Up Your Homemade Pizza Game

Homemade Pizza

Bad pizza is still pretty good. Even frozen supermarket pizza is ok in a pinch. Of course you can buy a pre-made pizza crust from nearby supermarket, throw some sauce and cheese on it, and call it done. It is worth it, however, to take the time to develop your own version of the perfect pizza, the one your friends, kids, and grandkids will remember long after you are gone.

Yep, good homemade pizza can be that good.

Awarning: you won't make the perfect homemade pizza the first time out. There is an infinite number of different styles of pizza, crust, sauce, and cheese, all of which you can tailor to your personal preference. As a result, it may take considerable experimentation before you land on the combination that you (and your friends and family) consider the pinnacle of pizza perfection.

The Crust

Many people are intimidated by the idea of making yeast bread from scratch. Investing the time to learn how to make pizza dough from scratch is probably the most important step on the road to flawless pizza. Try out different methods. Some pizza crust recipes rely on a long, slow rise to develop flavor, resulting in a tasty, chewy crust.

Others use baking powder to give the dough a quick boost, resulting in a lighter, crunchy crust. While many recipes purport to be the "very best pizza crust," only you can decide what kind fits your idea of perfection.

Plan your pizza making experiments in advance and allow enough time to try out dough methods that require a lengthy rest - you may find that the wait is worth it. If you want to get truly hardcore, you can play around with different kinds of flour. While all-purpose flour usually works just fine, some pizza bakers sear that bread flour, semolina flour or special Italian type oo flour is the only way to get the perfect crust.

The Sauce

Even if you limit your options to a tomato-based red sauce can consider it. The simplest is to drain a can of crushed tomatoes and spoon them onto your crust. For some people, this is the perfect amount of tomato between the crust and the cheese.

If the saice is a key component for you, you may want to go all-out and develop one that starts with good fresh tomatoes that you peel, seed and cook with olive oil and spices until it's ready to form a thick, flavorful tomato-y layer that renders the cheese almost superfluous.

There is a lot of middle ground here; a good quality jarred tomato sauce (possibly cooked down to make it less watery) might be a convenient and tasty solution. The Cheese the stretch and gooeyness that is associated with pizza.