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Begin by preparing the crust from one of
the recipes above. While the dough is
resting, make the sauce, or use canned
spaghetti sauce to save time. By the time
the sauce is done, the dough will be ready
to press in the pan, and pre-bake (see the
Pizza Crust Recipe for greater detail).
After pre-baking, the crust is ready for
sauce, cheese and toppings, and a quick trip
to the oven to heat everything evenly.
Homemade pizza is so good, and so easy after
you've made it a couple times, that you will
never spend twenty five dollars on take out
or delivery again!
Tips and Tricks
Pizza is an incredibly versatile food
with great kid appeal. Home made pizza
differs a little bit from the Delivery and
Frozen varieties. Made at home, pizza is
less greasy, the flavor is usually fresher,
and the texture of the crust is a little
different, to my taste buds, much better.
There are a plethora of choices for
inexpensive toppings at home, and we'll get
to them in a minute. In order to explain
this as simply as I can though, I will start
at the bottom and work my way up to the
toppings. First comes the:
Pans: You don't need round pizza pans to
make homemade pizza. Any ordinary pan will
work just as well. Pizza dough doesn't know
what shape it is supposed to be, so you can
use this to your advantage, making your
pizza in a combination of pans you already
own. With that said, I must confess that I
use round pizza pans which I found on sale
once for $2 a piece. My children had been
coveting round pizza for so long, at such
acute decibels of screeching, that I
succumbed to temptation. They are about 16
inches in diameter. This size pan is the
equivalent of a large pizza purchased from
the store. I almost always make two at a
time so I will have enough leftovers for
lunch boxes the next day. My recipes are
geared for two 16-inch round pizzas, or two
9 by 13-inch rectangular baking pans. Just
use whatever sized pans you find lurking in
the cabinet. If you are making individual
pizzas for a bevy of boy scouts or a gaggle
of girl scouts, these recipes will make
about 8 pie or cake pans worth.
Crust: My best pizza crust recipe is linked
here and above. It is pretty easy to
prepare, and makes a very tasty crust. Make
sure you rest the dough between kneading it
and pressing it into the pan. This relaxes
the protein in the dough and makes it easier
to roll out. Also note that I pre-bake the
prepared crust, before topping it with the
sauce or the toppings. This ensures that the
crust will be cooked all the way through,
resulting in a crispy crust, instead of a
soggy one. If you don't want to make your
own dough from scratch, frozen bread dough
may be used instead. Two loaves of frozen
bread dough can be taken out to thaw in the
morning. They will be ready to press into
cookie sheets or baking pans by evening. Be
sure to prebake the frozen bread-dough
crust, especially if it is thick. If you
like a crispy crust for gnawing on after
eating the rest of the pizza, try this
trick. Use a pastry brush, or small spoon to
dribble a little oil around the outer edge
of the crust right before baking the pizza.
I fill a clean ketchup bottle with oil and
dribble it though the squirty spout onto the
edges of the pizza. This does something
exotic and delicious to the crust that is
difficult to explain, but tastes very good.
I like it so much; I always prepare it this
way.
Pizza Sauce: Above and here you will find a
link to my favorite
Italian Tomato Sauce .
My recipe makes a little over a quart,
plenty enough for up to four 16-inch pizzas.
The recipe begins by sautéing onions and
garlic in a little oil. This makes a chunky
and slightly rich sauce, which is very good
on pizza. If you want something a little
simpler try this: In a medium bowl combine 2
- 15 oz cans of tomato sauce with 1-tsp
basil; 1/2-tsp oregano; 1/2-tsp garlic
powder; 1-tsp sugar, 1-tsp onion powder &
1/2-tsp salt. Stir it up nicely. Add a
spoonful of oil if you like, for flavor, and
use it to make the pizzas. Alternatively,
canned spaghetti sauce may be used if
desired. One 24-ounce can will be enough to
generously cover two pizzas.
Cheese: Mozzarella is traditional for pizza,
but other cheeses can add variety. Cheddar,
Monterey Jack, and Provolone among others
are good in combination with Mozzarella. For
a plain cheese pizza, spread sauce on the
crust after pre-baking it. Scatter about two
cups of cheese on top of the sauce, and then
sprinkle with a few shakes of Parmesan. The
final sprinkling with Parmesan cooks up very
nicely, and makes for a tastier pizza. This
is one of the secrets to an extra good
finished product. For cheese pizza I usually
use 1-1/2 cups of Mozzarella and 1/2-cup of
Cheddar cheese. I used to use a lot more
cheese on my pizza, closer to 3 or 4-cups
per 16-inch pizza. Then one day I didn't
have much cheese in the fridge so I was
forced to use less by circumstances. The
pizza turned out much nicer with less
cheese. Since then, I have made it my custom
to use no more than 2-cups of cheese on a
round 16" pizza, or about 3-cups on a large
cookie sheet. Probably not everyone is as
much of a cheese glutton as I am, and has
figured this one out already.
