La Pizza Rossa (The Bread Lover's Pizza)

 

 We've all heard of the meat lover's pizza, the cheese lover's pizza, and the veggie lover's pizza.  Meet the new bread lover's pizza.  The crust on this pizza rossa is at least one and a half inches thick, giving a whole new meaning to thick crust pizza.  

The dough on this pizza is dimpled, which allows room for more toppings, creating a harmonious balance between the thick crust and what lies on top. Creating good dimples in your dough is the secret to this pizza.  Each dimple is like a secret holding extra little bits of sauce and cheese. 

 As written, this recipe called for topping only with a homemade tomato sauce. I wanted to make my pizza more of a main course pizza so I added the standard cheese and pepperoni.  Feel free to customize this pizza as you wish.  There are so many different variations that would be good with this thick crust.  This recipe makes a huge pizza that easily fills up a large sheet pan.  You will have enough pizza to feed a large family or a small crowd.  

La Pizza Rossa

Adapted from Apples for Jam by Tessa Kiros

Makes 12 to 15 pieces

Dough:

1-3/4 cups warm (comfortable to your fingers) water

1 (3/4-ounce) cake fresh yeast, crumbled or 1 (1/4-ounce) package active dry yeast

1 teaspoon honey

1-1/2 tablespoons olive oil

4-3/4 cups all purpose flour

1-1/2 teaspoons salt

Tomato Topping:

5 tablespoons olive oil

1 large clove garlic, peeled and squashed a bit

2 (14-ounce) cans diced tomatoes

1 teaspoon salt

3 basil leaves, torn

cheese, pepperoni, sausage, veggies (optional)

12 ounces of shredded mozzarella

pepperoni, to your liking

about 1/2 cup freshly grated Parmesan
sprinkle of parsley, basil, and/or any other herbs

Put the water, yeast, honey, olive oil, and 3 fistfuls of the flour in a bowl.  Mix with an electric beater until smooth.  Cover the bowl and leave for 20-30 minutes, until the mixture froths up and looks foamy on top.  Mix in the rest of the flour and 1-1/2 teaspoons of salt.  The dough will be very soft and sticky- don't be tempted to add more flour.  Now, using a dough hook, mix for about 4 to 50 minutes so everything is completely incorporated.  If you don't have a dough hook, just mix it with your hands, slapping it from one side of the bowl to the other as it will be too soft to knead.  Cover the bowl with a couple of cloths and leave it in a warm and draft-free place for about 1-1/2 hours, or until the dough has puffed up well.

Note:  I turn my oven on warm/lowest setting and leave the bowl on top of the oven.

Very lightly oil an 11 by 15 by 1-1/2 inch baking pan.  Punch down the dough with one firm blow to the center.  Spread the dough gently onto the pan, right out to the edges, working it with your palms to stretch it along the pan.  If it won't stretch easily, leave it to relax for another 5 minutes and then gently stretch out the dough, starting from the center and flicking your palms across it.  Make sure the dough doesn't break anywhere and that it is more or less evenly spread.  Put in a warm draft-free place.  Arrange four glasses around the pan and drape a couple of dish towels or a towels over them like a tent to completely cover the sheet (so that the dough doesn't stick to the cloth as it rises).  Leave for 45 minutes or so, until the dough has puffed up.

For the tomato topping, heat the oil with the garlic in a saucepan and, when you begin to smell the garlic, add the tomatoes, basil, and 1 teaspoon of salt.  Cook for about 15 minutes over fairly strong heat, until the sauce loses its wateriness and starts to look thick and bubbly.  If you like, you can whiz it a couple of times with a handheld blender to make it a little smoother, but still keep some chunks.  Meanwhile, preheat the oven to 450F.

