Pizza, Pizza...

Friday night we decided to stay in and make homemade pizza. My mother in law got me a bread machine for my birthday last year and every since I got it, I have been wanting to make pizza because it is SOOOO easy to make the dough. I don't know where the time went because here it is almost 9 months SINCE my birthday...and  I just got around to making it. Talk about procrastination!!! That may as well be my middle name sometimes!

Anyways, I decided to make a mock up of our favorite pizza from a local place, Pete's Patio, the Patio Special. It has big chunks of Italian sausage, green peppers, onions & mushrooms. So delish! I also made one with roasted peppers, spinach, bacon and goat cheese. We will just call this...the Steph Special...? It was pretty delish too but by the time it was done baking, I was full from the other. I guess it's time to invest in a second pizza stone so we can bake more than one at a time. 

For the dough using a bread machine :

I use the Oster 2lb Expressbake Breadmaker.

Recipe courtesy of Oster.

3/4 teaspoon salt

4 cups all-purpose flour

2 teaspoons active dry yeast

1 3/8 cup water, room temperature

3 tablespoons olive oil

Put all ingredients into the bread pan in order, beginning with the salt. Follow your machines instructions for the dough setting. When dough is ready remove from the pan and separate into two.  

If you do not have a bread machine you can find a great recipe from Giada De Laurentiis here.

For the sauce : 

1 16oz can tomato sauce

1 tablespoon dried oregano

1 tablespoon dried basil

1 tablespoon dried parsley

2 teaspoons minced garlic

Combine all ingredients in a sauce pan, cover and simmer for 30 minutes.

NOTE TO SELF

Do not leave small pot of sauce on high unattended or you will be cleaning up a mess like this...

OOPSIE!!!

For the PATIO Special...

1/2 lb ground pork sausage

1 teaspoon fennel seed

1 teaspoon dried parsley

1 teaspoon crushed red pepper, optional

1 green pepper, sliced

1/2 medium yellow onion, sliced

1 cup mushrooms, sliced

1 cup shredded mozzarella

3/4 cup prepared sauce ( more or less to your liking)

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees. If using a pizza stone put it in the oven while preheating.
2. Season the sausage with the fennel, parsley and red pepper and cook in a skillet over high heat until cooked through.
3. I like to cook my onions before I put them on the pizza. If you choose to do so, just saute until they become translucent.
4. Roll dough with a rolling pin to form a circle or somewhat of one ( mine never seem to come out right)!
5. Spread the sauce, sprinkle a little bit of cheese, top with the green pepper, onion, mushrooms, sausage and finish off with the rest of the cheese.
6. Transfer to the pizza stone and bake approx 20 minutes or until the crust is browned.

For the Steph Special...

1/2 cup prepared sauce

4 strips bacon, cooked & crumbled

1 cup fresh spinach, roughly chopped

1 cup roasted peppers, sliced (I used Mezzetta)

2 cups shredded Italian blend cheese

6 oz goat cheese 

• Repeat steps 1 and 4 from above.
• Spread the sauce, sprinkle 1 cup of the Italian blend cheese, top with the spinach, roasted peppers, bacon ending with the goat cheese.
• Transfer to pizza stone and bake approx 20 minutes or until the crust is browned.

Enjoy!!! 

Well with the "BLIZZARD" of 2011 under way I'm in the mood for something hot! Spicy chicken chili perhaps???

For anyone in the war path of this crazy storm, be safe and enjoy your night in and most likely, the day off from work tomorrow :)

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