Dating way way back in the day, pizza was always a thing. Flatbread with stuff on it, bam, a pizza was born. There are many arguments as to who exactly "invented" the pizza, but that's neither here nor there. Fast forward to today and there are so many different possibilities! From New York where it's all about a slice of that thin but sturdy crust, to Chicago where deep dish is king, and even out to California where I feel like low carb cauliflower crust is on trend now? The point is you can make pizza out of anything these days and put virtually anything on it. And of course there's the best way of cooking it debate- brick oven? Conventional oven? The grill? Personally I think nothing beats the sweet amazingness that is a brick oven pizza, but since I'm not an owner of one of those suckers, my conventional oven does the trick just fine : )
A few things to start with though, I rarely make my own pizza dough. I know, I know- but whyyyyy? Well, it's a lot easier and there are some really good options now! I just go to the store and pick up dough from a local pizza chain and I'm done. You can also go to your favorite pizzeria and buy some dough from them, it's all good! I personally like to make my pizza on the thinner side, so if you want to make these with a lot more dough, go for it! And finally, I don't like a lot of sauce, so if what I'm adding sounds like nothing to you, go on with your bad self and use as much sauce as you would like.
Here are a few of my favorite things to play around with pizza. Get that bib out- you may drool.
Margarita Pizza
I was never a huge fan of the margarita pizza, mainly because basil usually isn't my favorite taste. But on a trip to London jetlag took over my ability to make decisions and I ordered a margarita pizza. To my lovely surprise is was tomato, cheese and oregano! I am, however, a big fan of oregano so I'm pretty sure the travel Gods were on my side with this one. This is one of the best pizzas I've ever tasted and I knew that once I got home I'd have to try and recreate it! By the way- if you're ever in London get this pizza. It's a small Italian place right near the South Kensington tube station called Sole Luna. As you can see from the picture to the right... I hated it. Anywayyyyy, back to the pizza:-1 dough ball
-2 cups shredded mozzarella
-1 Tbs dried oregano
-3-4 whole tomatoes(I like the steamed kind with the skins removed with salt added- best flavor!)
-Olive oil, salt, and pepper to taste
1. Take your dough out of the fridge about 30-45 minutes to come to room temperature.
2. When your dough is ready to work with, preheat the oven to 400F.
3. Flour your surface and a rolling pin and roll out to your desired size and thickness.
4. Lightly oil pan and dust with some cornmeal(gives a nice crunch and flavor). If you don't have cornmeal, use flour, or nothing at all!
5. Lay your dough onto the pan and coat with a thin layer of olive oil, salt, and pepper.
6. Crush your whole tomatoes onto the dough and spread evenly.
7. Dump the cheese on, add more, take some away, whatever you want. I like it cheesy.
8. Evenly sprinkle the oregano over the pizza.
9. Top with a touch more olive oil, salt, and pepper.
10 When the oven reaches temperature, pop the pan in and cook for 8-10 minutes or until it's golden and gooey and lovely looking. If you want an extra crispy crust, take it off the pan and let it hang out on the oven racks to cook for a few more minutes.
-Slice it up and enjoy! It's so simple but the flavors are just crazy good and it always reminds me of London.. weird, a pizza reminding me of London.
Artichoke Bianca Pizza
White pizza is another fave of mine. Don't get me wrong, I do enjoy the sauce, but there's something about olive oil, garlic, and cheese that just does it for me. I've always liked a good white pizza, but on a recent trip to Las Vegas I went to 800 Degrees Pizza (right outside of the Monte Carlo) and fell deeper in love with this type of pizza, and I decided it would be paired well with artichokes- I was right. The warm juiciness of the artichoke combined with all the melted cheese and garlic........ sorry for the pause, I had to put my tongue back in my mouth. It was another travel find where I just had to remember to recreate it, so I did! It's a basic pizza so it starts the same way as before:
-1 dough ball
-1-2 cans of artichoke hearts(depending on how much you like)
