When the Moon Hits Your Eye Like a Big Pizza Pie

Sing it with us now…that’s amore! I don’t think I’ve ever met someone who doesn’t like pizza of some kind. (If that’s you, then maybe you just haven’t had the right combination of toppings.) And when you make it at home instead of ordering carry-out,  you not only get better control of the nutritionals on your pizza, but you also get to have a rockin’ time coming up with topping ideas. Read on for three homemade pizza combinations we recently made here at FBG HQ. Trust us, they were all delicious!

Making Pizza at Home: The Crust

While you can buy a premade crust like Boboli, it’s more fun to make your own pizza dough and toss it. We followed this simple yet delicious recipe for dough for the first two pizzas, and used a pre-made whole-wheat dough from Trader Joe’s for the breakfast pizza.

Just roll it out, toss it up and get it on your baking sheet or stone (we had the assistance of a pizza peel coated with cornmeal to help us, but you don’t have to get that fancy). Then top with your favorite pizza or spaghetti sauce. Ours was from, of course, Trader Joe’s. (Did you expect anything else?)

Delicious Pizza at Home: The Toppings

The sky is really the limit when it comes to making pizza at home. The first pizza we crafted was my attempt at a foodie concoction—chopped dried figs, sauteed onions, a little prosciutto and goat cheese, topped with fresh arugula after it came out of the oven. It took just 12 minutes to bake, and it was almost impossible not to scarf it down straight out of the oven. I say almost because I burned my mouth on the first bite, thereby teaching me the lesson of patience. A mix of salty and sweet, the burn was totally worth it.

Next we made a more traditional pizza: fresh mozzarella cheese, Italian sausage, fresh basil (from my herb garden!) and some cherry tomatoes that were sauteed in a pan with a little olive oil. Simple, yet so delicious. I managed to not burn my tongue on this one. (God, I’m hungry just looking at these photos again.)

For our third and final pizza-at-home act, we made a breakfast pizza. Yes, breakfast pizza! I snagged the Sunny Side Up Breakfast Pizza recipe from Food Network’s site and, simple as it was, the recipe did not disappoint. Without any sauce, you line spinach leaves on your pizza and then create a barrier of sorts with tomatoes along the edge of the crust. From there, you top the spinach with cheese, sausage and fresh eggs. Bake in the oven, and you have a simple yet stunningly beautiful homemade pizza! Brinner, anyone?

Oh, and when waiting for the pizza to bake or, you know, actually eating the pizza, I highly recommend a glass of this. Two-buck Chuck is delicious—and $2.99. All good things in moderation, and this cab is good! (Plus, it might double as sunscreen…)

During this process, I pretty much learned that when it comes to making pizza at home, anything goes! And if you don’t like a topping that you put on your homemade pizza, take it off! Or make another. It’s as easy as, well, pizza pie! —Jenn