Dimple the top of the dough here and there with your fingers so that the tomato has some nests to settle into (take care not to deflate your dough, though).  Scatter the tomato sauce over the top and gently spread it out with the back of the ladles.  It may seem like a lot of sauce, but it keeps the pizza lovely and moist.  Top with other toppings, if using.  Put the pan in the oven and bake for about 20 minutes (depending on the strength of your oven) until the pizza is golden and a bit crusty here and there.  Check that the bottom is crusty and crispy, too, and cook for longer if you need to.  Cut up into squares to serve.  I think this is best warm, but it can also be served at room temperature, or reheated.

Theme: Potluck 

Linked to Bake Your Own Bread @ girlichef

Individual Florentine Frying-Pan Pizza

A big thank you to all of you who took the time to leave such sweet and caring comments on the loss of my friend.  It means so much to be part of such a caring and supportive group of people. Your caring support is what got me back in the kitchen today.

My friend Brenda, of Brenda's Canadian Kitchen, and I started a new venture where we pick one recipe from Rachel Ray's newest book, Look + Cook, per month.  Last month was our first month and I chose Rachel's Pimento Mac 'n' Cheese, which was delicious.  This month was Brenda's pick and she chose this super fun and delicious Individual Florentine Frying-Pan Pizza.  (You can see Brenda's post on this recipe by clicking HERE.)

The very idea of baking pizza in a frying pan is a unique and fun idea.  I didn't have the 6" frying pan that Rachel called for in the recipe so I used my 10" cast iron skillet.  The biggest perk in using the frying pan was that you essentially end up with a deep-dish style pizza.  I love that! Rachel's recipe calls for a Florentine-style pizza filling and it was delicious, but you could easily fill the pizza dough with any topping/filling of your choice.

Individual Florentine Frying-Pan Pizza

Adapted from Rachel Ray's Look + Cook

Serves 3-4 easily

3 Tablespoons Extra-Virgin Olive Oil

1/2 pound cremini mushrooms, sliced

salt and pepper

2 Tablespoons butter

2 garlic cloves, grated or minced

2 tablespoons all purpose flour

1/2 cup milk

Freshly grated nutmeg

1 (10-ounce) box frozen chopped spinach, thawed and squeezed dry in a clean kitchen towel

1 pound store-bought pizza dough, quartered

1 cup shredded Italian Fontina or Provolone cheese

1/4 cup grated Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese, a handful

Preheat the oven to 425F.  Heat a medium nonstick skillet over medium-high heat with 2 tablespoons of the EVOO.  Add the mushrooms and saute until golden brown.  Season them with salt and pepper, then remove to a plate.  Lower the heat to medium-low, then add the butter to the pan and melt.  Add the garlic and stir for 1 minute, then sprinkle the flour into the pan and whisk for a minute.  Whisk in the milk and season with salt, pepper, and nutmeg.

Add drained defrosted spinach into the mushrooms and sauce.  Remove from the heat.

Roll out 1/4 pound of pizza dough to form a round large enough to cover the bottom and sides of a 6-inch skillet.  Wrap and freeze the unused pizza dough in 1/4-pound individual portions.  Heads up: If your skillet handle isn't oven-safe, wrap the handle a couple of times with aluminum foil.  Drizzle the remaining tablespoon of EVOO into the skillet and coat the sides with a pastry brush.  Lay the dough into the skillet, pressing gently as you work the dough up the sides so it reaches the edge of the skillet.  Fill the dough with the mushroom and spinach mixture and top with Fontina or Provolone and the Parmigiano cheeses.  Pop in the oven and bake for 35-45 minutes, until the edges and bottom of the crust are golden brown.

Notes/Results:  I am a fool for creamed spinach so I really loved the filling in this pizza which consisted of creamed spinach, sliced mushrooms, and lots of cheese - yum!  Also, I really wondered whether or not the pizza dough would crisp up due to all the filling, but it was perfectly crisp and delicious.  Once the pizza cooled I slipped it out of the frying pan and onto a cutting board and noticed that it looked just like a deep-dish pizza- very nice.  I can honestly say that I love this method of baking a pizza in my cast iron skillet and will try it again for sure.  

