_Really Good Pizza

I’m kind of a pizza connoisseur of sorts, as in, I really love pizza (living in NYC hasn’t tempered this craving either, seriously good pizza here). So, last night I made pizza. I’d much prefer making it at home than buying it from somewhere. A bit more expensive, but much more rewarding and often times, better. Anyway, I thought I’d post the recipe and everything ’cause it was stinkin’ good!

My wife picked up some whole wheat dough (no, I didn’t make the dough myself…) at Trader Joes. It was pretty good, but, I’m sure you can find some good pre-made dough around. I don’t recommend getting the already rolled out stuff, get the stuff you have to roll out yourself.

I got the sauce recipe here, but, it’s also listed as follows…

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Equipment
small sauce pan
sharp knife

Ingredients

2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 (6 oz) can tomato paste
2/3 cup water
2 tablespoons red wine
2 teaspoons sugar
1/2 teaspoon dried oregano
1/4 teaspoon dried basil
3 tablespoons parmesan cheese
salt
pepper

Preparation

1. Prep all the ingredients first and have them sitting ready to go. The recipe cooks fast, so this step is important.
2. In a medium saucepan, sauté garlic in oil until golden. Watch it closely as the garlic can go from golden to burned in a nanosecond.
3. Add tomato paste, water, wine, sugar, oregano, basil, and cheese.
4. Season with salt and pepper, to taste.
5. Simmer for 10 minutes over medium low heat. Remove from heat and spread over pizza prepared pizza dough.

Notes

Covers two medium pizzas or one large pizza.

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This sauce recipe is HIGHLY recommended. HIGHLY. It’s really good! I followed the recipe pretty exactly. I made a larger pizza, so, it covered my one large pizza with just a bit left over.

Before I made the sauce, though, I shaped the dough (I didn’t roll it because Alton Brown says not to and he’s already right) and then I very lightly ‘dusted’ the sauce with finely grated parmesan. Then I made the sauce and spread it over the pizza. Next I put a thin layer of mozzarella and then the toppings.

You can use whatever toppings you desire, but, in case you’re wondering, here’s the toppings I used:

green pepper, white onion, spinach, mushroom, pepperoni, and (only on half of it because my wife wanted it and I don’t like them) black olives.

Then I layered again with mozzarella and finished it off with another dusting of parmesan. Here it is with all the toppings right before the last layer of mozzarella…

It only took a few minutes to cook which was good because I was starving at this point. And here it is in all it’s pizza glory…

There you have it. Enjoy….