The (in)Famous Pizza

We have not purchased pizza from a pizza-purveyor in months, nor any variety of frozen pizza. This is because I have discovered that I can EASILY make pizza at home with ingredients we always have on hand, using tools we already own (no rushing out to buy a fancy, expensive pizza stone!), for a FRACTION of the cost. And, our homemade pizza is WAAAAAAAAAAAAY better than anything Domino's or Pizza Hut or Tony's or Frecshetta can come up with.

The procedure and recipes are below. I make a TON of sauce at once and freeze it, and generally keep up the dough-making all day (using the bread machine to mix/knead and rise). The dough freezes just fine - see the end of the post for info on how I do this.

HOMEMADE PIZZA

Pizza Sauce

INGREDIENTS (this is enough sauce for 2 – 4 pizzas – adjust as needed):

• 2 (15 ounce) cans tomato sauce
• 2 (6 ounce) cans tomato paste
• 1 tablespoon ground oregano
• 1 tablespoon dried basil
• 1 1/2 teaspoons dried minced garlic
• 2 teaspoons ground paprika

DIRECTIONS:

1. In a medium bowl, Mix together tomato sauce and tomato paste until smooth. Stir in spices.
2. Cook on stove until warm; stir frequently.
3. I prepare and heat the sauce earlier in the day, and then refrigerate it until I need it. Then I warm it up again. You can make, heat, and use it immediately.

Pizza Dough

INGREDIENTS (for one pizza crust – adjust as needed):

• ¾ cup warm water
• 1 teaspoon sugar
• 2 tablespoons butter (melted or very soft)
• 2½ cups flour
• 1 tablespoon yeast

1. Mix water, butter, and sugar in a mixing bowl.
2. Add part of the flour and stir.
3. Add the rest of the flour and the yeast, and stir into a dough.
4. Knead 6-8 minutes, or until dough is smooth and elastic.
5. Set dough in bowl and grease the top. Cover with a towel and set in a warm place to rise for about 45 minutes.
6. After the dough has risen the first time, punch down and knead until air bubbles are removed.
   

**You can skip the rising and put your freshly-made dough into the pizza pan.


MAKING THE PIZZAS:

1. Liberally butter the pizza pan. Press dough into pan. Lift ½ of the crust and sprinkle cornmeal underneath; repeat.
2. Sprinkle ½ teaspoon salt on top of crust, then spoon about 1 cup of pizza sauce over crust. Add cheese and other toppings as desired.
3. Bake in 400-degree oven on lower rack for 10 minutes; rotate pizza (for even baking) and back for another 10 minutes.

Freezing:

Both left-over sauce and left-over dough can be frozen for a later date. I put one cup of sauce into a freezer Ziploc and flatten it out for freezing – the flat packages stack very nicely. 1 cup of sauce is just about right for a large pizza, and plenty + extra for medium/small pizzas. When we’re making more than one I just take however many flat-packs out of the freezer that I’ll need for the number and size of the pizzas.

The dough can also be stuffed into a freezer Ziploc and somewhat flattened. It seems to work fine once defrosted – let it warm up a little before you start trying to flip/roll it for the pizza pan (stone-cold dough is hard to work with).