I do have a few notes to share.  As mentioned above, I didn't have the 6" frying pan called for so I used a 10" cast iron skillet with great results.  Also, the recipe calls for frozen pizza dough.  I couldn't find any frozen pizza dough anywhere and didn't feel like making any from scratch so I used Pillsbury's refrigerated pizza crust.  The refrigerated pizza crust works in a pinch, but I do think this recipe warrants either making your own pizza dough or buying a good quality pizza dough.  Also, Rachel calls this an individual pizza and says that it serves one, but the pizza is very sizable and will easily serve 3 or 4. 

 

April's Look + Cook recipe is Sirloin Burgers with Garlic-Black Pepper-Parmesan Sauce & Roasted Tomatoes with Basil & Balsamic Drizzle.

I'm also linking this post to Deborah's Saturdays with Rachel Ray over at Taste and Tell. 

Thanks again for all of your sweet and caring comments!  I'm hoping to get back in the game and catch up on all my comments in the next few days.

A Mario Batali Pizza Roundup!

If there was ever a reason to buy Mario's newest book, this is it!! Mario's pizza dough is definitely the star of Molto Gusto.I would go so far to say that pizza is probably the central focus of Molto Gusto, taking a full 30 pages of the book (pictures and recipes combined). If you're wondering whether Mario's pizza is swoon-worthy, have no doubts. It is superb!

Mario calls for "00" flour which I have a very hard time finding in these parts. I ordered both the Perfect Pizza Flour and also the Pizza Dough Flavor from the King Arthur website. There was definitely a difference in the pizza flour. It was ground very fine and was very soft, making for a very smooth and malleable dough. It was a joy to work with.

The coolest thing about Mario's pizza dough is that one batch of dough makes 8 little (personal-sized) pizzas which are first parcooked stovetop using a hot griddle. After the pizzas are parcooked on the griddle they are topped with the toppings of your choice and placed under the broiler for around 7-8 minutes each, or until desired doneness. The exciting part about this is that the parcooked pizzas keep very well in the refrigerator making it very easy for you to make homemade pizzas in less than 10 minutes. Genius!!

First up and extremely delicious is Mario's Pizza Bianca. The Pizza Bianca is a wonderful way to really appreciate the pizza dough itself. The pizza dough is parcooked on the griddle and then placed under the broiler for 1 -2 minutes, until lightly toasted. It is drizzled with extra virgin olive oil and sprinkled with salt.

Pizza Bianca is absolutely delicious on it's own. I love the way the dough bubbles up creating air pockets-yum! We loved this version so much that we enjoyed 3 out of 8 pizzas this way. It's the perfect example of simple and delicious.

The next pizza was Mario's Margherita D.O.P topped with Pomi strained tomatoes, 1 small ball of fresh mozzarella and fresh basil leaves. You can't beat those classic Italian flavors. This version was my pick for my personal pizza and I loved it!

Lastly, we have Mario's Pepperoni Pizza topped with some huge slices of pepperoni I found at a deli in Lexington. It was everything we wanted it to be and then some. We made a total of four pepperoni pizzas!

Notes/Results: This is an awesome recipe for pizza dough and I highly recommend buying the book. (I would love to share the recipe, but it is a full 3 pages long and would make for quite a long post). Mario has a wide range of pizza toppings in the book, from fun to adventurous. Molto Gusto is probably one of my top three favorite cookbooks this year. It is a very approachable book with gorgeous pictures and very tasty recipes. This pizza dough rocks and will be my new go-to pizza recipe. I simply can't get over the fact that you can parcook the pizzas and store them in the refrigerator. They are perfect to have on hand for after school snacks, perfect for family or game night, perfect for entertaining. I will be making another batch soon.

