Pizza Night

So the recipe is a little late, but I am finally posting it. I'm going to start this by saying I never liked pizza as a kid. The sauce was always too sweet and the crust usually tasted like dry cardboard. If there was anything I liked, maybe it was the cheese. But probably it was the toppings. The cheese was usually of little consequence.

Imagine my surprise when I went out on my own and realized that I could make pizza for myself! It was much, much better. I could put exactly what I wanted on it. And I could make dough from a recipe with lots of flavor and chewy texture. When I embraced a traditional diet, pizza seemed like a natural direction to go with my sourdough, since I like flavorful crusts and my husband doesn't like sourdough bread. The toppings could mask the sour flavor for him, while I enjoyed the subtle layer of taste.

Sourdough pizza

Dough: I pretty much used this recipe for the dough, cut in half, adding a bit more water, and being a little loose with the olive oil and salt. I definitely overhydrated my dough, so I would stick closer to the recipe next time.

Sauce:

1 can crushed tomatoes, drained in a fine-mesh sieve for 1/2 an hour

garlic powder

salt

olive oil

dried basil

4 oz. mozzarella cheese

1/4 cup parmesan cheese

I made the dough the night before pizza night, so that it could ferment almost a full 24 hours. About an hour and a half before dinner, I pressed it out on a piece of parchment with wet hands and let it sit out for about an hour. The, I pre-baked it for 10 minutes in a 425-degree oven. If it puffs up, just poke it with a fork.

Mix together the ingredients for the sauce. This makes way more than you need for one pizza; I used only a few tablespoons. Spread some sauce on the pre-baked crust, and then sprinkle with both kinds of cheese. Return to the oven to bake until the cheese is browned, about 15-20 minutes. Serves 2 generously.