Pizza Night: Individual Pizzas

Who doesn't love pizza??

Pizza is such a popular dish everywhere, so why not make some fresh homemade pizza yourself?

We decided to do individual pizzas, each choosing our own toppings and creating our own perfect pizza, and then sharing them so we can sample and vote on the best.  A pizza tasting party!!

Pizza is easy to make at home. It starts of with a good dough.  You can use store bought or homemade, thick or thin crust.

I bought a whole wheat pizza dough at the grocery store and split it in two.  We both like thin crust pizza so we rolled it out thin, and kept it rustic, not neat and round.

Next, assemble all your toppings.  We chose shredded mozerella, sliced fresh mozerella, sliced turkey pepperoni, whole basil leaves, chopped basil, diced fresh tomatoes, sliced tomatoes, and fresh sliced mushrooms.  You can choose any toppings you like!

To assemble, you will want a sauce to place on the crust of your pizza.  We chose a red sauce that I made from a can of tomato sauce, adding garlic powder, italian seasoning, salt & pepper, which I heated up and simmered for 10 min to blend all the flavors.  You can choose, a white sauce such as alfredo, green sauce such as pesto, or a jarred tomato sauce...even marinara works wonderful.  Just as long as you enjoy the flavor.  Add your tomato sauce to the crust, using a much or as little as you please.

Place your toppings of choice on the pizza.

I chose to make a traditional Margherita Pizza, and MGG made one with diced tomatoes, turkey pepperoni, mushrooms, and a little basil garnish.

Make sure you preheat your oven to 425 - 450 degrees.  I use a pizza stone, which you must put in the oven when it is cold and allow it to heat up with the oven...these stones are awesome for pizza and any kind of bread baking.  Here's the stone in the oven...bad pic...sorry it's dark in there!

Then you slide your pizzas on to the stone, using a peel, or a cookie sheet dusted with cornmeal, and one that doesn't have sides...very important!  This helps get the pizza off the tray!

Cook for about 10-13 minutes.  It's done when everything is golden brown and the cheese is bubbly.

Here's mine....yum!!

Here's his....lookin' good!

Allow to cool for about 5 min....Now the serving....mine

his...

both...hey! his is bigger!!! 

a lot bigger....hmmm.

And for the taste contest...well he liked both..and I think I liked his better...I'm partial to pepperoni and mushrooms! 

Happy pizza tasting!!!