Pizza!

It’s been a regular part of our lives for as long as I can remember.  And I’m not talking about restaurant or even frozen pizza.  I’m talking about homemade crust and sauce pizza.

When I was really little we made it from the Chef Boyardee pizza kits.  By the time I was in 7^th grade though my mom had discovered a crust recipe that was easy enough to make and that was the only kind of pizza we had with any regularity at our house.  The recipe was printed on thin cardboard, cut out from the label on a pizza pan I think.  We kept it on the bulletin board inside the cabinet door on the far left side of the kitchen.  Over the years it got stained from mishaps and had many holes punched into it as we took it down and put it back every time we made pizza.   It’s still my basic pizza crust recipe although curiosity has led me to make changes here and there.

Over the years we perfected the pizza sauce recipe too.  My mom tried a myriad of seasonings including oregano, crushed red pepper, basil, parsley and fennel.  

It used to seem like a big deal to make pizza for supper.  Not because my mom made like it was.  It was just clearly something that took more effort than frying up a hamburger in a skillet on top of the stove.  But then one day it just wasn’t any big deal anymore.  And I came to love the fact that by the time the pizza went into the oven, you could clean up all the prep mess leaving just plates, glasses and a couple of easy to clean pans.

Basic pizza crust:

3 c all purpose flour

1 tsp salt

2 packet Rapid Rise yeast (4 ½  tsp if measuring from a jar)

1 c water

3 Tbsp olive oil

Mix dry ingredients then add water and oil.  Mix into dough.  Knead until smooth then let rise in a warm spot.  (We used to put ours in the dishwasher—clean, no dirty dishes—for the dry cycle).

I now pull out my bread machine to make it even easier.  I put the water and oil in first then salt, flour and yeast.

Tweaked pizza crust:

2 ½ c all purpose flour

1 c tortilla mix (I get it at Walmart)

2 packets Rapid Rise yeast

1 c water

3 Tsp olive oil

2 Tbsp sugar

Whichever recipe you use, after it has had 20 minutes to rise you need to divide the dough into 2 balls.  Lightly flour your counter and roll the dough out using a rolling pin.  Peel it off the counter and put on the pizza pan.  Then top with sauce, cheese and your preferred toppings.

Pizza sauce

This one is tricky to write out because I never measure anything.  But here goes:

1 small can tomato sauce

1 small can tomato paste

Red pepper

Oregano

1 Tbsp sugar

Mix tomato sauce and paste in a small bowl.  Fill the tomato sauce can with water and add to the mix.  Stir in 1 tsp crushed red pepper, 1 Tbsp oregano and 1 Tbsp sugar.

This makes enough sauce for 2 12-16” pizzas.

Pizzas get topped with 1½-2 cups of cheese.  We usually use shredded mozzarella but have been known to use Colby Jack or a pizza blend.

We always use pepperoni.  Usually we dice up onions and green peppers.  Sometimes we brown up some ground beef for a meatier pizza.  Or slice tomatoes to put on top.  My husband’s favorite is pepperoni, onion and banana peppers.  

Pizzas bake at 425° for 15-20 minutes, depending on how “done” you like your pizza.