Pizza

I love pizza. Take-out pizza smothered in tomato sauce, covered in pepperoni, and dripping with cheese. But I love homemade pizza even more. Not only are there obvious health concerns with the take-out – fats and salts and mystery meat – but making your own is much more fun.

 

These instructions look long and complicated, but once you’ve done this a time or two, you can have homemade pizza about as fast as any delivery pizza. And it tastes better!

The Crust

We’ve tried a couple of variations, but this one seems to be the easiest and best. And I do mean easy, especially if you have a food processor.

 

2 tsp. honey

1 pkg. dry yeast (about 2 ¼ tsp.)

¾ c. warm water

1 c. whole wheat flour

1 ¼ c. white flour

½ tsp. salt

Cooking spray

Cornmeal

Olive oil 

Options:

Wheat germ or flaxseed dough – add ¼ cup with the whole wheat flour

Asian – add 2 tsp. raw sesame seeds

Herb – add 2 tbs. chopped fresh herbs – basil is fantastic

Nutty – add 2 tbs. finely chopped pecans or walnuts

Cheese – add 2 tbs. finely grated Parmesan, fontina, or asiago

Pepper – add 1 tsp. coarsely ground black pepper

Use your imagination!

To prepare: Dissolve honey and yeast in warm water. Let stand 5 minutes. If you have a food processor, do all this in the food processor bowl. Add the whole wheat flour, salt, and enough of the white flour to make a soft dough. Process a few minutes until dough is smooth and elastic.

If you are doing this by hand, it’s still easy. Add the whole wheat flour, salt and a cup of the white flour. Turn dough out onto a lightly floured surface.

 

Knead until smooth and elastic, about 5 minutes. Add flour, 1 tbs. at a time, to prevent dough from becoming sticky.

Place dough in a bowl coated with cooking spray, turn to coat the top, cover, and let rise in warm place for 30 minutes. This is just enough time to get all your toppings assembled. You can tell the dough is ready if two fingers poked into the dough (I don’t know why two fingers – it can be three or one, or whatever) makes an indentation that remains.
 

Put the dough back on the floured surface, and roll out into a 12” circle. Or you can divide in fourths to make individual pizzas – the grandkids love this. If I’m making one big pizza, I just sprinkle some cornmeal on the pizza peel, or a cookie sheet without a rim.

 

Then I roll the dough out on the peel or sheet.

 

We like to pre-bake or pre-grill the crust.

To bake: it really helps to have a pizza stone for this and you can use a pizza stone for making some homemade breads. You can get a pizza stone at any discount store. After the dough has risen for 15 minutes, put the pizza stone in the oven, and heat the oven to at least 450° or 475°. Commercial pizza ovens are about 500°. You want the stone to be really hot.

Slide the prepared crust onto the pizza stone.

 

Make sure you’ve used enough cornmeal on the peel to let the dough slide off easily. Poke with a fork all over. This is so you don’t get a big bubble in the middle of your crust when it bakes the first time. If you do, just poke the bubble down anyway.

If you don’t have a pizza stone, just bake it on your cookie sheet or on a pizza pan.

Bake the crust about 5 minutes. Slide back onto your cookie sheet or pizza peel. Add the toppings.

Slide back onto the stone and bake another 8-10 minutes till crust is golden brown and the cheese, if you added cheese, is bubbly.

To grill: Oh these are so good! This process goes fast so have everything ready.

Heat grill to medium high.

Divide pizza dough into 4 pieces (1 recipe of dough), roll into rounds, brush one side with olive oil.

Spray more foil with grill spray, place dough on the grill, oiled side down. Grill about 2-3 minutes till bottom side is brown and top is still a little doughy. Take off grill, brush both sides with olive oil, turn over so cooked side is up. Put on toppings – see the list below. Put on grill (spray foil with more spray) and close lid so cheese will melt. Grill another 2-3 minutes (but watch so they don’t burn).

You can just flip the crust and add the toppings right there, but we have too much creativity going on and the grill would lose all its heat. So we bring the partially grilled crust back to our toppings center to do the creative part.

The Toppings

Like I said, you are only limited by your imagination, so I’ll just cover the basics here.

You don’t have to use tomato sauce because there are so many pizza recipes that don’t call for it. But here’s a basic tomato sauce recipe:

 

TOMATO SAUCE

1 ½ qts. frozen or canned tomatoes, peeled

Basil

Oregano

Salt

Thyme

Garlic powder

Parsley

Ground pepper

Cinnamon  

Combine and cook till thick. 

 

Or you can try some marinara instead of tomato sauce.

 

Veggies:

Sliced onions, grilled or sautéed

Sliced green or red pepper, grilled or sautéed

Roasted chilies

Herbs

            Basil

            Oregano

            Rosemary

            Cilantro

Sliced mushrooms, raw and sliced very thin, or grilled or sautéed

Potatoes, pre-cooked

Tomatoes, chopped or sliced

Roasted tomatoes

Garlic, sautéed

Leeks

Spinach or chard, chopped

Olives (actually, I don’t like olives, but I’ve heard that other people do)

Zucchini, grilled or sautéed

Meats:

Pepperoni (I get the turkey kind)

Italian sausage, browned and crumbled

Hamburger, browned and crumbled

Taco meat, browned, crumbled, seasoning added

Grilled chicken

Bacon, cooked

Ham

Prosciutto

Leftover turkey

Anchovies (I don’t like these either, but there’s no accounting for taste…) 

Cheese:

Mozzarella (homemade or store-bought)

Parmesan, freshly grated

Romano

Asiago

Feta

Gouda

Cheddar

Mexican blend

Blue cheese

Any smoked cheese

Other:

Pesto (this is one of my favorite toppings)

Some good combinations for summer are:

Mozzarella, fresh tomato slices and fresh basil, drizzled with olive oil

Mozzarella, chopped tomatoes, caramelized onions, mushrooms

Chopped tomatoes, crumbled feta, finely chopped spinach or chard, black olives 

Sauteed onions, rosemary, and blue cheese

Good winter combinations include:

Farmer cheese, chicken, olives and mushrooms

Tomato sauce, mozzarella, dried peppers, mushrooms, and anchovies

Apples, bacon, and onions 

Dessert pizzas:

Fruit – pears, apples, peaches - honey, blue cheese, applesauce 

There are lots of recipes and flavor combinations if you Google “homemade pizza”.

Several times, when our family is together, we have a pizza party. Everyone brings some toppings, I make the dough, and we get chaotic and creative. It helps to grill some or bake some of the crusts ahead, but the kids like to roll out their own.

Your kitchen may be a disaster when it’s over, but the payoff is when someone takes a bite of their design, rolls their eyes in happiness, and sighs. And you get to taste everyone’s creation ‘cuz it’s so much fun to share. Enjoy!