Joe Kraynak

Make Your Own Tasty Pizza

March 26, 2008 on 10:19 am | In Food | Leave a Comment

Ever since I moved from Chicago to Indiana, I can’t seem to get a good pizza, so I started making my own. It’s a blast! My pizzas still don’t stack up to some of the better pizzas you can get in most hole-in-the-wall pizza joints in Chicago, but for my tastes, they certainly beat what chains like Pizza Hut and Domino’s have to offer. Here’s a quick and easy dough recipe I picked up at About.com with a couple tips followed by a sauce recipe (or two):

Dough Recipe

Ingredients

• 1 envelope active dry yeast
• 1 cup warm water
• 1/2 teaspoon sugar
• 3 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon salt

Preparation

Put warm water in a cup; sprinkle yeast over water and stir in sugar. Let yeast stand for about 10 minutes, or until it begins to bubble.

Sift flour and salt into a large bowl; pour in yeast mixture and beat until a stiff dough is formed.

Turn dough out onto a floured surface; knead about 5 minutes, or until smooth and elastic. Add extra flour as necessary to keep from sticking to hands and board.

Place in a large bowl (glass, ceramic, or metal) greased with olive oil; turn dough over to coat the other side with olive oil. Cover with towel; let rise in a warm place, away from drafts, for about 30 minutes. Dough will be double in bulk. Punch dough down and divide in half. Grease two 14-inch pizza pans and grease hands lightly. Place half the dough in each pan and stretch to fit bottom and up sides of pan. Keep dough slightly thick around the edges. Fill with favorite filling and toppings and bake according to pizza recipe directions, or about 15 to 20 minutes at 425°.

Tips

Before I begin, I fill my bowls (yeast bowl and mixing bowl) with hot water and let them sit for awhile, so they’ll be warm when I start. This helps the dough rise. (Not too hot, or you’ll kill the yeast.)

If you don’t have a warm spot to let the dough rise, turn the oven on and let it warm up to 170 degrees. Then turn it off and leave the door shut. After you’re done mixing the dough, you can then set your mixing bowl in the oven (covered with a towel). I doubt a plastic bowl would melt at such a low temperature, but to be safe, use a glass, metal, or ceramic bowl.

My brother Greg recommends adding honey to make the crust a little crispy. I tried it (replacing the sugar with honey), but it didn’t work for me. It did seem to make the dough a little more stretchy, though.

Sauce Recipe

Ingredients

• 1 clove garlic
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 can (6 oz) tomato paste
• 1 can (8 oz) tomato sauce
• 1/2 teaspoon sugar
• 1/8 teaspoon pepper
• 1/2 teaspoon oregano
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• dash red pepper (optional)

Preparation

Combine all ingredients. Makes about 1 1/2 cups, enough for two pizzas.

Tips

Try using crushed tomatoes rather than tomato sauce, but add a tablespoon or so of sugar or your sauce will taste acidic.

Add a can of diced tomatoes to make the sauce a little chunky and stretch it out.

Toppings

This is entirely up to you. I like using fresh Italian sausage (uncooked) - you can fry it and drain off the grease, but I think that’s the best part.

Sometimes, I’ll make a barbecue chicken pizza. Instead of pizza sauce, use barbecue sauce. Dice chicken breasts into small pieces and fry them up beforehand to use as a topping. I also add diced onions.