Homemade Pizza: 2 Ways

Sunday night is Pizza Night at our house. The last couple of weeks we’ve been forgoing the usual delivery and making our own pizzas. I use Ina’s dough recipe, which I make into 4 pizzas. The kids’ pizzas are always the same: sauce, cheese and pepperoni. My husband and I are stuck on the 2 pizzas above. The top one is a basic Margherita pizza–a tiny bit of red sauce, fresh mozzarella, thinly sliced tomatoes and fresh basil from our garden. (Add the fresh basil after the pizza comes out of the oven.) The other pizza is my current favorite–a drizzle of olive oil (no red sauce), mozzarella and fontina cheese, and pieces of prosciutto. Top with several handfuls of arugula after it comes out of the oven.

For the pizza dough: (plan for a 30 minute rise-time)

2 packs dry yeast

1¼ cup warm water

1 tbsp honey

4 cups flour, plus more for kneading

olive oil

salt

Use your stand mixer if you have one, or you can mix by hand. In a large bowl (or stand mixer bowl) add the yeast, warm water, honey and 3 tbsp of olive oil. Let it sit and dissolve for a few minutes, then add 2 tsp of salt and 3 cups of flour. Mix with a strong wooden spoon or use your dough hook on the stand mixer. Gradually add the remaining cup of flour and mix. When the flour is well incorporated, turn the dough out onto a clean counter that is dusted with flour. Knead a few times (this is a great job for little helpers) and then place the dough in an oiled bowl, cover and let it rise for about 30 minutes.

Divide your dough (we split it into 4 equal pieces) and prepare your pizzas for baking. Bake at 450° (make sure your oven is fairly clean or it will get very smokey at your house) for about 10 minutes.