Dough and Sauce recipes from The New Basics Cookbook by Julee Rosso and Sheila Lukins

We LOVE pizza at my house. After you have made it homemade once, it is so hard to go back to delivery! The list of ingredients and the lengthy instructions look intimidating at first, but after you have made pizza a few times it really is easy. And fun! Also, I highly recommend the use of a good baking stone. Mine is from The Pampered Chef, but there are several other good ones that can be purchased at department stores and kitchen supply shops. Have fun and enjoy!

Crust:

• 1 C. warm water (110-115 degrees)
• 1 package active dry yeast
• 2 -1/2 to 3 C. all-purpose or bread flour
• 2 Tbsp. olive oil
• 1/2 tsp. Salt

Combine water, yeast and 1-1/2 cups of the flour in a large bowl. Mix well. Add the oil, salt, and enough remaining flour till the dough comes away from the sides of the bowl. Use a large wooden spoon for this as the dough gets hard to work with. Remove to a lightly floured board or countertop and knead until smooth and elastic, about 5 minutes. Place in a lightly oiled 2 qt. bowl and turn to oil top of dough. Cover with plastic wrap or a clean towel, turn the light on in your oven, and place in the oven with a large pan of hot water underneath. Or put in the laundry room while the dryer is running. Let rise for an hour or until about doubled. Remove from the bowl, punch down and cover and let it rest for 15 minutes. Press out the whole ball of dough on pizza stone if you want a slightly thick and chewy crust…split in half and make two pizzas if you want smaller ones with thinner crusts. Now you are ready for toppings (preheat oven now to 475)!

Sauce:

• 1 28 oz. Can of pureed tomatoes
• 1 large garlic clove, minced
• 1 tsp. dried oregano **
• 1 tsp. dried basil **
• 1 bay leaf
• freshly ground black pepper

Combine all ingredients in a saucepan. Cover and bring to a boil. Uncover, lower the heat, and simmer, stirring occasionally, for about 30 minutes. Remove bay leaf before using.

Usually makes enough for two batches of dough. I freeze the leftover sauce for next time.

TOPPINGS

I do veggies raw on my pizzas. Raw sliced onions, green peppers, mushrooms, etc. There are some recipes that saute the veggies first but I like the crunchiness of raw ones. Then I also use Parmesan and mozzarella cheese, and sprinkle the whole thing with bottled Italian Seasoning after the cheese goes on. Finally, I spray a fine mist of olive oil on the crust's edges while baking. This is supposed to keep the crust moist and chewy. Here's how I put a pizza together:

• Sprinkle some cornmeal on the stone (stone is not required to be preheated). Press out dough right on the stone.
• Spoon cooled sauce on the dough. Too much can make it a little bit wet so I go light on the sauce.
• Arrange any meat over sauce (pepperoni, cooked and crumbled sausage or ground beef). Then arrange the veggies over that.
• Sprinkle cheese over all the toppings.
• Sprinkle Italian Seasoning over that.
• Mist or lightly brush the edges of the crust with olive oil. Do this one more time in the middle of baking.
• Put the pizza stone in the handles and place on the bottom rack of the oven. According to Julee and Sheila, it is important to have the pizza as close to the floor of the oven as possible.
• Check on it after 10 minutes and spray crust with oil.
• Check again after a total of 15-17 minutes have gone by. When the cheese is melted and the crust is browned, it's done!
• Let the pizza sit for about 5 minutes before cutting to let the toppings set.
  
  

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