One of my favorite nights around here is pizza night! It’s the one night I let the kiddos eat their dinner on the couch while we watch a movie together. Needless to say, they look forward to pizza night as much as I do!
Sometimes we order in, but the very best pizza nights involve making our own! It started with some store-bought fresh dough, whatever jarred sauce I could find, regular old shredded mozzarella, and maybe some pepperoni – or more likely, a favorite in our house… ham and pineapple! Are you one of those pineapple on pizza fans? Just me??
Well, after going out for some authentic, Naples-style pizza on a date night- I realized my sub-par ingredients weren’t going to cut it anymore!
So, I upped my game with a fresh and robust homemade tomato sauce. Some good quality mozzarella cheese. And just a few minimal toppings to really let that sweetly acidic tomato flavor, and the creamy, salty cheese come through in each bite.
Click Here for my easy and amazingly-delicious pizza sauce recipe!
Preheat your oven to 500. We’ll start by letting our fresh pizza dough sit on a lightly floured working surface for twenty minutes or so. I haven’t mastered a good pizza dough recipe yet, so I buy mine. You can find fresh pizza dough at some grocery stores (like Trader Joes), or better yet – many pizza joints will sell you their dough for a few bucks!
While it sits, slice up your mozzarella into nice, thin slices, and transfer to a tea towel to absorb some excess moisture. Don’t skip this step you guys! Nobody, and I mean nobody, likes a soggy pizza.
When the dough is ready, gently roll it out, or stretch it into a circular shape.
**When I first started working with fresh dough, I would roll it out and it always turned into this rectangular pie… sigh. There’s nothing particularly wrong with that. But after years of rectangular pizzas, I finally watched a few videos on how to “knuckle” it, or stretch it, and I finally nailed a round -okay, round-ish- shape. I’m no expert on pizza dough, but a quick google search will point you in the right direction!
Once your crust is ready, carefully transfer the crust to your baking sheet or pizza stone (this is what I use) and you know the drill here… pop on your sauce, cheese, and toppings. Mine here has some dry cured salami. I happen to think salami knocks the socks off of pepperoni on a pizza.
My top tip for building your own pizza at home – go easier on the toppings, especially ones that that will release water as they cook.
Cook for about 10 minutes, or until crust is golden and cheese is bubbly.
You know, on second thought… this recipe might not be perfect yet. I think I need to get back in my kitchen and try making it again. Just to make sure that the magic happens again. You know, in the sake of quality control. Maybe a few times. Countless times 😉
Of course I’m kidding, but as I write up this blog post, these pictures of the Salami Pizza are seriously making my mouth water. How about you make it, and invite me over to enjoy with you. I’ll bring the wine!
Traditional Salami Pizza
Ingredients
- 1 ball fresh pizza dough
- 1-ish cup pizza sauce from recipe
- 8 oz mozzarella
- 2 oz salami
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 500 degrees F.
- Set dough on a lightly floured working surface, and let it sit for 20 minutes.
- Thinly slice mozzarella, and lay slices on a tea towel to absorb excess moisture. Pat with towel if necessary.
- Gently roll out or stretch the dough, and transfer to pizza stone or baking sheet. Top with plenty of pizza sauce, cheese, and toppings.
- Bake for about 10 minutes, or until crust is golden and cheese is bubbly.
Good tip about going easier on the toppings that release water as they cook…never thought of that!
Totally! If we make hawaiian pizzas with pineapple I drain for a few minutes and pat dry with paper towels, too. It helps 🙂