Pizza

One of the first things I started making from scratch was pizza.  Don't get me wrong, restaurant pizza is amazingly delicious and there is an abundance of good pizza places in the US, but it gets very expensive to go out for pizza.  So I found a good recipe online for a crust and went from there.  I usually scale the recipe to suit my needs (bump it up by 30% to make two medium pizzas instead of 1 gigantic one).  I typically make just a cheese pizza with some tomato sauce, but the beauty of homemade pizza is that you can put on it whatever you like!  Be creative :)

To make a basic cheese pizza, you will need:

For the crust:
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 tsp salt
1 tbsp olive oil, plus some to brush on crust
2/3 cup warm water (approximate; you may need more)
2 tsp yeast

To make the sauce:
2/3 cup crushed tomatoes
1/2 tsp dried basil
1/2 tsp dried oregano
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp black pepper
1/4 tsp garlic powder

For the toppings:
4 oz mozzarella, shredded
1/2 cup parmesan, shredded

First things first, we must make the crust.  If you have a bread machine, add your ingredients in the order suggested by the manufacturer and let it go through at least 40-45 minutes of the dough cycle.

If you are going to do it by hand, start by dissolving the yeast in the water.  Let sit about 5 minutes to start to activate the yeast.

Next add the oil, salt and flour, stirring to make a nice ball of dough.  If yours doesn't form a nice smooth ball right away but instead looks like a shaggy mess, that's fine; start mixing it with your hands instead to incorporate the flour and water better.

Turn the dough out onto a floured surface and knead for about 5 minutes.  By the end of your kneading, the dough should be a nice smooth ball.  Put into a large greased bowl to rise.  You can also oil the top of your dough to keep it from drying out.

Let it rise till it's noticeably larger, usually about 30 minutes.

Turn out onto a clean surface (you can add a little flour if your dough is a little sticky) and roll to the size pizza you want. A 12 - 14" circle is a good size for this amount of dough.  Please note, I had to roll it into a rectangle so I could use a particular pan.  Place your rolled-out crust on a lightly-greased baking sheet and let it sit and rest while your oven is preheating to 450F/230C.

 

Once the oven is preheated, brush a light coating of olive oil over the crust and bake for 8 minutes, or until the crust is starting to brown.

While the crust is baking, you can prepare your toppings and sauce.

Brush on another light coating of olive oil.  This will help keep your crust from forming a weird gel-like layer that comes from the sauce having contact with an unbaked crust.  Just trust me on this one ;)

Next, spread on the sauce evenly.  

Then add your cheese.  It is OK if not every single drop of sauce is covered with a piece of cheese.  The cheese will spread nicely as it melts.

Bake another 9-10 minutes or until the cheese is at your desired level of done-ness.  I like mine almost burnt!

Slice how you want and serve :)