Homemade Pizza Recipe
This recipe was first featured in this post.
On 99% of our Fridays at home, you'll find us making pizza for dinner. Cheese for the kids and prosciutto and arugula for us. It's definitely become a tradition and we don't get tired of it. We've been doing this for years, and it's our own special way to have pizza night with the kids. Take out pizza just doesn't do it for us anymore. And even the kids will sometimes beg to have pizza night more than once a week. It's that good!
First, to have a great pizza you need a really good dough recipe. When I first started making pizza I started by making a homemade dough. But now I find that I don't have the time to go through all the steps, and since we have a bread machine I've been using the pizza dough recipe that comes with the machine's manual. And I have to say that there's very little difference. I make the 2-pound recipe, cut it in quarters, and I have dough for 4 pizzas. We use two of them right away, and I freeze the other two. And on the next pizza night, I just thaw the dough a few hours before we make it right on my countertop. Or thaw it overnight in your refrigerator.
The second essential of a great pizza is the pizza sauce. The recipe below is so simple and good. When we entertain and make pizzas for our friends, I often times get asked about my sauce recipe. And there's not much to it.
Pizza Sauce1 (28 oz) can of whole San Marzano tomatoes {I don't drain it}1 tsp. of dried oregano2 tbsp. of olive oilkosher salt, about 4 pinchesfreshly ground pepperIn your food processor or with a hand blender, add all of the ingredients, until coarsely chopped. Taste the sauce, and add more salt and pepper if needed.I freeze the leftover sauce or make spaghetti noodles for the kids and add the sauce with some freshly chopped basil.Prosciutto & Arugula Pizzapizza dough1/4 cup of homemade pizza sauce, recipe above1 package of prosciutto (3 - 4 oz)1/2 lb. of fresh mozzarella, slicedfreshly grated parmigiano-reggiano, to your liking1/3 - 1/2 of a red onion, thinly sliced2 cups of fresh baby arugula {in a separate bowl, drizzle with olive oil, kosher salt, and pepper}Preheat your oven and pizza stone to 485F. I like the pizza stone to be hot, so I let it heat for about 15 minutes. Roll your dough. Place dough on preheated pizza stone and brush olive oil on the dough. Lightly, sprinkle kosher salt over dough. Spread a thin layer of pizza sauce. Add a layer of red onion, leaving about a 1-inch border around the dough. Add the layer of prosciutto, then add the mozzarella cheese, and cover with half of the grated parmesan cheese. Bake in the oven about 8 – 10 minutes until dough is crispy and your mozzarella cheese starts to brown a bit. Once out of the oven, cover the pizza with the arugula mixture. Sprinkle the rest of the grated parmesan cheese on top and enjoy!Cheese PizzaIf you're making cheese pizza, follow the steps above and exclude the onion, prosciutto, and arugula. Bake for about 7 - 8 minutes.