Pizza

We made pizza at home on 6-25-17 and had a blast.

1 lb of pizza dough from Trader Joe's or wherever, split into 2 to make 2 pies.

Preheat oven to 475 for a few minutes

1. Stretch out the dough into a pizza shape on a cookie sheet.
2. Oil the sheet lightly to keep the pizza from sticking
3. Spread pasta sauce thinly onto the dough
4. Populate with whatever! Optional: cooked bacon, blobs of goat cheese, sauted mushroom pieces, asparagus pieces. Make sure the pieces are dry-ish. For example: sauteed spinach zucchini pieces are better than fresh.
5. Bake 475 for 10 minutes In our oven in Berkeley, the best crispy crust is from on a cookie sheet put on 2nd from bottom rack at 475 for 10 minutes. When I took it out of the oven on 6-25-17, I worried that I had totally burned the crust, I hadn't!

Important touches:

• Olive oil on the pie and outer crust after cooking makes it sweeter. Maybe flavored oil: garlic olive oil for a savory pie, lemon olive oil for sharper/bold flavors
• Prepping the toppings beforehand makes things much more enjoyable when a 2 year-old is helping to make the pizza.

• Dough from Trader Joes made "ok" pizza on 7-2-17. Frozen dough from Monterey Market on 6-25-17 was terrific. Clearly the dough matters.