Pizza

Who does not love pizza? My kids love it when I make pizza. It's one of the few meals they do not complain about. I try to make everything from scratch, including the dough and sauce. I haven't gotten around to making the cheese myself yet. The ultimate goal is to make an entire pizza from my garden. For now, I will be satisfied with fresh ingredients. I've been experimenting with ways to make the sauce. I didn't like that the majority of my homemade sauce came from cans in the form of tomato sauce and tomato paste. Then it dawned on me. Why don't I just use sliced tomatoes and fresh herbs for the sauce. Easier than mixing a bunch of stuff to spread, so the other night I tried it and was very happy with the result. Here's how I made this awesome pizza:

Dough:

4-5 c flour (I try to make at least half of that white wheat flour)
3 1/2 t yeast
1 1/2 c warm water
3 T olive oil

In a large mixing bowl, combine 2 c flour, yeast, and 1/2 t salt. Add warm water and oil. Beat with mixer for a couple minutes. Stir in as much remaining flour as you can, and then knead the rest in until you have a somewhat stiff dough that is smooth and elastic. Divide the dough into 2 balls. Cover and let rest for 10 minutes. This will make 2 large pizzas.

While the dough is resting take 2 pizza pans, spray with cooking spray and then dust with cornmeal. I love having that little bit of cornmeal on my crust. Spread the dough out on the pan and cover with thinly sliced tomatoes. I added some fresh oregano and basil from my herb garden and sprinkled it over the tomatoes.  I tried to slice the mozzarella, but since our cheese slicer was broken, I wasn't too successful. For some reason it seems more authentic to have sliced mozzarella on top. Then I topped the pizza with our usual toppings: green bell peppers, mushrooms, red onion, and italian sausage. Then I sprinkled some freshly grated parmesan on top and some chopped parsley, also from my garden. I bake 2 pizzas at the same time, so I baked them for 10 minutes at 375 and then switched racks so they would cook evenly. I baked them for another 10 minutes. When you pull them out they are done to perfection!

I usually make 2 pizzas so there are some leftovers, but this time we only had 4 slices left, as opposed to an entire pizza, so I guess we'll be doing the tomatoes again.