[Dan Driscoll]

Semi-homemade because I did buy pre-made crusts (Mama Mary's brand) and pre-shredded mozzarella (Sargento's). It was spur of the moment, I was at the farmers' market Saturday morning and picked up some great mushrooms, onions, green peppers, fresh garlic & cilantro nan bread. I stopped at the grocery store on the way home to pick up the crusts, cheese and pepperoni. We made 3 pies over the weekend, a pepperoni, a mushroom and a combo with pepperoni, mushrooms, green pepper & onion. The pepperoni and combo were on the Mama Mary's crusts, the mushroom on the nan.

I pre-heated the oven to 500* to get my pizza stone ripping hot, then started a nice 15 minute sauce from canned organic crushed tomatoes, garlic, basil, marjoram, red pepper flakes, sugar, salt, fresh ground black pepper and EVOO. A 28 oz. can of tomatoes made more than enough sauce for 3 12" pies. Sprayed the crusts with EVOO, ladled on the sauce (not too much!), pepperoni and/or veggies and covered with cheese. Onto the stone for 6 minutes at 500*, switch to the broiler for 2 minutes to give the crust and cheese that beautiful GB&D look, then onto the peel and out to rest for a few minutes before cutting.

There's nothing quite like the taste of fresh homemade pizza, even with store-bought crusts and pre-shredded cheese. What surprised us most was that the store-bought crusts turned out amazingly good. They came out of the oven thin and crispy, with a great bite and good flavor. I was very impressed, the last time I tried a store bought crust (10+ years ago, Boboli?) it was awful.

The nan pizza was supposed to be the thick and chewy and it was. However, the garlic and cilantro of the nan bread was pretty overwhelming. The pizza still tasted good, the nan had a nice chew, but the cheese and mushrooms were lost and even the sauce barely came through. Next time I'll try plain nan.

I had stopped making my own pizza a long time ago because I just wasn't into making the dough. I like to cook, but I'm not much of a baker and that's what dough making is. Store bought crusts were simply too awful to tolerate, so we've just been going to a couple of local pizzerias when we needed a pie fix. But that may change, now that I've found a decent store bought crust. Don't get me wrong, it's still not as good as fresh homemade dough or fresh pizzeria dough, but it's good enough to get me interested in making pizza at home again. 

[Dan Driscoll]

BTW, easily the worst ingredient on the pies was the pre-shredded Sargento cheese, it was dusted with what I believe was corn starch, probably to prevent sticking. Also, the cheese had a grainy texture and the flavor was weak, to say the least.

Fortunately, even in the regular grocery stores here we have lots of fresh cheeses available, including whey/water packed locally made mozzarella. Even better, they are probably less expensive than the pre-shredded crap. I'll definitely be using fresh mozzarella from now on.

[TF1216]

Awesome story!  I am a big fan of adding a second or even third different type of cheese to the party. 

This will probably sound stupid to you but I enjoy the addition of a spicy cheese, like cheddar-jack, with the mozzarella.  I don't the tomato sauce at all.  I add Italian spices and let the different cheeses do the talking.

I am going to try what you have done.  It sounds delicious.

[MaxCast]

Thanks for the crust tips.  Our homemade pies have consisted of adding sauce, meat and cheese to a frozen pizza.    
Not really much more work stating with just the crust.  We will be trying that on our next pizza night.  Each kid making their own, a little mess, a few brew-ha-has, movie =  

[Dan Driscoll]

Awesome story!  I am a big fan of adding a second or even third different type of cheese to the party. 

This will probably sound stupid to you but I enjoy the addition of a spicy cheese, like cheddar-jack, with the mozzarella.  I don't the tomato sauce at all.  I add Italian spices and let the different cheeses do the talking

IIRC, that sounds like an old-fashioned Roman style pizza; cheeses, spices and maybe some veggies, but no sauce. Although I doubt they use cheddar-jack in Rome. 

