Pizza, for me, is one of the ultimate comfort foods. This recipe simplifies pizza so that anyone can make it when they have a particular hankering. Feel free to add your own flavor to the pizza in any way(s) which you can imagine.
Makes 2 Pizzas
Dough:
1 1/3 cup warm water
1/4 cup milk
1 tbsp. dry yeast
3 cups (-ish) all purpose flour
1 tsp. salt
1 tbsp. honey
2 tbsp. olive oil
Pour warm water into a bowl. Add milk and yeast. Let rest for 2 minutes. Add flour, salt, honey and olive oil. Knead dough until smooth. Rub the dough with olive oil, place in a bowl, cover and let the dough rise to double. This will take about 1 1/2 hours.
Sauce:
1 can San Marzano tomatoes, seeded and diced
2 cloves garlic thinly sliced lengthwise
1/2 cup olive oil
small bunch basil leaves, roughly chopped
Heat sauté pan then add oil, followed by garlic, tomato and basil. Season with salt.
Assembling the Pies:
8 oz. fontina cheese, grated
8 oz. mozzarella cheese, grated
Place a pizza stone on the middle rack of the oven and preheat the oven to 500º Fahrenheit. After rolling out the dough into circular/square shapes, ladle some of the tomato sauce onto the dough and spread it out, leaving a 1 inch border around the edges for the crust. Sprinkle the fontina and mozzarella cheese over the pizza and bake on the pizza stone until the crust is golden, 10-12 minutes.
Variations:
Goat Cheese and Mushroom - Ahead of time, sauté about 3/4 cup of mushrooms with some garlic and olive oil. In addition to the fontina and mozzarella, crumble up some goat cheese and sprinkle it on top as well. Then, add your mushrooms and bake for the same amount of time.
Pesto - Instead of using tomato sauce, you can feel free to use pesto as your base. I like to use Wolfgang Puck's pesto sauce (http://www.wolfgangpuck.com/recipes/sauces-and-dressings/Pesto).
