Like many families, Friday night pizza has been a long-standing tradition in our home. At the end of the week, it’s nice not worrying what’s for dinner; however, when we tire of our local pizza carry-out options, I’ve found homemade pizza to be WAY tastier and a way to save $$ with a little more investment of time. We definitely don’t do this every weekend but making homemade pizza can easily be done, especially if you prep your crust, red sauce, and toppings in advance. I also enjoy making homemade pizza on a cold weekend – it’s a good time to make food and snuggle up inside.

The Crust

A quality crust is KEY to the overall taste of homemade pizza and you can prep the crust well in advance (even freezing it if you need to). It helps to have a KitchenAid Mixer with a bread hook to knead the dough, otherwise, you’ll be doing it by hand (note: do not use the KitchenAid paddle attachment to knead pizza dough – it’ll destroy the gears. I may or may not speak from experience)! 🙂

Pizza Crust Ingredients

This recipe makes enough for 2 pizza crusts. I’ve provided recipes below for a red sauce and a white sauce, which is how I usually use both crusts. You can also freeze half of the crust and pull it out when you need it!

• 4 1/2 c. flour (I do half white and half whole wheat flour)
• 1 3/4 t. salt
• 1 pack yeast (I use fast acting)
• 1 3/4 c. warm water
• 1 t. honey
• Olive oil cooking spray

Directions

• Sift flour into KitchenAid with salt.
• Prepare your warm water (not too hot and not too cold – yeast is so sensitive) and honey and add your yeast pack to it. Allow this to sit for five minutes until foamy.
• Add the yeast water to the prepared flour/salt combination in the mixer and turn the mixer to level 4-6 for 8 minutes.
• Pull dough out and knead into a ball with flour.
• Spray olive oil spray on a medium-sized glass bowl.
• Place dough into oiled bowl to rise for 2 hours. Hint: while I’m prepping the dough, I turn my oven on to 200 degrees and when it’s warm, turn it off. This is where I place my dough to rise.
• Punch the dough down when doubled.

The Sauce & Toppings

This is where things get REALLY fun and you can customize your pizza(s) to your heart’s content! If I’m making 2 pizzas for our family or friends, I will usually do a red pizza sauce and a white alfredo-like sauce. I share both sauce recipes below, along with topping ideas. The idea here is that you can completely customize this to your family’s taste.

Red Sauce Ingredients

You can do this step in advance and refrigerate until you’re ready to assemble & bake your pizza.

• 1/2 T. olive oil
• 1/4 medium-sized onion, diced
• 1 6 oz. can tomato paste
• 1 15 oz. can diced or stewed tomatoes (w/ stewed you’ll get a chunkier tomato sauce)
• 1 8 oz. can tomato sauce
• 1 t. dried basil (or 2 t. fresh chopped basil)
• 1/4 c. shredded carrots
• 1-2 T. oregano to taste
• 2 T. Italian seasoning
• 1/2 t. garlic powder
• 1/2 t. onion powder
• 1/2 T. garlic salt
• 1/4 t. freshly ground black pepper
• 1 t. sugar

Directions:

• Add olive oil to a dutch oven and add onions when the oil is warm. Saute over medium heat for 5 minutes until the onions are translucent.
• Mix tomato paste, tomato sauce and diced or stewed tomatoes into the onion in the dutch oven and mix until well combined (all lumps of the paste are incorporated into the sauce).
• Add the rest of the ingredients (basil, shredded carrots, oregano, Italian seasoning, garlic powder, onion powder, garlic salt, pepper and sugar) and mix well!
• After the sauce starts boiling, turn down to low and let simmer on the stove for an hour.

Red Sauce Pizza Topping Ideas

You can saute your favorite toppings in advance and refrigerate until you’re ready to assemble and bake your pizza.

• Basic pepperoni (kid-friendly)
• Italian sausage & mushroom (our favorite!) (brown the sausage and saute the mushrooms)
• Veggie – chunked portabella mushrooms, green peppers, and red onion (saute together in olive oil), olives, artichokes, etc.
• 16 oz. shredded mozzarella (this is enough for 2 pizzas)
• 10 oz. shredded parmesan (this is enough for 2 pizzas)

White Sauce Ingredients

Unlike the red sauce, I recommend you make this sauce the day you’re planning to assemble and bake your pizza!

• 1 T. butter
• 2 T. flour
• 1 c. milk
• 1/2 c. grated parmesan cheese
• 1/2 t. salt
• 1/4 t. pepper
• 1/2 t. garlic powder
• 1 t. dried basil (or 2 t. fresh chopped basil)

Directions:

• In a saucepan, melt the butter over medium heat.
• Add the flour to the butter and stir together.
• Add the milk and whisk it into the butter and flour already in the pan until there are no chunks.
• Add the parmesan cheese, salt, pepper, garlic powder and basil and stir together until the sauce thickens.

White Sauce Pizza Topping Ideas

You can saute your favorite toppings in advance and refrigerate until you’re ready to assemble and bake your pizza.

• Diced rotisserie chicken (a great way to use up leftovers!)
• Thinly sliced yellow or red potatoes – 2 small (saute in olive oil until soft)
• Diced onion – 1/4 medium onion (saute in olive oil until soft)
• Chunked portabella mushroom (saute in olive oil until soft)
• Thinly sliced and steamed butternut squash – 1/4-1/2 c.

Assemble & Bake Your Pizza

Preheat oven: 350 degrees

• Roll out your pizza dough over flour and place on a pizza stone (a pizza stone is preferable to a cookie sheet as it cooks the crust evenly in the oven – underdone pizza crust = not good!)
• Spoon pizza sauce over your crust
• Sprinkle your selected toppings over the sauce
• Sprinkle your cheese over the top until it’s covered. Customize this step to add whatever cheese you prefer!
• Bake 25-30 minutes until crust is crispy and cheese is slightly browned

There you go! Lots of ideas to get you started on your homemade pizza-making adventure! What’s your family’s favorite pizza?