I'm a pizza fanatic

I recently discovered my love for homemade pizza. We used to buy the pre-baked crusts and then I'd throw some storebought marinara sauce on with some sort of meat topping. Those days are long gone. Now I'm all about making my pizza completely from scratch, and topping it with as many veggies as I can cram onto the crust. It's terrific, you've got to give it a try!

Homemade Pizza

Dough ingredients (from the Kitchenaid mixer booklet)
1 pkg active yeast
1 cup warm water
2 1/2 cups flour
2 tsp olive oil
1/2 tsp salt

Directions for dough:
Dissolve yeast in warm water. Add oil, salt, and flour. Put in mixer and mix until dough forms a ball, adding more flour if necessary. Let raise for one hour, punch down, and place on oiled cookie sheet. Press dough across cookie sheet (I usually form a rectangle). Bake in oven for 15 minutes at 450 degrees (I actually cook the dough for 7 minutes, then add the rest of the toppings for the remaining 8 minutes).

Toppings:
I've been using a pesto sauce on my pizza, and I love it! Eventually I'll try a regular marinara sauce, but for now I'm addicted to pesto. For my pesto I combine basil, olive oil, salt, pecorino cheese, almonds, pepper, and garlic in a blender. Blend until smooth.

One time I used hummus on the pizza instead of pesto sauce, and I thought it was quite good (The Husband tolerated it but didn't love it).

On top of the pesto I've been using whatever veggies I have handy. I've tried tomatoes, peppers, olives, feta cheese, red onions, mushrooms, spinach, and artichoke hearts in various combinations.


Just try whatever sounds good to you!