Trisha Yearwood's Chicken Pizza

I'm going to go ahead and come clean right now. Warning: This pizza is made with two cans of premade pizza crust dough! (Gasp) From time to time I still buy these products because they allow me to get a tasty dinner on the table in a hurry. Don't let the cans of premade pizza dough distract you though, this was one delicious pizza and you could easily add this topping to your favorite homemade pizza crust. The good news is that this pizza is a great way to use up any leftover chicken and it is absolutely delicious. My mom has declared it her new favorite pizza.

The recipe comes from one of my new favorite cookbooks, Home Cooking with Trisha Yearwood. I love her new book so much. The layout is very much like one of Giada's books, very pretty with lots of gorgeous pictures. I did a cookbook review which can be found HERE. I loved everything I made so much that I picked it up and made Trisha's chicken soup, posted HERE. Still not getting enough of Trisha's book I picked it up yet again and made four new recipes, one of which was this Chicken Pizza. We loved those four recipes, but I have since put the book back on the shelf and lightened things up. Time to crack the whip!

Trisha says "After discovering a delicious chicken pizza on a family beach trip, we decided to create it at home. We love this recipe because it's so different from traditional pizza- not a tomato in sight. Now we can all enjoy it more than once a year!

Chicken Pizza
2 (13.8 oz) cans premade pizza crust dough
4 tablespoons olive oil
2 teaspoons minced garlic(I always use more)
2 cups shredded mozzarella cheese (about 8 ozs)
2 cups shredded Cheddar cheese (about 8 ozs)
1 bell pepper, cored, seeded, and cut into strips (I used a yellow bell)
1 red onion, sliced vertically
3 boneless, skinless chicken breast halves, grilled and diced (I used rotisserie)
6 slices bacon, cooked until crisp and crumbled

Preheat the oven to 350F. Roll the pizza dough out and fit onto two 15-inch pizza pans. Drizzle 1 tablespoon of olive oil and 1 teaspoon of garlic on each pizza crust, followed by 1/2 cup each of the mozzarella cheese and 1/2 cup of the Cheddar cheese. Scatter half of the bell pepper, sliced onion, chicken, and bacon on top of the cheeses. Sprinkle another 1/2 cup mozzarella cheese and 1/2 cup Cheddar cheese over each pizza and drizzle each pizza with 1 tablespoon more of olive oil. Bake the pizzas for 20-25 minutes, or until the crusts are lightly browned. Slice each pizza into 8 pieces.

Notes/Results: This pizza topping is packed with flavor! How can you go wrong with garlic, red onions, chicken, cheese and bacon? All of the cheese made the topping extremely creamy. The pizza was outstanding and really exceeded my expectations. I highly recommend this recipe especially if you love pizza. I will definitely make this again.

Thought I would share my favorite Trisha Yearwood song, Walkaway Joe. The video below is old. It was filmed in 1992, back when I was a senior in high school and people still wore high-waisted pants (LOL!) Halfway through the video I noticed that Matthew McConaughey played "Walkaway Joe" in the video. The video must have been shot right before his career went on the rise. He is definitely easy on the eyes ;-) I think all of us ladies can relate to this song in one way or another.


You still have a few more days to join up with the Burger Club Challenge and cook up the Caesar Salad and Flank Steak Burger with Garlic Crostini. If you are interested, please click HERE for the recipe and details.

Rocco DiSpirito's Now Eat This!

Comfort Food. We all love it. We all have our favorites. In his latest book, Now Eat This! Rocco Dispirito chronicles his personal weight loss and his desire to indulge in comfort foods. Now Eat This! is all about comfort foods, 150 comfort foods all under 350 calories.



The book is broken down into eleven chapters: Appetizers; Soups; Salads; Sandwiches and Pizza; Fish and Shellfish; Chicken and Turkey; Beef and Pork; Pasta and More; Sides; Sauces; and Desserts. There are lots of pictures of food and lots of pictures of Rocco (ladies, you know what I'm talking about here). The book does rely heavily on many products, such as: nonstick cooking spray, low-fat cheeses, greek yogurt, bacon bits, whole wheat panko, Truvia, Splenda, and also egg substitute. While these products will appeal to some, they will not appeal to all, and for this reason, this book is probably not for everybody.



