Pizza Margherita

For my first pizza completely from scratch, I was very happy with how this came out. It started out as a pizza margherita, but then I started adding other toppings. I think that makes it not a pizza margherita, but I'm not sure.

Regardless, it was deelish and super easy to make!


Crust

Makes: 1 large pizza
Prep time: 3 hours
Cook time: See Pizza instructions
Printable Recipe

Ingredients:

• 1 1/2 t active dry yeast
• 1 cup lukewarm water
• 2 t sugar
• 3 cups flour
• 2 t salt
• 2 T olive oil

1. Place yeast in a bowl. Add warm water and stir. Add sugar and stir. Let sit 10 minutes.

2. Add salt and flour and stir. Mix into a ball shape. Dump onto lightly floured surface and knead into a ball shape for 1-2 minutes. Knead olive oil into dough while shaping.

3. Lightly oil a bowl. Place dough in bowl and roll around, coating it in oil. Cover in plastic wrap and leave to rise (doubling in size) for 1-2 hours.

4. Remove dough onto a floured surface and knead air from dough. Fold into a ball shape again and let sit under plastic wrap for another 20 minutes.

Sauce

Makes: 1 large pizza (double and freeze the remaining sauce)
Prep time: 20 minutes
Cook time: 1 hour

Ingredients:

• 2 T olive oil
• 1 T butter
• 1/2 cup onion, chopped
• 1/4 cup celery, chopped
• 1 garlic glove, minced
• 1 (8 oz) can tomato sauce
• 1 (6 oz) can tomato paste
• 2 T grated Parmesan cheese
• 1 t dried basil
• 1 t dried oregano
• 1/2 t salt
• 1/2 t sugar
• 1/4 t pepper
• 1 small bay leaf
• 1 t fennel seed

1. In a large skillet, melt butter with oil. Add the onion, celery and garlic and saute until soft and transparent.

2. Add tomato sauce and paste and stir until smooth.

3. Add remaining ingredients and bring to a slow simmer. Simmer for 1 hour.

4. Remove bay leaf before use.

Pizza

Makes: 1 large pizza
Prep time: 5 minutes
Cook time: 10 minutes

Ingredients:

1 large pizza dough from above
1 serving of pizza sauce from above
fresh basil
fresh Mozzarella
Other toppings as desired

1. Preheat oven to highest temperature. On mine, that is 550.

2. Roll out pizza dough. Spread with sauce.

3. Tear mozzarella into strips and add to pizza along with fresh basil leaves and other toppings. Note: I added the basil leaves before baking. Some people prefer to add theirs after baking.

4. Bake pizza for approximately 10 minutes or until lightly blistered.