Saturday Night- Two kinds of pizza

Brand new oven...what to make?  My boys suggested pizza, and it sounded easy enough.  However, I quickly realized that pizza only pretends to be easy.  It's actually a lot of work if you're going to do it all yourself- especially if you feel inclined to impress and decide to make two different kinds.

I made the dough for the crust using this recipe: Bobby Flay Pizza Dough

I didn't have any bread flour, so I used King Arthur all-purpose and it turned out just fine.  I only needed about 3.5 cups, plus a bit more for kneading.  The dough came together in a snap.  I let it rise on the counter and then made two sauces.


Basic Tomato Sauce

1 small can of chopped tomatoes
2 Tbs tomato paste
1/2 sweet onion, diced
1 clove garlic, minced
Olive oil
Salt & Pepper

Heat a skillet to medium-high and add the olive oil (I eyeball this, but if I had to guess it is probably 1 Tbs).  Saute the onion and garlic until it is nice and golden and soft.  Turn down the heat to low and add the canned tomatoes.  Simmer gently for about 15 minutes until the tomatoes have lost the tin taste.  (I used this time to make the second sauce.)  Add the tomato paste to thicken.  Add salt and pepper to taste.  Can you add herbs?  Sure- but depending on your pizza toppings, you might not need to.


White Garlic Sauce

2 cloves of garlic, minced
2 Tbs butter
1/4 - 1/2 cup of cream
1/4 cup of grated fontina cheese
Salt & Pepper

Head a small sauce pan over medium-low heat and melt the butter.  Add the garlic and saute until it softens.  Add the cheese and whisk until everything is blended.  Reduce heat to low and add the cream.  Add salt and pepper to taste (I used a white, red, and black pepper blend in this which is really tasty).  Let the sauce simmer and reduce.  It'll bubble even on low (at least on my stove).  Stir regularly so it doesn't stick to the pan.

After my sauces were made, I rolled out my dough into two pizzas and then assembled the toppings.

Pizza 1
Tomato Sauce, Italian sausage (casings removed and browned in chunks), kalamata olives, crimini mushroom slices, mozzarella, and parmesan.

Pizza 2
White Garlic Sauce, sliced d'anjou pears, pancetta strips, crimini mushroom slices, mozzarella, fontina, and parmesan.

I baked each pizza at 400 degrees for about 15-20 minutes until the crust was golden and the cheese was bubbly and browned.

I forgot to take pics of the pear pizza...but here's the tomato sausage...

I had some pretty happy guys.  I'll use this crust recipe again- it was easy and the crust was tasty and chewy but not too dense.  It was requested to use "normal olives" instead of kalamatas, so we'll see about that...

I think this could be a weeknight meal if I make the dough in the morning and refrigerate it, and have some sauce ready to go.  On a weeknight, I'd probably stick to either two red sauce pizzas or two white sauce pizzas.

Anyway- Yum!