Homemade Pizza

We went to some friends for dinner and hockey night a week ago. We were treated with homemade pizza! We love pizza! It's probably our favourite "treat" meal. They even had a stone slate! I have to get one!!!
But get this... I have never made homemade pizza! I've made pizza from bread bases (ie Ciabatta Pizza), but never made the dough from scratch. I know, shocker right?

We usually buy the Dr Oetker Restaurante Pizza. It's the dish we usually have at the end of the week when I'm tired and just don't feel like cooking. But, uuuummm, hello!! why don't we have it on nights when I do feel like cooking and have homemade pizza?? Duh! I don't know where my foodie head has been floating off to in the past.
So this weekend I went for it. Wow! It was so quick and easy. It was actually quicker and easier than making the effort of getting my coat and shoes on, walking to the shop, waiting in line and buying a frozen pizza.

PIZZA DOUGH
1 (8g) package active dry yeast

• 1 cup warm water (cooler than bath water but warmer than room temperature)
• 2 cups all purpous flour
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 2 teaspoons white sugar (optional, I read sugar makes the crust a bit puffier)

Instructions:

1. In a small bowl mix water with yeast. let stand for about 10 min, then add olive oil

2. In a large bowl combine flour, salt and sugar

3. Make a well in the middle of the dry mixture, then pour in wet mixture. Stir together well until a dough forms. Cover with a cloth to let rise for about 30min, or until dough has doubled in size. Meanwhile heat the oven to 375 F (190 C, gas mark 5)

4. Roll dough out (or toss it in the air and pretend you're an Italian cooking in your own pizzeria, like I did) onto a floured surface until it's round and about 1-2 cm thick. Place on a pizza baking sheet (or stone slate if you're lucky enough to have one already)

5. Top with tomato sauce, cheese and toppings of your choice and bake in the oven for 20-25 min, until reached desired golden colour crust and top

I didn't have any tomatoes or sauce on hand but I had some sundried tomato alfredo sauce leftover. Why not eh? I made a sundried tomato alfredo pizza with mushrooms, spinach and mozzarella. Yum yum yum yum!!

It's Friday! 'Ciabatta Pizza'

My boyfriend and I love pizza. We categorize pizza as a treat so we usually end up having it on a Friday night while watching a good movie. This recipe is such a nice change from the common order in or frozen store bought pizza and SO SIMPLE to make!

The fun thing about making your own pizza is chosing yourself what toppings you mix and how much you want of each one. This was mine...



(Feeds 2 people)

1 large loaf of ciabatta bread
2 tbsp garlic butter
3 tbsp tomato sauce
3 tbsp red pesto (I used roasted red pepper pesto)
1 1/2 - 2 cups shredded mozzarella cheese
1/2 an orange pepper - chopped (I'm not a big fan of green)
1/4 small onion - chopped
1/2 smoked sausage - sliced very thin and cut quarterly
1 large mushroom (or 2 small) - halved and sliced

Instructions
- Cut ciabatta loaf in 2 even size pieces, then slice each open sideways (to make 4 open pieces)
- place ciabatta pieces in the warm-hot oven for about 10 min to toast them slightly
- Meanwhile mix tomato sauce and pesto together in a bowl and cut all your topping ingredients as mentioned above
- Spread 1/4 tbsp of garlic butter on each piece of ciabatta
- Spread tomato sauce mixture evenly on each piece of ciabatta
- Then sprinkle on half the mozzarella
- Evenly distribute your toppings on each ciabatta
- Finish it off by sprinkling the remaining mozzarella over top of each
- Place pizzas on a racked baking pan
- Cook in the oven at 400 F (gas mark 6) for approximately 15min or until top is starting to turn golden.
Keep an eye on it. If you noticed the top starts turning colour too soon turn the temperature down a bit (as all ovens vary)