Make your own pizza!

Making your own pizza is super simple and it's really fun to get creative with the toppings.  One of my fav things is the ready made pizza dough from Trader Joe's.  I always have at least three of these stashed in the freezer ready to be taken out and defrosted.

You can also buy pizza sauce from Trader Joe's but I prefer to make my own and freeze the leftovers. If tomatoes are in season, simply puree them, cook down with some extra virgin olive oil and season.  You don't have to cook it long, 15 minutes will do.   You can add dried basil or oregano, some brown sugar if it needs sweetness, some chopped garlic....just play according to your taste buds.  If tomatoes aren't in season, buying canned tomato puree makes making sauce a breeze.

Take the dough out of the fridge 20 minutes before you use it.  It needs to come to room temp.  Flour a surface and your hands and tug on the dough to get it to expand to a larger circle.  Just keep pulling on it and you'll get there......try and get it as thin as you can.  In a pre-heated 400 degree oven, bake the crust on a pizza stone or cookie sheet lightly dusted with corn meal for about 5-7 minutes.  This prevents it from getting soggy when you pile on the toppings. Spread on the sauce lightly. For a margherita, use fresh mozzarella and cook until cheese is melted and crust slightly darkened.  Add fresh basil.  (want to make your own fresh mozz?  Check out my entry on that!)  
Another one of my favorite toppings is bacon. Cook and crumble then add to the pizza with the cheese.  For even more deliciousness, crack an egg on the pizza in the middle.  Voila! Breakfast pizza! Carmelized onions & garlic work especially well on a white or sauceless pizza.  Using a stronger cheese, such as taleggio or gruyere  works well with the sweetness of the onions. Add some arugula at the very end of cooking just so it wilts from the heat.  OR sautee some mushrooms, garlic and rosemary, add those to the pizza with some mozzarella and mascarpone.  Sprinkle with truffle oil after cooking.

For this recipe, I used some left over cooked chicken apple sausage, sauteed some chopped fennel  bulb (above) and added  my home made mozzarella cheese and some chopped green onions...............

  cook until cheese melts.

 add some fennel fronds (those feathery parts at the top of the fennel stalk)

Slice and eat. Yum.