It’s Always Pizza Night

I’d love to get a slice of pizza on command but there isn’t a decent slice inside of a thirty minute drive from where we live and no one delivers to the end of a dark gravel road where murder movies likely take place.

So naturally, when life doesn’t give you lemonade—grow a lemon tree and complain about the lack of a decent growing season and then buy lemons. Or make pizza at home with this recipe. A lot of people are instantly intimidated by anything that involves dough that isn’t preceded with ‘cookie’ but the truth is that making bread and bread-adjacent products is a lot of fun. And it’s easy.

Here’s what you’re gonna knead—that’s a bread joke— (in order of appearance):

• A big bowl and make sure that there isn’t any dog hair in it because that’s gross and yes it’s a problem in our house.

• 3/4 cup of really warm but not hot water (at most, you’ll use a full cup, I’m somewhere in between)

• 2 teaspoons of instant yeast

• 2 tablespoons of olive oil

• 1 1/2 teaspoons of sugar

The above ingredients go in the big bowl and you’re going to kind of shush them around with a fork. Then let it sit there and become more alive (literally) while you get the next set of ingredients:

• 2 1/3 cup of strong flour (also referred to as Baker’s flour but I like ‘strong flour’ because it’s… stronger)

• 1/2 teaspoon of garlic powder (or a little more because “too much garlic” isn’t even real)

• 1 teaspoon of basil (fresh, dried, freeze dried—whatever floats your boat)

• 3/4 teaspoon of salt

All four of these ingredients go into the big bowl with the yeast and water mixture and you’re going to “…use the fork, Luke” to slowly mix up the whole mess until it starts to come together and isn’t as soupy and is more dough-like. Roll up your sleeves and get five knuckles deep in that dough; dip, dive, dodge, punch, knead and roll it around for a couple minutes until all of the ingredients have come together to form, you guessed it—dough!! I will actually dump the contents of the bowl onto the counter for this and inevitably forget to wipe down the counter before and after I’m done.

Now you’ve likely been at this recipe for about 5-8 minutes and that deserves a break. Lightly oil the ball-o-dough and roll it around the bowl for a few seconds to get everything lightly coated and then cover it with some plastic wrap. It’s break time for you. 30-45 minutes of just whatever.

Your dough-child will nearly double in size and self-confidence in that time frame. Like a good parent, you are going to have to knock it down a peg—punching it right in the bowl tends to work best. One firm, solid shot.

This dough makes TWO reasonably sized pizzas. Or one pizza that you’ll shame eat over the course of the evening. Top the pizza according to ancient tradition or newfound foodie teachings. No fruit—because that’s gross.

Bake at 425F for … uhmmm… 12-15 minutes? Maybe a smidge more. 18 minutes? I don’t know but around there your crust will be golden and crispy and your cheese will be bubbly and delicious.