Homemade Pizza Recipe

G and I used to frequently make homemade pizza. We were craving it over the weekend, so I made one last night. I wish I had taken pictures, because it looked pretty and it was really, really good.

For the dough, I used a super simple recipe for pizza dough on Epicurious.com. I modified it slightly by adding a few hearty shakes of Tuscan Sunset seasoning (a blend of herbs sold by Penzey's, my favorite place to find spices).

I hand stretched and pressed the dough into a round pizza pan and brushed the entire surface with extra virgin olive oil. Next, I cut up three cloves of garlic and sprinkled them on the dough. I covered the olive oil base with Muir Glen pizza sauce. [Note: G and I are always surprised at the variation between pizza sauces. Muir Glen is definitely our new favorite - not too salty or sugary, just right.] I used leftovers from last week to top the pizza, including red onion, Canadian bacon*, and spinach. Two cups of mozzeralla on the top, and it was read for the oven.

The dough recipe didn't include recommendations for oven temperature or how much time to bake the pizza. I set the oven to 450 and checked the pizza after 10 minutes. It wasn't done, so I gave it another four minutes, which was a little too long. Our pizza was a little brown in some places, but it was still good ("the best yet," according to G). When I make it again, I'll probably check it after 12 minutes. I'm guessing that might be about the right about of baking time.