Pizza
Ingredients
2-3 teaspoons flour
corn meal
olive oil
1 package plain pizza dough, Trader Joe's
8 ounces pizza sauce of choice (pesto, ranch, marinara, bbq sauce, or just plain olive oil)
6 ounces shredded mixed cheese
1/4 pound mushrooms
1 large onion
1 large bell pepper
garlic salt
Optional:
parmesan cheese
Trader Joe’s has a magical ready-made pizza dough that makes the most delicious home cooked pizzas.
Serves 2-3
Prep your pizza dough. Timing is everything with this pizza dough. It needs to be refrigerated, but you want to let it sit out for around 15-20 minutes to let it come up closer to room temperature to work with it. Use the time it is sitting out to slice your pizza toppings and prep your other ingredients. Also be sure to preheat your oven to 450 degrees.
Spread a thin layer of oil on the pan and then dust with corn meal.
Turn the dough into a crust. This dough can get really sticky, so I start by putting about a teaspoon of flour into the bag and getting the surface of the dough covered. Then I cut away the rest of the bag and make sure the whole surface of the dough has some flour on it. I like to bake my pizza on a cookie sheet, as it keeps the size uniform, and you can get a larger pizza out of it than you would if you were cooking on a pizza pan.
Work the dough into a rectangle so it fills the full space of your cookie sheet. This is a dough you have to push with your fingertips and work slowly with. Don't try to flip it like you see the guys do at the local pizza parlor; instead, keep it close to the pan and let gravity pull the dough larger as you flip it over in your hands. Be careful not to get it too thin in any places, as you will end up with a hole in the middle of your pizza. It's best to let the natural shape of the dough work for you instead of trying to force it in a new shape. The edges of the cookie sheet are especially helpful as you can get the edges to stick to them a bit and help fill out the pan.
Saute mushrooms, onion, and pepper in oil.
Add desired type of pizza sauce, then desired cheese, then saute on pizza as layers.
Moisten edge of pizza with oil. Sprinkle pizza with garlic salt.
These pizzas cook surprisingly fast and should only need about 8-10 minutes in the oven. It all depends on how crisp you like your crust, so just keep an eye on them and pull them out when you start to see your cheese browning and bubbling.
Rolled crust option: roll edge of pizza over cheese along edge before cooking.
Parmesan option: spread parmesan cheese along edge of pizza before cooking.