Homemade Pizza Night

We eat a LOT of pizza here in my nest. Most of it, I admit, we bring in. It's my fall back for a quick, dinner that can be delivered to my door, or swung through and picked up. Occasionally we'll make our own using the ready-made dough at the bakery. However, I've been on a real make-it-myself kick lately, so last night everyone helped to make totally homemade pies.

For the dough, I followed the recipe in Feeding the Whole Family, using a multi-grain pastry flour and unbleached all purpose flour. It was really easy to make and delicious - even my pickiest chick gobbled up four pieces of this wholesome pie. (Do you own this cookbook? If you don't, you should... it's by far my most used and loved kitchen resource.)

Next primary ingredient: pizza sauce. I kept this simple too, following a foodie-favorite tomato sauce recipe I found on Smitten Kitchen (another fave kitchen resource) that's been all around the internet for years. This is all I had to do for a buttery, rich sauce: dump a jar of my homecanned tomatoes in a pot, add 5 tablespoons of butter and an onion, halved. Simmer 45 minutes. Remove the onion. Done! I also pureed it with an immersion blender, as my littles like it smoooooth.

Everyone got a dough ball to shape into their own personal pie with choice of toppings, which included mozzarella cheese, fresh basil from the garden, pepperoni, Italian chicken sausage, sauteed mushroms and onions, pepadew peppers, and some leftover ricotta cheese. The kids kept it basic, but look... DaddyBird made a calzone!

My pie was very "rustic" looking 'casue I couldn't get it off the paddle and onto the pizza stone. In frustration, I flipped and flopped it off and it went all wacky. Not my best kitchen moment. Nor my best lead-by-example parenting moment. 

But it was delicious, none the less. The final verdict... homemade pizza night was a win! Aside from my brief meltdown, it was a great, fun way to get everyone involved it the kitchen. Now, if only the clean up had the same mass appeal (many thank yous my love!).