppings, such as veggies, maybe some low-sodium ham - if your Dad likes a little meat on his pies - and go easy on the salt in the sauce. And check the sodium levels in the cheese, and perhaps pick one that says "low-sodium" on the package. I know Sargento makes some good low-sodium mozzarella and provolone.

Last, once the pizza comes out of the oven, sprinkle some red pepper flakes and dried oregano on top. Adds flavor and a bit of heat.

Hope that helps a bit...

[buceriasdon]

Hi and welcome Melanie, This is an excellent thread on low sodium pizza. Matt, Bill, Peter have made some great contributions to low sodium pizza. I'm going to let Bill(chickenparm) tell you more. Bill did a great job.

http://www.pizzamaking.com/forum/index.php/topic,13335.0.html

Don