Ever made a pizza at home?

If I had time, I’d make it all myself. Since I don’t, I buy the stuff.

Whatever crust you buy will probably benefit from being brushed with olive oil, top and bottom. This helps prevent the sogginess of a soaked-in tomato sauce, and crisps up the bottom. Just brush with oil, then pizza sauce, cheese and toppings. The crust package should have baking directions.

And a word about pizza sauce. If you just use pasta sauce, take some time and boil it down, since jarred spaghetti sauce is more watery than pizza sauce. It will also need to be jazzed up with some oregano and garlic (if you like those). This doesn’t mean that prepared pizza sauce wouldn’t taste better with some additions, but pasta sauce really needs them.

My favorite brand of pre-fab pizza sauce is Muir Glen organic. They really grow a good tomato. :)

I just use a pita bread, pour some olive oil on it, smear it around, add some tomato paste or pizza sauce, cheese or cheeses, then black olives, onion, tomato slices, whatever strikes your fancy, top with basil, garlic powder and chilis, pop it into the oven and they are great and healthy if you don’t add too much cheese.

I like to make French bread pizzas at home. It’s alot quicker than having to roll out dough. A loaf of French bread cut lengthwise, then in half, will make 4 good size servings.

For the sauce I use a can of spaghetti sauce, heated with additional seasonings such as oregano and pepper.

I usually brown Italian sausage with onion and garlic. Pepperoni and mozzarella cheese are also included in the toppings. Sometimes bell pepper. Bake at 350 for about 15–17 minutes, depending on how thick the bread is. Our family loves this recipe and we usually have it once a week.

English muffin or a bagel. Yums.

We use Boboli thin crust pizzas, and try to vary things up as much as possible. An added plus is that my 2 year old loves to help decorate the pizza, and the more involved he is in cooking, the more likely he is to eat and learn good habits. Of course, here I am talking about pizza….

I have used boxed pizza dough mix with some success. My new favorite, because of speed is convenience is Best Life Flat Bread.

If you use that, though, follow laureth’s wise counsel to brush top and bottom with olive oil. Also, because it is thin, it cannot be loaded down with sauce or toppings. Sometimes I do fresh tomato, fresg basil, pepperoni, and mozzarella with sauteed mushrooms (drain well on paper towel) and sliced black olives.

Another one I like is minced garlic, roasted chicken, and parmesan.

yep, I was going to quote domino’s number, but, then that’s a cheap shot. So, I had a batch of flour, made for a pizza. Added the required amount of water. Spread it out nicely, as suggested.
Smeared my “Greenmill” pizza sauce,[that’s Minneapolis] but, I didn’t have any regular cheese. So, took a box of Velveeta macaroni, getting this? Squeezed off a few nuggets, here and there. Just to cover the area. God!! help us!!
Anyway, I popped that puppy into the 450 0ven. well, it did cook up ok. Hey, I’m still here, right?
Call pizza Hut. at least they won’t squeeze out your pallet.
Ouch!!

Have not used Boboli in a long time but it was good.
We’ve gotten fresh dough from places like Trader Joe’s and Whole Foods then added our own toppings. This makes a good meal.

@vanslonski :: I didn’t think it was possible. But you managed to fuck up a pizza. Congrats, I think.

@Dorkgirl I feel lucky that when we feel like it, we can avoid the whole process by buying a premade pizza at a local (awesome) worker-owned cooperative bakery. When we are stuck, boboli it is…

If you have a Trader Joe’s near you, they have really good crust dough in the produce section.

How coincidental…we’re cooking a Boboli right now, should be done in a couple of minutes.

We use Trader Joes or Boboli crusts. I cut up lots of fresh stuff; broccoli, spinach, onions, pepperoni, mushrooms, artichoke hearts, olives, fresh tomatoes & buffalo mozzarella. Everybody decorates their own (the kids love this as shilolo mentioned)- and we feast! Yummy.

**I cook them right on the oven racks for a crustier dough.

We do it all the time. I make large batches of dough and freeze it in portions for large pizzas. The sauce is fairly easy. Then I let the kids put together what they want. They always say homemade from scratch is the best.

