Pizza

I love this pizza. The crust is thick and chewy and holds up pretty well. The trick to good pizza crust is to heat its cooking area piping hot before adding the pizza. If you have a good, heavy pizza stone, place it in the oven to heat before preparing the pizza. I roll the dough out to the size I want, and then place it onto parchment paper over a pizza pan. After adding the fixins', place the pan near the hot hot hot pizza stone. Carefully pull the parchment paper, with the pizza, onto the stone. This will cook the bottom crust nicely. This makes two good sized pizzas.


Proof 1 Tbl. dry yeast in 1/4 cup warm water with 1 Tbl. of sugar
Combine 1/4 cup of olive oil, 1 tsp. salt and 1 cup warm water.
Add 1 cup of flour to the water mix and combine. Add yeast, and mix well. Add three cups more of flour and mix to make a stiff dough. Knead well until elastic and smooth.
Place into an oiled bowl, and cover. Let dough rise until double, about an hour or more.
Punch down, divide in two, and roll out the dough into the pans. Be careful not to tear holes into the dough. If you do, pull a little dough off the edge and patch the hole.
While dough is rising, prepare your toppings ~
1/2 pound of shredded mozzarella cheese
1/2 pound of mild Italian sausage, cooked and drained well (or Canadian Bacon, diced)
1 can of black olives, sliced
1 brown onion, sliced thinly
1 green bell pepper, diced
Several mushrooms, sliced

Scatter the cheese onto the dough first, then add your toppings. I generally use a can of tomato sauce, which I liberally sprinkle over the toppings before I bake the pizza. If you'd rather, you can dice the onion with minced garlic and combine that with the tomato sauce. Or use no sauce at all, but instead have sliced paste tomatoes with the toppings.
Sprinkle Italian seasonings over the pizza, and place carefully into the oven. Bake in a hot oven, about 450 for about 10-13 minutes until the crust is nicely browned.

To reheat pizza, place in a hot non-stick frying pan. This keeps the pizza crisp.