Variations on a Theme

We've been on a pizza-making kick lately. I think it's because I'm so excited that I can make homemade ww crust and the topping possibilities are endless. Last week I made a batch of dough for dinner one night and froze the rest to use this week. Half a batch of dough was more than enough for dinner for the two of us and some leftovers for lunch the next day.

Here's the pizza pie I whipped up last week:



His (right side):
Homemade sauce, fresh sliced tomatoes, fresh mozzarella and a sprinkle of fresh basil (added after baking)

Here are the ingredients for the homemade sauce:

• 1 can diced tomatoes
• 1 can tomato paste
• Italian seasoning
• Salt and pepper
• Red pepper flakes
• 1 tsp sugar

I dumped everything into a saucepan and reduced until it was the right thickness. Since it's fresh tomato season I'll use about 5 chopped tomatoes next time. I don't bother removing the skin or seeds because I don't even notice them (and I'm too lazy to mess with all that!).

Hers (left side):

Caramelized onions, blue cheese crumbles, fresh sliced tomatoes and a sprinkle of fresh basil (added after)

Here's a link to the original post that includes the crust recipe.

And here's the pizza I made this week using half of the leftover ball of dough (1/4 of the original recipe):

My pizza toppings were a thin, thin layer of pesto, fresh tomato slices, goat cheese and mushrooms. I also added fresh mozzarella after baking. Parker got his own pizza topped with the leftover sauce (the recipe last week made enough for two or three pizzas so I froze the rest), fresh sliced tomato, fresh mozzarella, and tons of sliced mushrooms. Unfortunately the photos didn't turn out :(

The pizzas were extra good this week because of a fantastic birthday present from the Blakeslees- A PIZZA PADDLE! Mom gave me a stone for Christmas and I'd used it for crisping pitas, tortillas, etc, but hadn't had a chance to use it for fresh homemade pizza. It was so much fun to roll out the dough so it was extra thin and then transfer it from the paddle to the stone. I loved how the crust got extra crispy and the stone gave it much better flavor than just using a cookie sheet. Thanks Matt and Kate for the great gift!