I received fresh pizza dough in my CSA box this week and the recipe was for Pizza Margharita, but I didn’t have any fresh basil. What I did have was some frozen Italian bulk sausage that came in the box a few weeks ago, fresh shiitake mushrooms from last week, some onions and a yellow pepper that was on it’s last leg.
I didn’t post a recipe because I didn’t really “make” anything. Just take a bunch of your favorite toppings and plop them on top of some fresh pizza dough. You can buy the tube stuff if you can’t get it anywhere else, but places like Trader Joe’s sells fresh pizza dough. Maybe your local pizza place will even sell you some dough, it’s where our CSA gets the dough they give to us.
Ingredient list:
Fresh pizza dough
marinara sauce (use a good marinara sauce and not that store bought jar or canned “pizza sauce”, haven’t you ever noticed it tastes weird and not the same at all as your favorite pizza?)
Favorite meat – ham, pepperoni, sausage, bacon, beef. Just keep in mind that thing like sausage, bacon and beef need to be cooked ahead of time.
Favorite veggies – mushrooms, peppers, onions
Cheese – a little Parmesan, some mozzarella or your favorite cheese. I tend to stay away from cheddar because it makes the pizza even greasier.
Voila! Yummy, homemade pizza.
A few things I have learned from making my own pizza. Make sure you brown any meat like sausage or beef before putting it on the pizza. Otherwise your pizza gets very soggy and you have a pile of grease in the middle of your pizza.
A little cornmeal on my pizza stone so the crust doesn’t stick. Not to mention I actually like the crunch the cornmeal gives the pizza dough.
Stretching the dough takes a bit of time and patience and this time it actually turned out pretty good. It actually fit the stone and wasn’t some weird shaped oval thing.
We also got a very nice marinara sauce that was just the right amount. I spread that around as evenly and as close to the edges as possible. I like sauce on my edges, what can I say. Sprinkled it with a little Parmesan cheese. Added the sausage and then sliced onions, peppers and mushrooms.
I sliced the mozzarella instead of shredding it and placed that over the meat and veggies, leaving space between slices. Trust me, when it melts it spreads out a bit and don’t worry, you get plenty of cheese in each bite. I also sprinkled a little dried basil over the cheese.
Baked in a 400 degree oven for 20-25 minutes and there you have it. Fresh, homemade, better than the local pizzeria, pizza!
A Little of This and a Little of That 