Why pay $12.00 for a pizza when you can make one at home in no time and for way less than half the cost? The most beautiful thing about pizza is that it is wonderfully uncomplicated. You’ll need pizza dough; but after that it’s entirely up to you. You should be able to get already-made pizza dough at your local supermarket. Look in the refrigerated section. If you cannot get fresh, get frozen and let it thaw.
The 2nd most important ingredient to great pizza is heat. We don’t normally think of heat as an ingredient but it is – and is very much so in making pizza. True artisan pizza makers will cook their pizzas at or near 900 degrees Fahrenheit which renders a crust that’s crispy and just a little bit brusciat. I don’t know about yours, but my oven tops out at 525 degrees F, so if we want to produce that beautiful char on our homemade pizza we’re going to have to compensate for the lack of heat by twice-baking it.*
If you have not worked with pizza dough before, you will quickly learn that working with it is a lot like trying to herd cats. The trick to overcoming pizza dough’s oppositional temperament is by allowing it to come to room temperature before you attack it, so it’s best to plan ahead a little before you make this.
This recipe makes one New York style thin-crust cheese pizza.
What You’ll Need
1 – 15 ounce ball of refrigerated pizza dough (room temperature)
1 – 15 ounce can of Don Pepino’s pizza sauce (or any jar tomato sauce)
Cornmeal (or corn grits)
8 ounces of Moozaell (Mozzarella cheese) sliced thin or grated
Garlic powder
Dried Oregano
Olive oil
Toppings, if any, (your choice)
What to Do
First put on the Dean Martin song.. you know which one.
Now heat your oven to the max.
Get out a baking pan (15 x 9 inches works great) and brush a little olive oil over it.
Dust some cornmeal onto a clean, dry, flat surface. Plop the pizza dough on it and roll it around on the cornmeal until the dough no longer tries to cling to your fingers. Stretch the pizza dough out by hand (working from the edges inward) until it’s about the same length as the pan.
Lay the dough onto the oiled pan. Hook and pinch the edge of the dough over the entire rim of the pan, pinching it all the way around so that the dough covers the entire pan. Using a large tablespoon, spread some pizza sauce over top of the dough.. NOT TOO MUCH! **
Using the tines of a fork, carefully poke holes all across the top. Now unhinge the dough from the sides of the pan and crimp it up around the edges to form a crust. Put the pizza in the oven – middle rack – and let it bake for about 15 minutes or until the sides look golden.
Remove the pizza from the oven. Add whatever toppings you’re using and then the moozaell on top. Dust some garlic powder and oregano over the cheese. Return the pizza to the oven. Bake until the cheese just starts to brown a little. Remove the finished pizza from the oven and let it cool for about 5 minutes before you cut it up. Serve hot.
Serves 4. My Cost Approx. $ 3.79 total – about 95 cents per serving.
*A little trick I picked up from the Artichoke Pizza guys. GMN
**Use just enough pizza sauce to thinly coat the surface. Too much sauce will result in a gory pizza murder. GMN
