Pizza Pie

Everyone loves pizza.  Those who say they don't are lying.  You can't be American without having an inborn craving of pizza.  Inborn... is that a word? In-born.  Inborn.  Inbourne...?


Moving on...

To start with, for your crust you need flour, yeast, olive oil, warm water (not shown), and salt.

The sauce is tomato sauce, basil, oregano, and parsley.  You can choose any of your favorite pizza toppings.  I went with the classic pepperoni and olives.

Start by mixing warm water, salt, olive oil, and 3/4 cup flour.

Mix it nice and good until it's smooth as Trent (he made me put that).
 

Add your yeast and mix well.
 

Add the remaining flour.
 

Knead it until smooth.  You may need to add more flour, keep adding until it no longer sticks to the sides of the bowl.
 

Now we get tricky.  Take your cookie sheet and sprinkle corn meal all around it.  This will keep the dough from sticking without using any more grease.  Plus it gives it a fun texture.
 

Start rolling the dough out.  You'll get a good workout stretching the dough out to the edges... it justifies the pizza, I promise!

Ta da! I now have strong arms and a beautiful pizza crust.  Or was that beautiful arms and strong crust?  Let's just say it works both ways.  Now, stick it in the oven for a few minutes.  If you don't poke it before putting it in it will blow up like a balloon.  If you like balloon pizza, don't poke.
 

Start mixing the sauce while the crust is in the oven.  This is a mixture of tomato sauce, basil, oregano, and parsley.
 

Mix it up nice and good.
 

Pull the crust out of the oven and spread the sauce nice and even.
 

Add your toppings. Don't skimp. Trust me.

 

Now add your cheese of choice.  I went with mozzarella and cheddar, but do whatever sounds good at the moment... or whatever you have in your fridge.

Now stick it back in the oven for a few minutes.  Emphasis on few, it will cook fast. You're just trying to melt the cheese and have it brown just a little bit.
 

And this, my friends, is what we call the best and most heavenly pizza in the world.  Don't believe me?  I dare you to try it.
 

Oh, yes.  This is what life is all about.


Here's the full recipe:

Pizza

2 c. flour
½ tsp salt
4 Tbsp olive oil
¾ cup warm water
1 Tbsp Saf-instant yeast (scant)

Mix water, salt, olive oil and ¾ cup flour together until smooth. Add yeast, mix well. Add remaining flour. May
need to add more flour as you kneed until smooth. Sprinkle corn meal in bottom jelly roll pan. Roll dough out
in jelly roll pan. Bake at 450 degrees for 7 minutes. Take out of oven. Spread pizza sauce on dough. Add any
pizza toppings you want. Top with cheese. Put pizza back in oven until cheese is melted and starting to brown
on top.

Sauce:

1 can tomato sauce (8oz)
½ tsp basil
½ tsp cut oregano
½ tsp parsley

Mix well and spread over pizza crust