Pizza Night

Bismillahir Rahmanir Raheem




I grew up in a house where "from scratch" meant "from box" and "homemade" meant "home pre-heated". Once I was married and cooking for myself, I started reconsidering the meaning of terms like the ones above and learned a whole new way of cooking. Making your food from scratch automatically cuts out loads of sodium and calories, not to mention all the unnatural things like preservatives and artificial flavors. Once you go scratch, you never go back!

The very first thing I made from scratch was pizza dough. I spent so long kneading that dough by hand, not sure exactly what it was supposed to feel like. It was hard work and I was only half confident it would turn out something edible. But Alhamdulillah, a few hours later we were biting into warm, home made pizza.

Since then pizza has become a weekly staple in our home. I've experimented with several different recipes only to find that tweaking it to my own taste is what works best for us*. I've made it for out-of-town guests, assembled it and taken it on the road to be baked at our destination, frozen batches of dough for friends to bake at their convenience and even baked mini-pizzas for a Ramadan Iftaar party. This is a very forgiving recipe and seems to be a real crown pleaser. Personalize it with your favorite toppings** and flavors, just have fun with it!

Pizza Dough
* this makes for a large and thick crust pizza. Divide in half for a thin crust, or do what I do and lop off 1/3 of it and freeze for calzones or bread sticks later in the week.
** sneak in a layer of grated zucchini for an extra vitamin boost for kids - and adults!

4 cups all purpose flour
2 teaspoons salt
2 teaspoons grated parmesan cheese (I've been omitting this and it still turns out fine)
2 teaspoons yeast
1 1/2 cup very warm water
1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil

1. Dissolve yeast in warm water, set aside.

2. In a large bowl (or an electric mixer) add flour, salt and oil. Mix to combine.

3. Add yeast mixture and continue to knead for 7 minutes by hand, 4 minutes in mixed (add more flour if mixture is too sticky).

4. Cover and let rise in an oiled bowl until doubled (1 1/2 hour)



5. Punch down and roll out to appropriate size (this is were I lop off 1/3 to freeze for later).

6. Dimple dough with fingers and brush entire dough with olive oil.



7. Pile on toppings of choice, saving the cheese for last (it will "glue" everything in place).


8. Bake in 400 preheated oven for 20 minutes, checking to make sure cheese is bubbling and crust is golden (you may need to turn the pizza half-way).