Scott's Pizza

 
This is not a specific recipe, but methods and options for making pizza.  The photo shows a pizza with vegetarian sausage, mushroom, and roasted peppers.  If you don't have time to make your own crust, there are pre-made doughs or crusts available. Trader Joe's has good refrigerated pizza dough. I've listed some topping combinations that I like, however single topping pizzas are also always good. Also, cheese pizzas, or herb topped pizzas are nice too.

Crust options:
Sourdough Pizza Crust
Stan's Pizza Crust
Cornmeal Pizza Crust

Sauce:
Pizza Sauce


Cheese:
1-2 cups grated low-moisture mozzarella cheese

Topping ideas:
• sliced mushrooms and sliced green olives
• blanched spinach leaves (squeeze out extra moisture), crushed garlic, fresh basil leaves, red pepper flakes
• sliced zucchini and reconstituted sun-dried tomatoes
• sliced yellow, orange, and green bell peppers, topped with pine nuts
• very thinly sliced potatoes, rosemary leaves, black pepper (try this also with just an olive oil base instead of sauce, and no mozzarella. Don't pre-bake the crust and bake this pizza for 25 minutes so potatoes cook).

Prepare the crust on pizza pans as indicated in the crust recipe. Add 8oz pizza sauce, spread evenly on the pizza up to the crust edge. Add mozzarella, then toppings. One trick to making great pizza is not to over-do it with cheese and toppings. Make sure the overall pizza is not too thick - keep a thin layer of toppings and a thin layer of cheese. It's OK to see through the toppings and see through the cheese. This will allow the pizza to cook through to the crust. Also, the toppings should not be too "wet" - too much moisture on top of the pizza will keep it from cooking correctly. For instance, if you use mushrooms, don't rinse them in water but brush them off with a dry brush. I've listed blanched spinach leaves as a possible topping - if you use these, be sure and squeeze out the extra moisture from the leaves after blanching.

Bake at 425° for about 15-20 minutes, until the bottom of the crust is golden brown. You can check the progress by slightly lifting the pizza from one edge with a utensil to view the bottom. For crisper crust, pre-bake the crust for 5 minutes before adding sauce, cheese and toppings.