Foodie Friday: Everything Pizza

Pizza is delicious. It's wonderful. It's so covered in grease when you order it, and it's always not quite the same from frozen. So why not make it all yourself? It's not as daunting of a task as it may sound, making pizza crust and sauce. Here is a delightful recipe that I can suggest knowing that you will love it, because I have made it several, several times, and every slice was fantastic.

I bought some chicken & mozzarella with Italian seasoning sausage and sliced that up with a tomato topping. Below you find the recipe for the pizza I made, minus the sausage. It makes 6 large or 8 small slices. Enjoy!


Pizza Crust

You will need:

• 2 cups all purpose flour
• 1 cup warm  water (about 100F)
• 1/3 cup granulated sugar
• 1 package active dry yeast
• 1 tsp salt
• 2 tbsp Italian seasoning
• 2 tbsp butter

1. Mix flour, sugar, and yeast in large mixing bowl
2. Add seasoning and warm water (about 100 degrees Fahrenheit)
3. Mix fully until dough becomes smooth
4. Cover with plastic wrap and place in microwave or another warm spot in kitchen (try your microwave, but don't turn it on) for 30 minutes and allow it to rise to about twice its original size
5. While crust dough is rising, prepare the sauce (below)
6. Prepare a clean, floured surface such as a large cutting board or countertop on which to work the dough
7. Preheat oven to 400F
8. Place the risen dough on the clean countertop and knead about 10 times
9. Begin to shape the dough with your hands
10. Flatten the dough with a rolling pin until it is about ½” thick
11. Transfer dough to a pizza pan (greased) or stone to top pizza
12. Top with pizza sauce (recipe below), cheese, and desired toppings
13. Melt butter and brush onto exposed crust
14. Bake pizza for 15 minutes or until crust is golden brown and cheese is bubbling

Pizza Sauce & Tomato Topping
You will need:

• 15oz (1 can) diced tomatoes
• 6 oz (1 can) tomato paste
• 2 medium/large cloves garlic 
• ½ tbsp oregano
• ½ tbsp thyme
• ½ tbsp basil
• ½ tbsp parsley(substitute spices for 2 tbsp Italian seasoning if desired)  
• + ¼ tbsp Italian seasoning (for tomato topping)

1.  Put tomato paste into medium mixing bowl 
2. Strain tomato juice from diced tomatoes into mixing bowl 
3. Save ¼ cup tomato chunks in small mixing bowl for tomato topping
4. Finely chop or blend rest of tomato chunks and add to mixing bowl
5. Peel and press garlic and add to mixing bowl
6. Stir in spices until well mixed
7. Do not cook on stove 
8. Place directly on prepared pizza crust 
9. Now for the tomato topping! Take 1/4 cup tomato chunks set aside and add 1/4 tbsp Italian seasoning
10. Add 1 tbsp olive oil
11. Add 1 tsp garlic powder
12. Do no cook on stove
13. Place on top of pizza after cheese and other toppings have been added

 Some other ideas:

• Make the edge of the dough thinner and place cheese sticks on it. Roll the dough around it, using a little bit of water to mesh the crust together. Now you have stuffed crust pizza!
• You can leave out the spices in the crust, use a Bar-be-que sauce with some monterrey jack cheese. Delicious!
• Skip the sauce altogether and just do a butter garlic mixture and sprinkle some cheese over it. Now you have cheesy garlic bread.