PIZZA

Dough

Basic Dough

500g Bread flour (about four cups)

16g kosher salt (a little over 2 3/4 tsp)

1g active dry yeast (1/4 tsp)

350 ml water

Mix ingredients together

Cover with plastic wrap

Let sit at room temperature for 18-24 hours

Makes 2-4 pizzas (save the extra dough balls for later!)

This dough recipe is so so easy to make, and it's pretty much perfect. It's from Basics with Babish: Pizza!

Sweeter Dough

1 3/4 cups room-temperature water

3 Tbl olive oil

1 1/2 Tbl honey

5 cups bread flour

2 tsp table salt or 3 1/2 tsp kosher salt

1/2 tsp yeast

Add ingredients to bread machine on dough setting

When ready, separate dough into three balls, roll the balls in olive oil, then put them each in their own baggie. Refrigerate for at least two hours. You can leave them in the fridge for a couple of days or freeze for a while.

Two hours before you need to start rolling out the dough, remove from the fridge and let sit at room temperature.

If you don't have a bread machine, you can follow the longer set of instructions I got this from:

I went to a friend's graduation party, and he and his then-girlfriend (now wife) made homemade pizzas for everyone! I loved the crust so much that I asked for the recipe, and this is it!

I like this dough a little better than the other one, but Mickey prefers the basic dough.

Sauce

Sweet Tomato Sauce ("Exquisite Pizza Sauce")

1 (6 ounce) can tomato paste 6 fluid ounces warm water (110 degrees F/45 degrees C) 3 tablespoons grated Parmesan cheese 1 teaspoon minced garlic 2 tablespoons honey 3/4 teaspoon garlic (or onion) powder (optional) 1/4 teaspoon dried oregano 1/4 teaspoon dried marjoram 1/4 teaspoon dried basil 1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper 1/8 teaspoon cayenne pepper 1/8 teaspoon dried red pepper flakes salt to taste

In a small bowl, combine tomato paste, water, Parmesan cheese, garlic, honey, garlic powder, oregano, marjoram, basil, ground black pepper, cayenne pepper, red pepper flakes and salt; mix together, breaking up any clumps of cheese.

Sauce should sit for 30 minutes to blend flavors; spread over pizza dough and prepare pizza as desired.

I found this recipe here!

I really like this recipe, but the honey may make it too sweet for some people.

Pesto

From the "Can't Cook" cookbook

The recipe is listed above, but here's my transcription of it:

2 cups loosely-packed basil

a couple cloves of garlic

1/4 cup pine nuts

1/4 cup freshly-grated parmesan cheese

1/4 tsp salt

1/4 tsp freshly-ground black pepper

1/3 cup olive oil

Rinse the basil and peel the garlic

Add basil, garlic, pine nuts, parmesan, salt, and pepper to a food processor (amounts are flexible, but suggested amounts are listed above - feel free to also toast the pine nuts for an extra toasted flavor). Make sure you use fresh garlic and freshly-ground black pepper for the extra kick of flavors!

Finely chop the ingredients in the food processor

Scrape down the sides

Add the oil and pulse a few times until the pesto is smooth and the oil is incorporated

Don't process too much unless you prefer a very fine paste of pesto

I like to use pesto as a pasta sauce, a sandwich sauce, or a dip for pita chips.

It can also work as a pizza sauce, but I prefer to add some tomato paste to the pesto sauce for a more tomatoey pizza sauce that's more willing to spread on dough and bake in the oven:

Tomato Pesto Pizza Sauce

pesto sauce

tomato paste

water (optional)

salt and pepper (optional)

Add a spoonful or so of tomato paste to pesto, and mix. If the paste needs to be a little less pasty and more saucy, add water - no more water than the amount of tomato paste you added. It shouldn't need any extra seasoning, but if it seems bland, add extra salt and/or pepper to taste.

Basic Tomato Sauce

There are some basic tomato sauce recipes on Basics with Babish and Binging with Babish that I have wanted to try, but I think my food processor is a little too small (it's a little too small for pesto, too, but I love pesto too much to let that stop me)

White Pizza Sauce

My mom has a great white pizza sauce recipe that I need to steal from her! In the meantime, I've found that adding freshly-chopped garlic, salt, and freshly-ground black pepper to alfredo sauce from the grocery store makes it taste a lot better!

I haven't had much chance to experiment with homemade alfredo sauce because most recipes involve milk or cream, and those do not have a long shelf life, so they're not something I keep on hand, and I tend to buy them only if I specifically need them.

Other Store-Bought Sauce

Tomato sauces - I haven't really found one from the grocery store I really love. For some time, Francesco Rinaldi was my go-to if I wanted to buy sauce, but none of them have really stood out to me as amazing. One sauce we do love to use straight off the shelf is sauce from our favorite restaurant, Mamma Roma, which they now sell at the counter :)

Alfredo sauce - I think every alfredo sauce I've tried from the grocery store has pretty much tasted the same, and none of them are flavorful enough.