I based my review on my favorite types of comfort foods: Macaroni and Cheese, Spaghetti and Meatballs, Pizza, Potato Soup, and Chocolate Ice Cream.



The first recipe I made from the book, and probably our favorite of the five, was his Macaroni and Cheese with a Crusty Crunch. Coming in at 227 calories a serving, Rocco's Macaroni and Cheese was a combination of an onion-garlic puree, mixed with reduced-fat cheddar and Greek yogurt, topped with crispy whole wheat panko and Parmigiano.



The final result was very creamy and the portion was pretty big for 227 calories. We all enjoyed it!



The second recipe I made was Rocco's Mama-Approved Spaghetti and Meatballs. The meatballs were a mix of ground turkey breast, eggplant, onion, egg white, garlic and chicken broth. They were served over marinara sauce and whole wheat spaghetti. At some point during the cooking process, my nine year old daughter decided to "help me" by "stirring the pot of meatballs". You can imagine how well that went over. Needless to say that our meatballs ended up being meat sauce. Regardless of whether we had meatballs or meat sauce, this was not Mama-Approved and wasn't one of our favorites. Saying that, spaghetti and meatballs is probably our number one favorite meal and maybe I should have known better than to try a diet version.



The third recipe we tried, was Rocco's Deep Dish Pizza. I had seen Rocco make this pizza on an episode of Rachel Ray and it did really look good. I was excited to give it a try. A homemade whole wheat pizza crust is made using molasses and then the dough is topped with low-fat mozzarella cheese and reduced-fat pepperoni. At 218 calories a slice, this pizza was pretty good. We did like the crust and I would definitely like to make a veggie-loaded pizza next time.



Creamy potato soup is one of my very favorite comfort foods, so I chose Rocco's Cheddar Cheese and "Potato" Soup. Rocco's "potato" soup relies on cauliflower instead of potato to make a creamy, cheesy-based soup that is low calorie. Cauliflower, milk, onion, and garlic are pureed to make a hearty and thick soup. Reduced-fat cheese is added to give it a cheesy consistency. A huge bowl of this "potato" soup comes in at only 190 calories. I found that I didn't really miss the real potato in this soup. I liked this recipe and ate it for lunch most of this week. With the calories you save from using cauliflower I think you could definitely indulge in the real full-fat cheese!



I had a hard time picking out a dessert recipe. Most of the desserts contained Truvia or Splenda and I had never worked with either of those ingredients before. I opted for Rocco's Chocolate Frozen Yogurt, made from 99% unsweetened chocolate, agave nectar, skim milk, and Greek Yogurt. The final product was not real great. The frozen yogurt was very bitter (probably because the recipe calls for 99% unsweetened chocolate) and tasted very strongly like coffee. I also had trouble getting the ice cream to "set up". I don't know that I would recommend this recipe. The ingredients were pretty expensive and the end results weren't that great PLUS one serving is 276 calories and I don't know if that is a real savings in the calorie department. I think you could probably find some tastier options for the same calorie content.



Like everyone, I love the concept of indulging in comfort food without the guilt. Although I had some hit and miss results, there are still some more recipes that I would like to try. I'm crossing my fingers that I'll find a new favorite!



I'm submitting the Cheddar Cheese and "Potato" Soup to my friend Deb @ Kahakai Kitchen for her Souper Sundays roundup!





What are some of your favorite comfort foods?

THIN CRUST PIZZA AND HOMEMADE PIZZA SAUCE

Yesterday I was searching RecipeZaar online and found they had listed their top 100 recipes in 2009. While browsing through, I found a recipe for Thin Crust Pizza Dough and another one for Homemade Pizza Sauce. I had very little ingredients around in the kitchen, but I did have everything I needed for both of these recipes. Don't you love it when a plan comes together?