I'm a traditionalist (of Italian-American style pies), I prefer milder cheeses like mozzarella, parmesan or provolone for exactly the opposite reason, I don't want the cheese to overwhelm the rest of the ingredients. For the same reason I use a fairly small amount of sauce. These cheeses are mild enough that they complement the rest of the ingredients, even in large quantities. Plus, I think mozzarella and tomato are one of the most amazing flavor combinations ever, almost at the same level as tomato and basil.

[Dan Driscoll]

Thanks for the crust tips.  Our homemade pies have consisted of adding sauce, meat and cheese to a frozen pizza.    
Not really much more work stating with just the crust.  We will be trying that on our next pizza night.  Each kid making their own, a little mess, a few brew-ha-has, movie =  

I think the real key with the crust, whether homemade or store bought, is to spray or brush it with EVOO (Extra Virgin Olive Oil) before putting any of the other ingredients on. This helps keep the sauce from soaking in and making it soggy, plus it helps give the wonderful browning to the edge, which really boosts the flavor. People should want to eat the crust, not leave it on the plate. 

[BradJudy]

We do a different lazy crust: frozen bread dough.  We defrost the dough, roll it out and top it. 

[jqp]

Wow I am hungry now

A few years ago I was in Naples on a day trip to go to Pompeii and the Museum. My only other stop was to walk to the 'original' and cheapest pizza place in the world - can't remember the name but it was in Rick Steve's guide. They made probably hundreds small pizzas an hour, dine in or take out. Only 2 kinds, margeurita? and someting else - a pizza and a bottle of Heineken for $5. Bought it and walked back to the train station. Thats a story for another day.

[santacore]

I've been making very easy, yet tasty,  home made crust for a while now. Check out: http://www.easypizzacrusts.com/ I've been doing the "best pizza crust recipe" for the last year and it comes out great every time. It's so simple and takes so little time, I can't even justify buying pre-made dough. The crust is on the med-thick side, which is not my favorite style but it's good. As Dan said, I too like to coat the edge of my dough with some EVOO. It gives it a great taste and browns nicely. I'm rising dough as we speak......

[IronLion]

Funny, my girlfriend and I made semi-homemade pizza last night.  Italian deli nearby provided the dough and prosciutto, on top was a bed of arugula/spinach, thinly sliced prosciutto that crisped up and garlic, as well as parmesean cheese.  We also put four eggs on the pizza and tried to cook it so that you could break the yolks at the end and spread them over the pizza before serving.  Pretty good. 

[santacore]

Funny, my girlfriend and I made semi-homemade pizza last night.  Italian deli nearby provided the dough and prosciutto, on top was a bed of arugula/spinach, thinly sliced prosciutto that crisped up and garlic, as well as parmesean cheese.  We also put four eggs on the pizza and tried to cook it so that you could break the yolks at the end and spread them over the pizza before serving.  Pretty good.

I was all in until the egg part. What the heck??? How was it in the end?

My pizza is cooking as I type. Thanks for the inspiration Dan!

[laserman]

My one grandmother always used the eggs in her pizza'a and they were excellent.  When we make them we continue the tradition.

L

[Bob in St. Louis]

My family is HEAVY into Mexican food. As a result, we've always got a few dozen Tortillas on hand.
Has anybody tried making a pizza from a Tortilla?
Good stuff!  aa
It's pretty much what you'd expect as far as making it, just that it's a thin crust pizza.
The sauce I use is a pasta sauce. Visit your grocer for an endless supply of pasta sauces from thin and plain, to very thick and full of chunks of veggies or sausage, or.....etc....

A small handful of raw hamburger goes in one cast iron pan, several strips of (chopped into bite size) bacon go into another iron pan. I've found if you're going to cut your bacon strips into little pieces anyway, it's easier to cut them while they're raw and cook them like a stir fry. Flipping bacon strips is a pain. Especially if you're going to cut it up in little pieces anyway.
While those are cooking I'll chop up onions, pepperoni's, bell pepper, grind fresh black pepper, kosher salt etc....

