Make Easy Pizza

Pizza is one of the most splendid meals in the world — pizza that is easy to make might be one of the most exciting things that has ever happened. All you need are fresh ingredients, some tasty toppings, a little creativity and maybe a little help for children. It's pretty hard to beat these delicious recipes.

Steps

Making Easy Traditional Pizza

  1. Preheat your oven to 450 degrees F (230 degrees C). While your oven is heating, prepare the ingredients.
  2. Make your dough or buy it pre-made. Of course, using pre-made dough from a supermarket is about as easy as it gets, although you can make your own in a matter of minutes.
  3. Grease a baking sheet lightly. You can use cooking spray, olive oil, or butter. Transfer the dough onto the baking sheet. You can also use a pizza stone or pizza sheet if you have one.
    • Some cooks like using cornmeal on the bottom of a baking sheet or pizza stone. Cornmeal helps the cooked pizza slide off the baking sheet or pizza stone easier. Plus, the cooked cornmeal adds a nice crunch to the dough.
  4. Add sauce. From here on out, the sky's the limit. You can spread a traditional pizza sauce, spread your pizza with pesto, or even try an Alfredo sauce on your pizza. You can choose any of these sauces from your local grocery store to speed up the pizza-making process. Spread as much sauce as you want, using a knife, spatula, or the back of a spoon.[1]
    • If you are in a rush and don't have time to go out and buy a pre-made sauce or make your own, you can always use ingredients lying around the house. For instance, spread your pizza with simple tomato sauce. If you are in a real rush, you could even use ketchup.
  5. Add your toppings. Again, anything is possible when it comes to the toppings. Stick to veggies if you’re a vegetarian, try every kind of meat if you’re not. Get wild and try some exotic items like artichoke hearts, pineapples, BBQ chicken, potatoes — try everything and anything. Make sure to cook any meat that needs to be cooked beforehand and wash any vegetables. Some traditional topics include[2]:
    • Pepperoni
    • Olives
    • Sausage
    • Mushrooms
    • Bell peppers
  6. Add your cheese. The traditional cheese topping is mozzarella, but you can try any cheese you like. Ricotta cheese works well on pizza, as does feta. If you want to get a little fancy, you can purchase fresh mozzarella, cut into large discs, and spread them evenly over the pizza to make a traditional Margarita pizza.
    • To speed up the process, buy pre-shredded cheese to help speed up the process. Shredded cheese, rather than thick slices of cheese, will melt more quickly, ensuring that you are eating your delicious pizza as soon as possible.
  7. Pop the pizza into the oven and cook for 15 - 20 minutes or until brown. Once you have loaded your pizza with all of the toppings you want, slide it into the oven. Let your pizza bake for 15 to 20 minutes or until the crust is a golden brown and all the cheese has melted.[3]
    • Keep an eye on your pizza so that it doesn’t burn. In particular, burnt cheese can ruin a pizza. A slightly burnt crust, however, can be a tasty mistake.
  8. Take the pizza out of the oven, let rest, and enjoy. Once your pizza is golden brown, remove it from the heat. It's going to be very hot, so use caution. Place the pan on the stove top. As torturous as this will be, you have to let the pizza sit for at least a few minutes to let the doughy crust settle. Enjoy!

Making Super-Easy "Pizza"

  1. Use an alternate crust instead of dough. The dough is great if you've got it, but let's face it — it's often a hassle to make, and it can be finicky to cook. If you want to reduce pizza down to it's most basic elements and don't mind cheating (or improvising) a bit, try using naan bread. Naan comes pre-cooked and makes for an excellent pizza base. If you don't have naan, try any of these options:
    • Pita bread
    • English muffins
    • A piece of toast
    • Tortillas
  2. Slather on some pizza sauce, pasta sauce, or even ketchup onto the bread. If you've got it, pizza sauce works great. But pasta sauce tastes almost identical, and ketchup or barbecue sauce works in a pinch.
  3. Pile on all the toppings. For this super-easy pizza, think kitchen-leftovers. Start with a vegetable or two, like roasted bell peppers and sauteed mushrooms. Maybe add some pepperoni or salami. Top it off with a condiment like black olives. If you want to experiment with some other classic pizza combinations, here are some ideas:
    • Chicken breast, artichoke hearts, tomatoes, and black olives
    • Caramelized onions, sausage, and fennel
    • Walnuts, prosciutto, and blue cheese
  4. Cover your toppings with as much cheese as you want. Mozzarella, asiago, and Parmesan make for a classic pizza taste, but any cheese will do.
    • If you're using a strong cheese like Gorgonzola or a crumbly cheese like feta, plan on adding a little bit less to your pizza. Too much of these cheese can overwhelm the pizza.
  5. Cook the pizza in a toaster oven or improvise in the microwave. For bread-based pizza crust like naan, a toaster oven is ideal. Toaster ovens take a shorter amount of time to heat up compared to ovens. Plan on toasting at medium high for 5 minutes to start and then check in every minute thereafter.
    • If you're not using pizza dough and you're really crunched for time, you can even cook your pizza in the microwave. Microwaves are excellent at getting the cheese and toppings piping hot, but be prepared for a soft, squishy crust, rather than a baked, crunchy crust. Plan on cooking for 2 minutes to start and then checking in every 30 seconds thereafter.
  6. Enjoy your super-easy, phenomenally quick pizza.

Trying Different Kinds of Pizza

  1. Make a heart-shaped pizza. Nothing says ‘I love you’ quite like a heart-shaped pizza. If you have a pizza lover in your life, give this recipe a try.
  2. Make Mochi Pizza. If you're a lover of mochi, or just anything Japanese-related, this umami recipe might get your tastebuds doing karaoke. Simple, quick, and something different!
  3. Make a candy pizza. If you prefer sweet to salty, you don’t have to miss out on the pizza fun. This pizza calls for chocolate, marshmallows, and sprinkles rather than pizza sauce, pepperoni and cheese.
  4. Try a pizza sub. If you’ve grown a little bored of standard circular pizzas, try making a pizza sub. Its great for a pizza lover on the go.
  5. Make Chicago Style Pizza If you don’t have the time or the money to fly to Chicago, you can still sample a taste of the “windy city” by trying this recipe.



Tips

  • Make sure the water used to dissolve the yeast is not too hot! Running it over your wrist, the way people sometimes do with a baby's bottle, is one way to gauge whether it's too hot.
  • Get your kids to help knead the dough and help put on their favorite toppings; it's a fun way to get them involved.

Things You'll Need

Dough

  • 1 cup of warm water
  • 1 package (.25 oz.) dry yeast
  • 1 tsp. salt
  • 2 tbsp. olive oil
  • 2 1/2 c. of all-purpose or bread flour
  • 1 tsp. granulated sugar

Toppings

  • Pizza, pesto, or Alfredo sauce
  • Cheese (mozzarella or any other kind)
  • Meat selection
  • Vegetable selection
  • Baking sheet
  • Cooking spray

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Sources and Citations

  1. ↑ http://www.bettycrocker.com/recipes/extra-easy-pizza/689039a4-8c43-4a9e-9d48-27b1b0dda2c3
  2. ↑ http://au.lifestyle.yahoo.com/mens-health/nutrition/cooking/article/-/6975517/how-to-make-traditional-italian-pizza/
  3. ↑ http://allrecipes.com/recipe/quick-and-easy-pizza-crust/
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