The pizza dough came together quick and easy and only needed to rise one time for 20-30 minutes. In no time, my house smelled like a pizzeria. My daughter could hardly wait for the pizza to be finished.
As you can see, my picky eaters won out with their pepperoni pizza. I would've loved to do a spinach and artichoke pizza, but I was outnumbered. Maybe one day I can convince my husband and daughter that vegetables aren't evil. For now, I guess I'm lucky they eat tomato sauce.
HOMEMADE PIZZA SAUCE *
**MAKES ENOUGH TO TOP 2 - 12" PIZZAS**
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 tablespoon butter
1/2 cup onion chopped
1/4 cup celery, chopped
1 garlic clove, minced
1 - (8 ounce) can tomato sauce
1- (6 ounce) can tomato paste
2 tablespoons grated parmesan cheese
1 teaspoon dried basil
1 teaspoon dried oregano
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon sugar
1/4 teaspoon black pepper
1 small bay leaf
1 teaspoon fennel seed

In a large skillet, melt butter with the oil. Add the onion, celery and garlic and saute until soft and transparent. Add tomato sauce and tomato paste and stir until smooth. Add remaining ingredients and bring to slow simmer. Simmer for 30-60 minutes (or not at all depending on your taste and time frame).

PIZZA DOUGH FOR THIN CRUST PIZZA
**MAKES 2 - 12" PIZZAS**
2-1/2 cups all purpose flour (may sub whole wheat flour for 1 cup of the all-purpose)
1 - (1/4 oz.) package active dry yeast
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup warm water
1/2 to 1 tablespoon olive oil
cornmeal for sprinkling

Mix a little sugar into the warm water. Sprinkle yeast on top. Wait for 10 minutes or until it gets all foamy. Pour into a large bowl. Add flour, salt, olive oil. Combine. Knead for 6-8 minutes until you have a moderately stiff dough that is smooth and elastic (add a bit more flour if you need to). Cover and let rest for 20-30 minutes.

Lightly grease two 12-inch pizza pans. Sprinkle with a little bit of cornmeal. Divide dough in half. Place each half on a pizza pan and pat it with your fingers until it stretches over the whole pan. Try to make it thicker around the edge. If desired, pre-bake at 425 F for 10 minutes (I don't always do this). Then spread with pizza sauce and use the toppings of your choice. Bake at 425 F for 10-20 minutes longer or until bubbly and hot. Makes 2 12-inch pizzas.

TO FREEZE THE DOUGH:
Take a portion of dough, form into a ball, rub olive oil over it and place it in a freezer bag (the oil makes it easier to take out of the bag). When you want to make a pizza, take dough out of freezer and allow to thaw before using.

NOTES/RESULTS: I was really pleased at how well this pizza turned out. The thin crust pizza dough works well with whole wheat, which I love. The dough comes together very quick and I love that it only has to rise once for only 20-30 minutes! How can you beat that? In addition, the dough was pliable and easy to roll into a 12 inch circle. The crust is perfectly thin and gets a little crispy on the bottom when baked on the pizza stone. The thin crust pizza dough is a definite keeper! The pizza sauce smelled terrific and was pretty tasty. I'm not sure if it was my favorite, but it is a good solid recipe, especially if you don't have any on hand and need to throw some together quickly. It was a little on the thick side, but full of flavor. In fact, I may want my pizza sauce a little more mild so that the toppings have a chance to shine. All in all, I'm really glad that I tried both recipes. I will definitely be making the pizza dough for thin crust pizza again!

Cinco De Mayo Pizza

I just started baking breads and pizzas a couple months ago. I have been using this recipe for pizza dough and it always turns out perfectly. I've thought about trying a new recipe, but why fix what ain't broke?? We have really been enjoying homemade pizza and all the toppings that you can create at home.

