Home Made Pizza

Yesterday's Pizza Dough Recipe is to be used here.  Go get it started and when it has been mixed, you can start with this post.

Sort of.

Actually there's some prep worth you need to do.  Pizza is a very personal sort of food.  Everyone has their favorite set of toppings and this is mine.  Make your own up, this is how I did.

I got for toppings the following ingredients:
1 fresh red pepper diced down to 1/2 inch squares
a can of Mushrooms
1/2 of an onion sliced and diced into small pieces.
Feta Cheese as an addition to spice up the bland...
1 pound of Mozarella cheese
1 can of pizza sauce.

I use canned sauce because I can't seem to crack that recipe so it doesn't taste like spaghetti sauce.  There's a certain difference between spaghetti sauce and pizza sauce.  I've been lucky to find a good brand here, so you will have to find your own.

This will make what I grew up calling a Sicilian Pizza.  Thick crust.

I have a cookie sheet that is 12 inches wide, 17 inches deep.  I take the cookie sheet and lay down aluminum foil on top and cover it with a layer of extra virgin olive oil and dust it completely with flour.

I then take the dough that is fresh out of the bread machine (or your mixer) and roll it out so that it covers the entire bottom of the pan.  The entire cookie sheet will be covered.

I then allow this Pizza Dough to rise for two hours.  When it is done, there will be some high spots and I tend to flatten them down somewhat even.

Now your dough covers the entire sheet, has risen, and the bubbles have been popped.  If you like bubbles, then leave them alone.  Sheesh!  :)

At this point I will coat the dough in the sheet with a can of pizza sauce completely.   Once the sauce is even, I sprinkle evenly the chopped pepper, mushrooms, and onions. 

After the veg has been laid down, I cover them with a pound of Mozzarella cheese and sprinkle some Feta cheese on top to taste.   This will wake up the pizza a bit.

To bake this, I turn the oven on as hot as it will get.  Since my oven is really very inaccurate when it comes to holding temperature, I shoot for 550F and am happy when it gets nearby.  I have a pizza stone that fits in the oven to help the pizza along, but the last time I made the pizza I didn't use it.

I have found that with my oven, it takes 10 minutes to bake the pizza to a soft crust.  The exposed edges won't be too dark, although they do have a golden brown tint.  Just the way I like them. 

There's a lot of play in this recipe, you will probably have to "Learn" the recipe and see where your oven takes you.  The first time the oven goes to where I set it in this house will be when I break down and buy a new oven.

It make a deep dish pizza that serves four guys like me, big.  Your mileage will vary.

So make one and enjoy.  I'm about to warm up the leftovers right now.