I've got a large butcher block cutting board that'll hold three 12" Tortillas. Every pizza is different for a nice variety.
I prepare them on the cutting board, then slide them right into a preheated oven directly onto the grate. When finished I slide them right back onto the cutting board. To serve, I get my butcher knife, hack them up and put the entire cutting board full of precut pizza squares right in the middle of the kitchen table.

Sargento does coat their shredded cheese with some form of powder. Presumably for anti-caking. But either way, I don't like it, it tastes 'funny'. We use either Kraft shredded, or I'll use presliced (high quality) sandwich cheese. The other night we had our three pies, two of which had Kraft, the other had strips of Asiago[sp?] cheese.

Let me see if I can remember what each was:

#1
Finely chopped red bell pepper
Finely chopped onion
Bacon
Kraft shredded Cheddar cheese

#2
Finely chopped onion
Pepperoni
Kraft shredded Cheddar cheese

#3
Sliced mushrooms
Bacon
Finely chopped onion
Strips of Asiago cheese

All had a light pinch of fresh ground black pepper, kosher salt, dry garlic powder, (some off-brand) pasta sauce on 12" Tortillas

My favorite was #3. 


Anybody ever put your pizza on a BBQ grill?    aa aa

Thanks for the heads up on the pizza dough website. I'll be checking that out right NOW!!
You folks have me hungry.
Bob

[santacore]

Grilled pizza's are great. I've only done it twice, but it was good each time.

Another trick a friend turned me on to is a pizza screen. Basically you put the dough on the screen and then put in on the stone. It seems to help cook the pie a little more evenly. Anybody else out there using one?

[laserman]

BBQ pizza has been the only way we cook our pizza's.  We learned how to do this about eight years ago and make several interesting types of pizza toppings, ranging from:

Italian - parseley, rosemary, garlic, potato, cheeses - (no red sauce)

Asian - spicy sesame chicken and cheeses

Mexican - taco style

American - Saute balsamic vinegar Vidalia onion, filet mignon, peas, cheeses

Hawaniian pinapple, ham, black olives, hot banana peppers and cheeses

Pittsburgh - mashed potatos, Vidalia onions, sauerkraut and cheddar cheese (an open piroghi)

I like to experiment,
Lou 

[stone deaf]

We make a lot of homemade pizza at our house. I have a very nice patio area with wet bar and last year bought a Big Green Egg BBQ with pizza stone. The smoky taste from the pit is really good no matter which toppings we use. We will invite neighbors over and let them make their own pizza then fire it on the Egg. We do buy pre-made pizza crusts or will sometimes use flour or corn tortillas. Lots of things you can do using your imagination.

[Wayner]

A friend of mine made a backyard wood-fired brick oven just for making pizzas. The internal temp at cooking time was around 900 degrees, with the wood embers glowing quite red. The entire interior was brick-lined and had a fairly smooth bottom. He says that half of the great pizza taste comes from cooking them in a real hot oven.

A frosty beer and pizza so hot, your burning your mouth on the 4th slice. yummy.

Now for my problem with home-made pizza. We make our dough in the bread making machine. It turns out real good. Most of the time we cook it in the regular oven (I don't have a brick oven in the back yard (yet)), but we can really never find a good sauce recipe.

We have been using Ragu' pizza sauce, but that is really just so-so. It's also hard to find real good Itallian pork sausage. For my Jewish friends, you don't know what your missin' on a pizza!

Anyway, if anyone has a good sauce recipe that they would care to share, I would be very grateful. Tomorrow night is home-made pizza night.

Wayner 

[Bob in St. Louis]

A good deli would (should) have some good sausage. Not like the Jimmy Dean stuff you find in the grocery store.

Not sure about the sauce, but I'll be watching with interest for recipes. Can't beat good sauce on good crust. 

Bob

[Grumpy_Git]

For the sauce I just use Passata and raw garlic and fresh Basil.

Nick

[PhilNYC]

I've used those pre-made crusts to make pizza on the grill in the summertime...works out great!