For Cinco de Mayo, we decided to go with a Mexican-inspired pizza. I made the pizza dough and and rubbed it down with some chili oil. Then I layered it with refried beans, taco sauce, ground beef cooked down with taco seasoning, monterey jack cheese, olives, and jalapenos. This was one hot and tasty pizza! I really enjoy hot and spicy foods, but my mouth was really on fire! I was happy I had made some frozen chocolate bananas. They were the perfect dessert to help cool my mouth down.

Homemade Pizzas for BYOB: Buffalo Chicken and Spinach and Artichoke

I blame my newfound love of baking solely on Tyler Florence! Why, oh why do his baking recipes have to be so good that they inspire me to make my own creations? Ever since I made Tyler's parker house rolls, I have had an obsession with making yeast breads. I started making sandwich breads, soft pretzels, brioche, etc. After awhile, my husband requested homemade pizza dough. I'm sorry to say that I did not use Tyler's recipe. Instead, I used this recipe from the Food Network: http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/sara-moulton/pizza-dough-recipe3/index.html. I chose this recipe simply for its rating and it does not disapoint. I have wanted to try new recipes for pizza dough, but I just don't think you could improve on this recipe. It takes 1.5 hours in total and makes 2 - 14" pizzas or 4 small individual pizzas. This pizza dough rivals that of any fast food pizza and is better because you can make any topping you'd like, along with dipping sauces, and flavored crusts.

My husband loves the buffalo chicken pizza. We both love spicy food and thought it would make a great pizza. We always have leftover chicken in the fridge, so we just shredded it up and tossed it with some store bought buffalo sauce. This pizza can be topped with mozzarella or monterey jack or you could even put little bits of blue cheese on there.

The spinach and artichoke pizza was solely my idea. I had some spinach and artichoke dip in the fridge and kept wanting to eat it on a sandwich. Since this pizza dough recipe makes two pizzas, I decided to just slap it right on the pizza dough. It turned out fabulous and I was really proud. I had just cleaned out my fridge and made my own creation! If you love spinach and artichoke dip, try this recipe: http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Hot-Artichoke-and-Spinach-Dip-II/Detail.aspx. It was all the rave this past Thanksgiving. Everyone agreed it was restaurant-worthy. I usually add a clove or two more garlic to this recipe and it is much better after it has sat in the fridge for a day and the flavors have mingled.

This pizza dough is getting such rave reviews that we are dreaming up new toppings all the time. The problem is that all the toppings we've made are so tasty that we can't get away from them! We want to make a taco pizza, a meatball pizza, and several others. We are having so much fun with this one. I'd love to hear what you all put on your pizza too. Please share!!

Homemade Pizza Dough/Pizza

I was searching blogs the other day and found a great group who attempts to bake all their own breads. This was really appealing to me since baking bread is my new obsession. Cooking my way through Tyler's book forced me to reattempt baking with yeast. I had a successfun run with his Parker House Rolls and have been hooked ever since. I am curious about all breads now and my husband has been wanting to try pizza from scratch. This pizza turned out better than I thought it would. The whole house smelled like a pizzeria and the pizza itself was so good! You would think it came out of a brick oven. I used a pizza dough recipe from food network: http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/sara-moulton/pizza-dough-recipe3/index.html. This recipe seemed to have really good reviews. Let me just say that we were so impressed with this pizza dough that I do not see a reason to change recipes.

The key to baking this pizza was to put your pizza stone in a 500F oven and let it heat up. Prepare the pizza and slide onto the hot stone. You will hear that sizzle when the pizza heats the stone. That is what makes that crust so good. We topped our pizza with tomato sauce, lots of pepperoni, and a spicy marinated mozzarella cheese. I also added some fresh basil, red pepper flakes and some freshly grated parmesan. The end result was out of this world! We are excited about coming up with all kinds of toppings.