We use Boboli crust – it’s a tad sweet for my taste but the kids like it. The olive oil is essential. We also use a pizza stone that I ended up buying because my neighbor had one of those something Chef parties – it’s been worth what I paid for it.

I do use sauce from a jar if I am going to use sauce, but I prefer extra olive oil, fresh tomatoes, fresh basil, and lots of mozzarella. We always add extras to jarred sauce – black olives, more basil or garlic, finely diced tomatoes, and to thicken it, tomato paste (we like to use a type that comes in a tube so you can add what you want without wasting a whole can of it).

Actually, one of the tastiest pizzas we ever made at home was on English muffins and cooked on the BBQ grill.

We used to make homemade pizzas every Friday night but have slacked off lately. Homemade dough (recipe in “Baking Illustrated”), homemade sauce (simple original recipe, takes five minutes), cheese, pepperoni, sometimes hot Italian sausage, sautéed mushrooms, caramelized onions.

@PupnTaco: I had a pizza once with carmelized onions & goat cheese; it was wonderful!

wonderful, thanks for all the responses guys! looking forward to make it tomorrow night! :]

Yep make the crust from scratch. Load the fixens. Throw it on a hot grill. Eat with a glass of red wine outside. Firepit going for the extra mood. WOW! Good times. Sounds like Sunday night I will do it. Thanks for the idea it’s been a while.

:] no prob. thanks to all for the suggestions. now.. what wine does everyone recommend, ha. i like wine, but ive never been one to know the difference between good and bad wine.. and i prefer something not too dry. (and affordable – college kid on a budget)

If you like it, it’s a good wine.

@laureth – Even if it has a screw top or comes in a box?

@Darwin Screw tops are the wave of the future. Don’t necessarily discount a wine on that basis alone. Most wineries still use cork mainly because of tradition. There is no real reason NOT to use screw caps. Wine in a box on the other hand….

@millastrellas – many college kids like Riunite Lambrusco, a sweet red wine. Despite being horribly over-exposed during ad campaigns in the past, it is actually a fairly decent starter wine for sitting around with friends and eating pizza. It also isn’t expensive and can be found in the average grocery store type liquor section.

OTOH, I prefer a dry and tannic red, especially Slaughter-Leftwitz Cabernet Sauvignon 1985 – that was an amazing wine. Unfortunately, the winery no longer exists.

@Darwin thanks for the suggestion! ive actually heard of lambrusco, i think ill give it a shot! ;)

I do homemade pizzas. I use the dough recipe from Alton Brown found here. The instructions are for using a mixer, but you can do it without one. It just takes more time. I make several of these at once because they save well. (I send my kids home with baggies of dough sometimes. :^> ) One recipe will make two pizzas that are about the size of a large plate. So, everyone gets to make their own pizza after the dough is stretched. Sometimes we use a jar sauce, but usually I’ll use some of my own leftover sauce from a previous meal. I like a blend of grated cheeses. Everybody likes different toppings.

For inexpensive wines to go with pizza, there are a lot of Australian reds that can stand up to strong flavors in pizza. You can get many of them for under $10 a bottle and usually find some on sale for $6 or $7. Wolf Blass does a nice Shiraz and Cabernet blend. Jacob’s Creek do several; their Grenache Shiraz is nice. And Lindeman’s is one of my fella’s favorite inexpensive wines. They do several that we’ve liked. Shiraz works well with pizza.

I like Chanti with pizza.

@Darwin – At my house, we use wine-in-a-box. Granted, I use it largely for cooking, but because it’s airtight it can sit there at room temp and not go bad for a long long time.

If someone tries a wine and decides they like it, that it gives them pleasure, I don’t see that as a bad thing, whether the wine cost $100 a bottle or if it’s a two-buck Chuck.

Agree laureth

I like Chianti with pizza, too. But a drinkable Chianti tends to be a bit pricier than a drinkable Shiraz. A Shiraz or a red blend works better on a student’s budget.