Friday Night is Pizza Night!

Well, I haven't done much this week - between having kids at home sick and feeling a bit under the weather myself, it was one of those weeks... Thank goodness it's Friday and we can look forward to a relatively easy weekend to recuperate.  And homemade pizza for dinner to start the weekend out right!

I often make homemade pizza on a Friday night.  It's just so much healthier than frozen pizzas and not really difficult at all if I remember to mix up my dough early enough in the afternoon.  I finally found a recipe that works for me and my family likes it a lot, so I thought I would share!  This makes three large pizzas (enough for two parents and three hungry teenage boys).  You will need to mix up your dough about 2-3 hours before you actually want to eat, but once you’ve done that, the rest is hardly any work at all.

For the dough:

25 g fresh yeast
2 tsp honey or rice syrup
500 g flour (you can do half whole wheat if you want)
Olive oil
2 tsp sea salt

For the sauce:

1 can chopped tomatoes
1 small can tomato paste (about 3 T)
1 tsp each basil and oregano
a pinch of sugar, salt and black pepper

Toppings:

Your choice!  We do mozzarella cheese (3x  125g balls of fresh mozzarella for this recipe), fresh basil, sliced red pepper, sliced fresh tomato, a bit of salami and parma ham (for the meat eaters), rucola (added after baking), black olives, … be creative and use what you like!  You can also leave the cheese off and load it up with veggies if you want to avoid dairy products.

You’ll need three large pizza pans or cookie sheets. 

Crumble the yeast into a large bowl.  Add the honey, about 150 grams of the flour and 375 ml of warm water; mix well.  Cover the bowl with a towel and leave it in a warm place to rest for about 30 minutes, or until the yeast begins to work (it will foam up and increase in volume).

Add the rest of the flour and 1 T of olive oil and knead until you get a smooth dough.  Add water or additional flour as needed to get a soft, sticky dough that is not too dry.  Add the salt and mix well.  Cover the bowl and let the dough rest for 10 minutes.

Grease the pizza pans with olive oil.  Divide the dough into three portions and spread each portion out in one of the pans.  Don’t worry if it doesn’t spread easily at first, press it out gently with your fingers and leave it to rest a few minutes from time to time, until you are able to press it to the edge of the pan.  This should take about 15 minutes. 

Cover each pan with a clean towel and let them rise in a warm place for 60-90 minutes.

Preheat the oven to 225 C (450 F).  Puree the tomatoes, tomato paste, herbs and seasonings for the sauce.  Spread a thin layer of sauce on each pizza, and garnish with toppings as desired.  Bake the pizzas 10-15 minutes until the crust is golden brown.  Cut into slices and enjoy!