-2 cloves of garlic
-2 cups shredded mozzarella cheese
-1/4 cup shredded parmesan cheese
-Olive oil, salt, and pepper to taste
2. When your dough is ready to work with, preheat the oven to 400F.
3. Flour your surface and a rolling pin and roll out to your desired size and thickness.
4. Lightly oil pan and dust with some cornmeal.
5. Finely chop the garlic.
6. Place the dough into the pan.7. Lightly top the dough with olive oil, salt, pepper, and your garlic.
8. Next, put your cheeses onto the dough.
9. You can either chop the artichokes or place them in larger pieces over your cheese.
10. Drizzle some more olive oil, salt, and pepper.
11. When the oven has come to temperature, pop the pizza in for 8-10 minutes or until golden and all the cheese has melted.
-Slice it up and dig in! My pizza doesn't look like the 800 Degrees pizza because they had obviously used a brick oven but it's still pretty darn tasty if I do say so myself and it's such a simple recipe!
Pizza Dip
Mixing it up a little here, I came across this while browsing YouTube late one night and immediately thought I MUST MAKE THIS. So the next day I marched myself right on down to the store to get supplies! This is a fun one because you can treat it like a pizza, top it with whatever you want!
-8oz cream cheese
-1 cup of shredded mozzarella cheese
-1/2 cup shredded parmesan cheese
-3/4 cup crushed tomatoes or 3/4 cup tomato sauce
-Any toppings you would like! (I went for plain Jane pepperoni)
1. 30 Minutes before starting, take your cream cheese out to come to room temperature.
2. Preheat the oven to 400F.
3. In a small baking dish, spread the cream cheese to cover the bottom.
4. Mix up your cheese and sprinkle half over top of the cream cheese.
4. Pour the sauce on top of the cheeses.
5. Sprinkle the remaining cheese on top of the sauce.
6. Add your toppings! What I did was I threw my pepperoni into a cast iron skillet for a few minutes to crisp it up and to also render some of the fat. You don't want all that grease on top of your pretty pizza dip!
7. Toss it into the oven until melted, golden, and bubbly- usually about 15-20 minutes. Just want to be sure the cream cheese has warmed through.
-Be careful it is veryyyy hot, but enjoy! For dippers I like to get a baguette and slice it thin, throw it in the oven drizzled with a little olive oil, salt, pepper, garlic powder, and onion powder. Toast them up until golden and crunchy and they make the perfect dipping utensil! You can also just get some Wheat Thins too- that will do the trick just fine!
Stop. Bonus Time.
Pulled Pork Pizza
This gem was born out of having an obscene amount pulled pork left over from the night before and not knowing what to do with it! You can do this with lots of leftovers by the way, some left over ham? Hawaiian pizza for you!
-1 dough ball
-2 cups pulled pork (Have more? Add more!)
-1/2 coleslaw
-1/4 cup BBQ sauce
-1/2 diced pickles
-1 cup shredded Monterey Jack cheese
2. When your dough is ready to work with, preheat the oven to 400F.
3. Flour your surface and a rolling pin and roll out to your desired size and thickness.
4. Lightly oil pan and dust with some cornmeal.
5. Place the dough onto the pan.
6. Spread the BBQ sauce evenly over the dough
7. Now evenly spread the cheese over.
8. Place the pork on top of the cheese. You can put a little extra BBQ sauce over the top if you'd like for a little extra somethin' somethin'.
9. Pop the pizza into the oven for 8-10 minutes until the crust has cooked.
10. After taking the pizza out, now you can put the cold coleslaw and chopped pickles over the top of the pizza.
-Slice up and grub! This pizza is SO delicious with the hot and the cold together and the flavors are just crazy good. All pizza is great for kicking back and watching the game, but this one feels extra manly, extra game day, extra everything- you won't be disappointed!
-Meaghan
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