Quick Homemade Pizza

Hello, I'm back! I hope you all thoroughly enjoyed your turkey! By now, you have probably used up all the Thanksgiving leftovers (if not, you might want to think about, um, opening that tupperware), so today I will tell you how I made a really quick homemade pizza this past weekend!

The words "quick" and "homemade pizza" usually don't go well together because of two time-consuming tasks: making the crust, and simmering the pizza sauce. So here's what I used: for the crust, the Artisan Bread in 5 Minutes recipe; and for the sauce, ingredients (with TONS of spices) that I threw together about thirty seconds before slathering it on the pizza.

Here's what you do: turn the oven to a very high temperature. I turned mine to around 450 degrees. Spray a cookie sheet with cooking spray, and then sprinkle liberally with cornmeal.

Cut a chunk from the Artisan bread dough and shape it however you want on the cookie sheet- round, square, rhomboid- whatever your fancy! Just make sure that it's thin.

Now, for a super-delicious touch! Mix a few tablespoons of olive oil with a couple teaspoons of basil. With a pastry brush, brush the mixture all around the edge of the crust. Voila, you now have a delicious breadstick-like crust! I keep meaning to try this with Parmesan cheese, but I'm pretty sure the pizza would explode from sheer awesomeness.

Now, for the sauce! Here is approximately what I used:

6 oz tomato paste
6 oz tomato sauce
1 T olive oil
1 T Italian spice mix
1 t. garlic powder
1 t. onion powder
1/2 t. black pepper (I'm a pepper lover, so you may want to use less or skip it altogether)
Dash of salt (depending on your toppings, you may want to add more)
Water, to your desired consistency (don't make it too thin!)

Mix it all together, and put your desired amount on the pizza. Top with mozzarella.

For toppings, I used pepperoni, sliced Roma tomatoes, and sliced garlic. I wasn't entirely sure how the garlic would work, but it ended up being a most delicious addition!

Now, stick that puppy in the oven until the cheese is nicely browned. It took mine about 10-15 minutes.

I wish I had some pictures, but we inhaled it before I even thought of blogging about this. This pizza was even approved by a four-year-old-- the normally picky little guy ate two whole slices! Pretty good, considering that I stuck a cup or so of whole wheat flour into the bread dough. ;-) We ended up with a bunch of extra sauce, so I'm thinking of assembling and freezing some more. Eat your heart out, Red Baron!

And as you can see, cooking is definitely an art to me! How about you? Is cooking more of an art or a science to you?