I felt bad about the not-so great picture from the last post (although the recipe itself more than makes up for it,trust me!) so I felt the need to put up something truly photogenic this time,a good recipe just didn't seem like enough.
The story of this recipe goes back to when my son was born:coming home was hard,and cooking was even harder.Not that I didn't want to, but it seemed that every time I wanted to start cooking he would want to eat.-this turned into kind of a rut:I would sit on the couch nursing the baby and bark out orders while my DH would putter around the kitchen trying put something together ("OK, now add a teaspoon of paprika...a teaspoon!don't just shake it over the soup!").This scenario probably repeats itself in most homes of new parents.Of course, the neighbors did send over a few meals-I know of some communities where a new mom gets meals for two whole weeks(!) but there comes a time when that's all over and you have to fend for yourself and get used to your new situation.By the way, DH is a huge help in the kitchen and would probably become quite the culinary expert if I didn't curb his creativity-don't get the wrong idea.
Where were we?ah yes, my attempt to cook while trying to avoid shirking my motherly duties
When Mr. baby was about two months old I got a phone call from a friend,who aplologized profoundly for not bringing over something sooner and would it be ok for her to bring something over tonight?uh, duh.
A few hours later there was a huge pan of pizza on our table.It was so good, and I was so grateful.I asked for the recipe the minute we finished eating and since then have been making it approximately once a week (with slight changes, as usual). The moral of the story is that it's better late than never and that friendly gestures (especially those that include pizza)are always welcome and are never obsolete.
Pizza is a great thing to make at home:it's much healthier than what you would order from any pizza place,much cheaper,completely modular and a big hit with all ages-also, the ingredients are fairly common and I'll bet that most of them-if not all-are in your kitchen right now.I'll admit that it's a fairly time consuming production,but most of the time the dough will be rising and you will be minding your own business.The double rising requires some planning ahead but it's definitely worth the extra effort.
crust ingredients:
two cups+third of a cup flour
one Tablesppon of dry yeast
one teaspoon of sugar
one teaspoon of salt
one cup of warm water
Mix ingredients in a bowl and knead for a few minute until a dough forms.Leave to rise until dough doubles its size,knead again and let rise once more.Knead and spread on a cookie sheet covered with greased baking paper.
Add sauce-store bought or homemade-here is my (moms) amazingly simple recipe
Empty a small container of tomato paste into a bowl.Fill empty container with water and add to tomato paste.Add a pinch of sugar(tomato paste is often bitter,sugar will cut the bitterness). Mix and pour over pizza crust.
At this point I like to sprinkle a layer of garlic powder and dried oregano on the sauce.
Say cheese...
This may upset some of you, but real pizza is made with mozzarella cheese and NOT yellow cheese or American cheese.Both contain food coloring as opposed to mozzarella cheese which does not.I know it costs a little more but the taste,quality and health benefits are totally worth it in my humble opinion.
Anyway, I usually put about 100 grams of cheese on my pizza but if you like yours extra cheesy go for it.
Obviously, when it comes to toppings the sky's the limit:lately we like our pizza with onions and roasted peppers.What combos do you like?
Bake the pizza at 200 c or 400 f for about 25 minutes-the cheese will melt and the crust will be firm.Enjoy!
P.S.You may be wondering if I forgot to add oil to the recipe-it's no coincidence!the original recipe does call for olive oil but we forgot to use it one time and noticed that the taste was just as great-added health bonus
