Cheater Veggie Pizza

  For dinner on day 1 we made pizza.  My husband is a total carnivore (claims he may die without meat), so I did half the pizza with pepperoni instead of olives (he loathes olives; I don't get it).  I'm calling it a cheater pizza because I didn't make the dough from scratch, which I normally do.  The absolute best recipe for pizza dough that I've found came with my Kitchenaid mixer (recipe below), mostly because it turns out perfect every time I make it and it's super fast to make (as far as bread goes).  On occasion, however, I do get lazy and go with my good ol' standby, Trader Joe's ready made pizza dough.  What I like about it is that it's a fresh dough that comes in a bag, not in a pop tube like cinnamon rolls.  This means that it's got a very short shelf life, but it also means that it doesn't have a ton of preservatives and other junk that I don't want to eat.  It's also just over a dollar for enough dough to make a 16" thin crust pizza (or 4 individual kid sized pizzas).

  Last night, I went the TJ route and topped it with (TJ) marinara sauce (TJ) Quattro Formaggi cheese blend (TJ), fresh mozzarella balls, fresh spinach, frozen 3 pepper blend, kalamata olives (on half), and pepperoni (on the other half).  I highly suggest pre-baking the crust for about 5-7 minutes, though, because we didn't & ended up with under baked dough, especially in the middle of the pizza.  If you're making smaller pizzas (dividing the dough in half or in quarters), you probably don't need to pre-bake the dough since the surface area is smaller.  You can also bake the pizza at a higher temperature than the 250 that the Trader Joe's directions indicate.  I think by baking it at 375 or 400, you wouldn't run the risk of soggy, doughy middle.  The pizza had such great flavors from the different components that I didn't miss having meat on it.  You can pretty much put any topping you can think of on a pizza (veggie or not); the sky is really the limit.  In fact, at Duke's Alehouse in Crystal Lake, they make a seasonal Vietnamese Banh Mi pizza that I'm sort of dying to try.

If you're ready to try your hand at a homemade pizza, here's the dough recipe.  This dough is pretty plain, so I've used it to make other things such as bread sticks and monkey bread.  Don't limit yourself to just pizza and sell yourself short.


Kitchenaid's Basic Pizza Dough Recipe

• 1 (¼ ounce) package active dry yeast 
• 1 cup warm water (about 120, just warm to the touch.  If it's too warm, the yeast won't bloom) 
• ½ teaspoon salt 
• 2 teaspoons olive oil 
• 2 ½-3 ½ cups all purpose flour

Directions

1. Dissolve yeast in warm water in warmed bowl.
2. Add salt, olive oil, and 2 1/2 cup flour.
3. Attach bowl and dough hook, turn to speed 2 and mix 1 minute.
4. Continuing on speed 2, add remaining flour, 1/2 cup at a time, until dough clings to dough hook and cleans sides of bowl. Knead on speed 2 for 2 minutes.
5. Place in greased bowl, turning to grease top.
6. Cover, let rise in warm place until doubled in bulk (about 1 hour).
7. Punch dough down.
8. Brush 16 inch pizza pan with oil.
9. Press dough across bottom of pan forming collar around edge to hold filling Top with fillings and bake at 450°F for 15 to 20 minutes.

It's pizza time!