Homemade Italian Pizza

When it comes to pizza, I'm a pretty picky person, especially when we go out to eat. I really love authentic, real, pizza, which to me that means fresh homemade dough, homemade sauce from scratch and real cheese. I'm dying to go to Italy for real pizza one of these days!! Anyhow, I've always wanted to try to make my own pizza from scratch, and I finally got to do so. I ended up doing a colab with one of my sister-in-laws and we came up with the best crust. I also made my own homemade pizza sauce from scratch with the Cento San Marzano tomatoes and the taste was simply amazing. I bought fresh mozzarella and burrata cheese for the pizzas to make them even more authentic! It was the best pizza night ever with vine and cheese too!

The best part is that this pizza recipe is super easy. Although, the sauce is a bit time consuming since it needs to cook slowly, but you can always make it ahead of time and store it for up to a week ahead if needed.

You can do so many different variations with the pizza, but the crust is amazing for sure! I've done chicken tikka pizza, Mexican style pizza, etc. You can add your own twists and make it yours!

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Pizza Dough

Ingredients (2 crusts):

- 3 cups bread flour (I used the King Arthur brand, organic unbleached)

- 1/2 cup EVOO

- 1 cup warm water

- 1 tbsp yeast

- 1 tbsp sugar

- 2 tsp of cumin

- 2 tsp of red crushed pepper

- 1 tsp of dried oregano

- 1 tsp of dried basil

- 2 tsp of salt

Optional: I also added 1 tsp of ghost pepper powder and 1 tbsp of fresh chopped oregano leaves and it gave it an amazing flavor. You can also add Italian seasoning as well.

Directions

1 - In a glass or steel mixing bowl, take out the flour and then add the salt, cumin, red crushed pepper, oregano, basil, ghost pepper powder, and the freshly chopped oregano and just mix it all.

2 - Add yeast and sugar in the cup of warm water and let sit 5 mins

3 - Add the yeast and sugar mixture along with the EVOO to the flour mixture and mix it all up until it forms into a dough.

4 - Cover the dough and put it in oven under light for one hour or more. I usually prep the dough and leave it at least for 5-6 hours.

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Pizza Sauce

Ingredients:

- 3-4 tbsp of EVOO

- 1 can Cento San Marzano Peeled Tomatoes - 28oz

- 2 tsp of tomato paste

- 1 tbsp of salt or to taste

- 1 tsp of sugar

- 1 tbsp of red crushed pepper

- 1/2 yellow onion

- 1 vine tomato (cut in big chunks)

- 7-8 garlic cloves

- 1 tbsp of minced garlic

- 5-6 sprigs of fresh oregano

- 7-8 leaves of fresh basil

Note: The San Marzano Tomatoes - you can either choose the blend those or you can hand squeeze them into smaller chunks. It's more of a preference for the sauce if you want a smooth sauce or a chunkier sauce. I blended them because I wanted a smoother texture.

1 - Preheat oven at 350 degrees and then place onion, tomatoes, garlic cloves on a baking sheet. Sprinkle a little salt and Italian seasoning on top, drizzle a little EVOO and place them in the oven to bake for about 20-25 mins.

2 - Blend the roasted onions, tomatoes and garlic into a thick sauce type texture.

3 - In a sauce pan on medium to high heat, add the 2-3 tbsp of EVOO and heat it up, then add the red crushed pepper and minced garlic and let that sizzle in the oil for about 30 seconds or so.

4 - Add in the roasted blended mixture and let it cook for about 3-4 minutes, then add the tomato paste and let it cook for 2-3 minutes.

5 - Add in the blended canned tomatoes and season it with salt and sugar and let that cook and simmer slowly on low to medium heat for about 1 to 1.5 hours or longer if needed while stirring it occasionally.

6 - Once you see the sauce become thicker add the chopped fresh oregano and basil and let the sauce simmer. You will want to taste the sauce and add more salt, garlic, crush red pepper to your taste.

7 - Take the sauce out in a glass container for storage if needed.

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Pizza Assembly

Ingredients:

- Pizza dough

- Pizza sauce

- Fresh mozzarella cheese

- Fresh burrata cheese

- Fresh oregano leaves

- Fresh basil leaves

- Veggies and meats per your preference

- Olives

- Sprinkle of salt

- Cornmeal or semolina (optional)

Directions

1 - Prep the grill, or the pizza stone as needed and sprinkle some cornmeal, or semolina so it doesn't stick. It usually doesn't stick, but just to be safe.

2 - Roll out the dough and poke the dough with a fork all over so that it doesn't ballon up while it's banking. Place the rolled dough on the baking stone or the grill mat.

Note: You can go ahead and bake the pizza crust beforehand, or you can make the pizza and then bake it.

3 - If you're grilling it, you should bake the crust on both sides first (this takes about a few minutes at the most). Then once the crust is baked, add sauce, cheese, toppings and sprinkle of salt on top and place it back on the grill for 3-5 minutes until cheese is melted.

4 - If you're baking the crust you can do it two ways. First way is by baking the crust at 400 degrees for 15 minutes or so or until it's fully cooked and then spreading the sauce and toppings on it and baking it again. Or second way is to bake the crust with the sauce and toppings all at once, which may take up to 30 - 40 minutes to bake at 400 degrees.

5 - Once the pizza is baked, take it out and sprinkle fresh oregano leaves on it for additional flavor from the fresh oregano. Serve warm and enjoy!