Pizza Night!

About author / Pamela Chester

Mom of two; graduate French Culinary Institute; kids cooking program instructor; Master's degree in food studies. Creates kid friendly foods and loves her slow cooker.

It’s the end of a busy week and everyone’s burnt out. We’re all in the mood for a dinner that’s quick, easy, and super yummy. So almost every week we go for the natural Friday night choice – pizza!

Since pizza happens to be one of the foods my family agrees upon as a top favorite, it’s an easy choice. But it’s also a traditional one in the fact that I am resurrecting a Friday night ritual from my own childhood. We continue the tradition by ordering a couple pies with a mix of different toppings and then sit down to watch a video together (well, DVD now, but I still call them videos!). Lately though, we’ve wanted a change from the usual neighborhood pizza joint for our weekly fix.

So I’ve been experimenting with all different ways to make our Friday night pizza at home. We’ve had a lot of fun coming up with new and different ideas for homemade pizza each week. Below you will find some great options for make-at-home pizza. They range from super easy to a bit more time consuming, yet worth the effort, for homemade, personalized pizza at home:

Option One, Ready made/Bake at home pizza: my favorite supermarket sells both ready to bake pizzas and pre-made pizza dough shells that you can fill with your favorite toppings and bake. The advantage over frozen pizza is that they are made fresh in the store daily, and some stores will custom-make the pizza according to your specifications. You can also use all sorts of other mediums as the basis for homemade personal pizza such as English muffins, pita bread, and naan bread. The ready-made crust option is a fun and easy way to experiment with your own variety of toppings. Simply follow package directions for baking.

Option Two, Pre-made dough (either fresh or frozen): This option gives you all the satisfaction of rolling the dough out with no prep work required. You simply bring pre-made dough to room temperature and get ready to roll. My son loves to watch me play pizza parlor and try to spin the dough on my finger into an even, thin round disk. I haven’t quite mastered that trick yet so I usually end up grabbing my rolling pin and just rolling it out by hand on a lightly floured surface. Don’t worry about rolling the dough perfectly round, you will be surprised how good your own homemade pizza looks when it is fresh out of the oven.

Another easy way to work with dough is to press it by hand into a lightly oiled rimmed pan (8 x 12), creating your own deep-dish pizza. I buy all the toppings (ready made sauce, preshredded cheese, and a choice of meats and veggies) at the store and we are ready to go within minutes of walking in the door. I bake these pizzas at 450 degrees F for 12 – 18 minutes on a pizza stone or sheet pan (longer for deep dish) until cheese is melted and lightly browned. Altogether, it takes a little more effort, but less time than picking up the phone and calling the pizzeria for takeout or delivery.

Option Three, Homemade dough: Nothing beats dough you have carefully made by hand. This option is definitely the most time consuming (and maybe more of a Saturday project) but the results are well worth it. You will feel any residual tension from the week melt away as you pound and shape the dough. And kids also love to work with any type of dough. The recipe for cornmeal pizza dough below is especially simple for kids to work with, and is easily doubled or tripled.

Once the dough is finished you can follow the directions as above for pre-made dough for your own personally crafted pizza. It’s so much fun to gather the kids together for a pizza party in which everyone makes their own personal pizza and decorates it however they wish (you can even make a smiley face pizza with pepperoni eyes, a mushroom nose and sliced pepper mouth!). When I taught cooking classes with school aged kids, the pizza party was always one of the favorite sessions.

So, when you’re ready for a change of pace, try baking pizza at home with your family. You’ll be glad you turned your kitchen into a pizzeria!

Serves/Makes: 4

• 2 teaspoons active dry yeast
• 1 pinch sugar
• 2/3 cup warm water
• 1 2/3 cup all-purpose flour, plus more for work surface
• 1/4 cup cornmeal, plus more for pizza peel or baking sheet
• 1 1/2 teaspoon coarse kosher salt
• 2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil, plus more for bowl

***Toppings***

• grated Mozzarella cheese
• chopped vegetables
• crumbled sausage
• pepperoni
• basil, as desired