Vegetarian Toppings: Many types of
vegetables are delicious on pizza. Green
Peppers, Green & Black Olives, Mushrooms,
Onions, Sliced Tomatoes, Green Chilies, and
Hot Peppers, are the most common. Fresh
vegetables should be thinly sliced or finely
chopped before arranging on top of the
cheese. Some fresh vegetables, like peppers,
onions and mushrooms, can be sauteed into
the sauce if desired, making them more
savory for consumption. Canned items should
be very well drained, and even rinsed if you
think it necessary. I buy canned mushroom
stems & pieces in 4 ounce cans for fifty
cents a piece at my local super store. One
can, well drained, is enough to generously
cover a 16" pizza. Minced black olives are
available inexpensively in small cans too,
and I often use them on vegetarian pizzas.
The kids hate them, but adults adore them.
Fresh tomatoes, thinly sliced are very nice
if you drizzle them with a tiny bit of oil
before baking. They lend a juicy and
toothsome quality to a vegetarian pizza. Hot
peppers are available from very mild Green
Chili Peppers, to fiery Jalapenos, which
should be used sparingly, even by hot pepper
lovers. Both are usually available in the
mexican food section of the supermarket. I
am very fond of canned pineapple chunks on
my pizza, especially when paired with ham or
bacon toppings. Not everyone can go for
fruit on their pizzas though, so let your
own family's taste buds be your guide. If
you decide to use them, then drain them well
and scatter about a cup of pineapple chunks
over the cheese before baking. They are
sweet andcontrast nicely with jalepenos for
a vegetarian delight.
Meat Toppings: Many types of meat products
are good on pizza. I have used most meats,
to good advantage on pizza. Ground Beef or
Turkey is a favorite. Fry it loose in a
skillet and drain off all the fat. Then
spoon it over the cheese. Half a pound of
ground beef is enough for one 16-inch pizza.
A pound is enough for a large cookie sheet
pizza. Bulk Pork Sausage may be prepared the
same way. As with the beef, be certain to
cook it all the way through. Pork Sausage is
Fred's favorite topping on pizza, besides
pepperoni, which I seldom buy because of the
cost. Prepared meats, like baloney, hotdogs,
bacon and smoked sausage are good on pizza
too. Baloney is best cut into triangles and
fried before putting on the pizza. Hotdogs
and Smoked Sausage should be sliced thinly
and scattered about the surface of the
cheese. Two to three hotdogs, or a third of
a pound of smoked sausage will be enough for
a 16-inch pizza, depending on how thinly you
slice them. Six or eight slices of Bacon are
enough for one 16-inch pizza. Fry the bacon
crisp and then crumble it onto the pizza.
Other items you might not have thought of
are tuna packed in oil (and well drained)
and canned anchovies. I am very fond of
anchovies, so this is a favorite of mind.
Tuna is especially good with black olives.
One can is enough for a 16-inch pizza. Ham
makes a good topping too. Sliced Sandwich
Ham is best cut into thin strips and fried
before putting on the pizza. Baked or Canned
Hams should be cut up finely and scattered
over the cheese before baking.
Cooking: It is difficult to give an exact
time for how long your pizzas should cook
during the final baking process. Many
factors go into determining this. The size
of the pan, the quantity and density of your
toppings, the temperature of the toppings
and many other variables contribute to the
length of time it takes for the pizza to
cook completely. Assuming you follow my
recommendations for pre-baking the crust,
the fully prepared pizza should cook in
about 12 to 20 minutes. A large thick 9 by
13-inch pizza with a pound of cooked meat on
it, and 3/4-pound of cheese may take as long
as half an hour though, so use your good
sense to help you determine when it is done.
Plain cheese pizzas cook the fastest,
usually in about 10 minutes or so. The clue
I use most often is the color of the crust,
and the bubbly-ness of the cheese. When the
cheese it completely melted, slightly brown
in a couple of spots, and bubbling in a sort
of volcanic mass, then the pizza is done. I
usually bake my pizza at about 400 or 425°.
The high temperature makes the crust a
little lighter, and the toppings are less
likely to over cook, in my opinion. If the
pizza seems done, take it out and stab it in
the center with a fork. Peer down at the
crust, the toppings and the cheese. If the
center appears cooked all the way through,
then you can eat it. If you aren't sure, or
if it still seems a little raw in the
center, then place it back in the oven and
test it again in a few minutes. If the edges
are burning, go ahead and take it out and
eat it as is. Otherwise, bake it until it
meets your standards of completion.
Cost: Cheese pizza, using my crust recipe
and sauce recipe and assuming the cheese is
purchased as cheaply as possible, winds up
costing well under $2 per 16-inch pizza. It
can be as cheap as $1.50 per pizza if all
the ingredients are purchased on sale.
Mushrooms, olives and other vegetables
increase the cost about 40 to 50¢, depending
on their purchase price. The meat toppings
suggested above add between 30 and 50¢ (per
pizza) to the final cost, with hot dogs and
baloney being at the low end, and sausage,
ground beef and ham being at the high end.
All said, exotic pizzas, with lots of fancy
toppings can be made for about $3 a piece.
Or to put it another way, for the price of
one medium sized frozen gourmet cheese pizza
from the store, you can prepare two large
pizzas with the works at home.
Bye
Bye Delivery!
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