Homemade Pizza

I don't know why it took the prospect of a pizza competition with some of my friends to get me to make pizza from scratch. I have a friend with a wood-burning pizza oven and while we were out over the weekend we got to talking pizza. Somehow the idea came up to have a competition to see who could make the best pizza, the only rules for the competition we decided on were BYOD and BYOTs, or Bring Your Own Dough and Bring Your Own Toppings. Of course I was talking a big game saying how easy it is to make dough and how I could definitely make a great pizza, well the only problem for me is before yesterday I've never actually tried to make pizza from scratch. My friend with the pizza oven, makes it all the time and makes a really good pie, I knew if I could get a dough right I'd have a good chance because I know I could create great toppings and pizza sauce. I think my cake theory might hold true for pizza as well, dough like cake can only get you so far, what's on top can push a pizza (or cake) from good to great. I found a pizza dough recipe a few weeks back, by the great bread maker Jim Lahey, planning on attempting it at some point, luckily I saved it because his recipe is what I used for the dough. It seemed like an easy recipe to follow, and with his reputation I figured it had to be great. Surprisingly to me, the recipe actually ended up being really easy to actually do (many recipes seem to look easy on paper but end up being a lot of work, this was not one of them), and tasted great too. The only addition I made to the recipe was I added olive oil to it from the beginning, probably about a tablespoon or two, and the bowl I had it sit in for 24 hours was also rubbed down with olive oil. The recipe says it makes 4 12 inch pizzas, but I was only able to get 3 out of it, and if you give this a try make sure to cover the dough with olive oil when you go to stretch and form your actual pizza. I didn't do this with the first one I made and it was a lot less pliable and stretchy, and holes formed a lot easier, the next two I drizzled olive oil on and they stretched a lot better.

The toppings I used were, roasted red peppers on one:

bacon on the second:

and mascarpone, spinach and caramelized onions on the third:

As much as I like bacon pizza, the spinach and mascarpone was definitely the best one, maybe because I wasn't sure how it would turn out and it ended up being awesome, and maybe because my mom and dad wouldn't stop saying how good it was. Both my mom and dad aren't the type to try something they haven't had before, especially a creamy cheese like mascarpone, I was actually surprised my Dad even gave it a try, but after he did he had to have said at least 10 times how much he liked it (and I don't think he was just being nice, it is very easy to tell when he doesn't like something). I was really happy and encouraged with how my pizza escapade turned out and I think I might be ready for a little friendly competition.

Recipe: Pizza Dough

Pizza Sauce

enough for at least 5-6 pizzas

1 16 oz can of tomato sauce

4 oz tomato paste

1-2 tsp dried oregano

3 cloves of garlic

3 tbs olive oil

1-2 tbs red wine

1-2 tbs beef stock

2-3 tbs sugar

salt and pepper to taste

Add the olive oil and smashed garlic cloves into a small sauce pot, and bring up to medium low heat. When the garlic starts to brown and becomes fragrant, take all but one of the cloves out of the pot.

Add the tomato sauce, tomato paste, red wine, beef stock, sugar, oregano, salt and pepper and lightly simmer for 1-1 1/2 hours, stirring every once and a while.

Allow to cool and spread on pizza when dough is ready, use any left over to dip pizza into or will probably keep in a refrigerator for 5-7 days, or freeze for later use.

***For the spinach, mascarpone and caramelized onion pizza I just cooked the onions earlier in the day, then when I was ready to make the pizza I spread a layer of mascarpone on the dough, and just placed the raw spinach over the mascarpone drizzled a little olive oil over the spinach and put the onions over that. The spinach will wilt down as the pizza cooks, so put a pretty good sized pile of spinach on top of the pizza.

Eat well, Live well