I meant to post this last week for Tasty Tuesday, but I got busy. So here it is!
When I remembered to take a picture of the pizza I made last week, this was what was left. It was the second pizza. And there were four of us – three adults and one toddler. It was so good! We all ate A LOT.
I had finally found a crust recipe that we liked, though the first time I made it we all felt it was a bit thick for our taste. So this time, I used one crust recipe to make two pizzas. Voila! Perfection! Here is the recipe:
1 (.25 oz) package active dry yeast
1 tsp white sugar
1 cup warm water
2 1/2 cups flour
2 tbsp olive oil
1 tsp salt
1. Preheat oven to 450. I put my pizza stone in and let it sit for a good half-hour.
2. In a medium bowl, dissolve yeast and sugar in water and let stand for 10 minutes, until creamy.
3. Stir in flour, oil and salt until smooth. Let rest 5 minutes.
4. Roll out into a round (or in my case, two rounds). It then says to top and bake for 15-20 minutes…but I didn’t. First, I put the crust in by itself for a couple of minutes. Then I pulled it back out and topped it. Then I baked it for about 10 minutes. It came out perfect! And so easy.
Then…the sauce. The sauce! It was another thing I had been looking for, and now I have a great home-made sauce recipe from good(Cheap)eats. Here it is:
1/4 cup olive oil
2 tsp minced garlic
28 ounce can diced tomatoes or 7 fresh roma tomatoes, diced (Fresh is worth it…I put mine in the food processor and they came out perfect, not too chunky)
1 tbsp basil (I was out, waaaa!, so I used oregano which was also tasty)
1/2 tsp oregano
1 tsp salt
1/4 tsp red pepper flakes
6 ounce can tomato paste
In stock pot, heat olive oil until shimmering. Stir in garlic and cook until just lightly browned. Add tomatoes, basil, oregano, salt, and red pepper flakes. Simmer until juices have started to evaporate slightly, about 10 minutes. Blend in tomato paste and cook 3 minutes more. Cool slightly before using on pizza.
I actually did mine in a large frying pan, but when I make bigger batches to freeze I will probably use at least a large pot, if not a stock pot. But one batch is not too big for a frying pan.
So, great crust? Check! Awesome sauce (lol)? Check! The only thing left is toppings, and once you have a great crust and sauce, you can top with whatever you want! I used mozzarella cheese, pepperoni, black olives and prosciutto, then a little bit of cheddar over the top. So good!