BBQ sauce - I also don't have a favorite barbecue sauce, but I prefer to pick the ones that don't have high fructose corn syrup

Cheese

I've done a lot of experimenting with cheese on pizza, and I think the thing that works best is to get a block of fresh mozzarella that's more dry, and to shred it onto the pizza yourself.

Pre-shredded mozzarella: very simple, but very bland.

Wet fresh mozzarella: you can cut or tear small chunks and place them all over the pizza. It doesn't shred very easily. The cheese usually ends up tasting very good, but if you don't put on the correct amount of mozzarella, you end up with either exposed sauce or a messy pizza that's goopy in the middle because of the extra moisture from the mozzarella.

Dry fresh mozzarella: Shreds easily, tastes great, doesn't add too much extra moisture or leave sauce exposed

Toppings

With Tomato Sauce

Pepperoni: Sometimes I get stick of pepperoni and slice it myself. I bake the slices of pepperoni (whether or not they were pre-sliced) in the toaster oven until they're crispy before adding them to the uncooked pizza. Pepperoni doesn't cook very well when it's on top of cheese, so feel free to bake it right to or just under the amount of crispiness that you prefer it at!

Basil: I grow fresh basil in my kitchen windowsill :)

Other toppings: add whatever you like!

With BBQ Sauce

Chicken: Cook some chicken tenderloins in a pan before starting the pizza. Chop into small pieces.

Pineapple: Cut into small pieces

Jalepeño: Cut into small slices

Bacon: Like pepperoni, bake it before adding to the uncooked pizza!

Pizza

Flour

Cornmeal

Dough of your choice

Sauce of your choice

Mozzarella cheese

Parmesan cheese (optional)

Salt

Pepper

Other seasonings (optional): garlic, red pepper flakes, oregano, Italian seasoning, basil

Toppings

You will also need:

Pizza stone

Pizza peel

Spoon and/or pastry brush

Pizza cutter - I prefer a long blade instead of a wheel-type A smaller blade/peel for helping the dough into the oven

Put pizza stone in the oven, and preheat to 500° F. Hotter is better for pizza, especially on a pizza stone, because it crisps the crust while leaving everything else gooey and moist.

Sprinkle some flour on the peel, in the spot you want to make your pizza.

Add cornmeal to the same spot on the peel, making sure it covers everywhere the dough will touch

Get your ball of dough, and start manipulating it with your hands before setting it down. Try to make it as thin and circular as you can without letting it touch the flour and cornmeal.

When it starts to become too difficult to work with in the air, set it down on the flour and cornmeal, and push it out from the center to make it as wide and thin as the peel and the dough will allow without making holes in the dough. If you do make a hole, fix it with some dough that hasn't yet touched flour or cornmeal. Make sure the dough can slide relatively easily on the peel. If it can't, add more cornmeal to the bottom of the section of the dough that is sticking. Don't be afraid of using too much cornmeal! When you're either satisfied with how your dough looks or you're too frustrated to work on it anymore, patch any remaining holes, and then add sauce.

For moister sauces that will be the primary flavor of the pizza like tomato sauce or alfredo sauce, I use a large spoon to scoop up the sauce from its container then use the back of the spoon to spread it around on the dough. For sauces that I'd like to be spread a little thinner (like BBQ sauce) I may spread it on using a pastry brush.

Now add anything that you want to be under cheese. If you want an extra-garlicky pizza, add some fresh garlic. If you want to surprise people with toppings they may hate and cannot pick off, add them now. (But don't actually because that is mean and you will ruin your pizza!) Add a little salt and pepper if you don't trust your pizza sauce to be flavorful enough.

Add cheese! Freshly grate a block of mozzarella right onto the pizza, then spread it around so it completely covers the sauce and some of the crust. If you chose to use a wetter mozzarella instead, don't completely cover the sauce because the cheese will melt together to cover the sauce. Just make sure there are no huge sections of uncovered sauce.

I also like to grate some fresh Parmesan on top of the mozzarella to fill in the gaps that the mozzarella may have missed!

Add seasonings! Add a little bit of salt and freshly-ground pepper (though maybe don't if you're doing a BBQ pizza). Sprinkle with any other seasonings you might want to add for extra flavor.

Add toppings! Add whatever toppings you like!

When the oven is done preheating, pull the rack with the pizza stone on it out enough so that you can hover over it. Use some sort of scraper to help you move the pizza dough from the peel to the stone. We use something similar to our pizza cutter, but about half the width and twice the length. It helps to spin the dough as you stick it in the oven, so there's less friction keeping it on the peel.

It takes some practice to get the transition from peel to stone right

Scrape or wash off the extra flour and cornmeal from the peel. You're not supposed to eat raw flour or cornmeal.

Bake for 8-12 minutes, or until the cheese starts to brown

Use the peel to take the pizza out of the oven.

Use a pizza cutter to cut the pizza into even slices.

Serve and enjoy!