How to Make Homemade Pizza Recipe From On High
Looney Foodie was walking down the street one day craving some homemade pizza, and then there was a loud BOOM and the clouds parted, and some light rays came forth, and a commanding voice echoed through the air down towards him and bestowed the Heavenly recipe from the Angels…
Well, that’s my story and I’m stickin to it.
Let’s go.
You don’t need Divine connections to make great pizza.
Really, you don’t.
If you want to know how to make homemade pizza recipe but never knew where to start, then you came to the right place because the Looney Foodie knows all kinds of great food and drink, and pizza is a basic core part of any competent foodie’s repertoire.
I grew up in a mostly Italian American family where homemade pizza was a birthright. Sure, our family ordered pizza out from the local pizzeria on occasion, for convenience and when mom didn’t have time to cook, but there were many special occasions where the homemade good stuff was joyfully had and enjoyed.
So, God put me into the family that He did, so I consider that the way to make homemade pizza came from God Himself.
How to Make Homemade Pizza Recipe – The Dough
Without a great dough, your pizza will suck.
It’ll be chewy or worse, it will chase people away screaming.
Now, if all you’ve ever had is that large chain pizza, then you already know a bit about that.
Real pizza is NOT pizza chain pizza.
I already wrote a great article about how to make pizza dough, so go check that out and then come back here to close the loop on great homemade pizza.
Great Dough Is The Basis of How to Make Homemade Pizza Recipe
Now that you have the dough, let’s cook it.
You have to spread and bake the dough a bit to get it crispy before you put the pizza ingredients on it, otherwise the dough under the wet ingredients will be soggy and mushy. Many amateurs try to make homemade pizza and mess up this basic step, and wonder why their pizza is a mess that falls all over itself and their dinner guests.
The Foodie has you covered here.
I’m going to link out to something here to let you know that you need a Pizza Stone from this selection if you want really great pizza. (or just this highly rated one) Sure, you can use a large round metal pan, but it won’t be the same or as crispy as if you use a pizza stone. (even the metal ones, different than a “pan”) So, after you browse that come back here, or move on and click that link later. It’s all good. You don’t absolutely need a pizza stone, but I’m just saying that it really makes a difference if you use one.
What you want to do is place the pizza stone into the oven and then turn it on. Let it get to 400 deg F and then let it stay in there for about 15 minutes.
While that it warming, roll out your pizza dough on a floured surface until its about as round at the pizza stone. You want it to fit within the pizza stone, so it needs to be that size or smaller. This depends on how large your pizza stone (or pan) is and how large your dough is, or what size pizza that you want to make.
Once your stone reaches fifteen minutes, then take it out using oven mitts and place it on a heat safe surface or stove top. If you have a portable heat safe board that you can take to your dough, or if you rolled your dough over a portable surface, you need to get your dough to the pizza stone.
Grab the dough firmly from the edge with two hands. It should be thick enough, even if going for a thin crust, so that it won’t break on you. You need to do it with a swift enough movement so it’s not hanging there for a long time so it doesn’t stretch out and break.
As a quick aside, if you are using a pan, you can LIGHTLY grease the pan with some olive oil to prevent sticking, and if you have a non stick pan then all the better. If all you have is a rectangular pan, then that’s no problem either. Just place the rolled dough into the pan and then stretch it out gently so as not to break it and form it into the right shape and bunch up the edges along the pan edges.
Once the rolled out dough is on the stone, you can stretch it a bit so that it’s near the edges where you want it. Likewise, if it overflows the edges you can gently fold the overflow back over and in and that will actually form the traditional bump of the pizza crust edge. That part isn’t that important but if it works out that way all the better.
Lightly brush the pizza dough with olive oil and then with a fork gently poke it all around to prevent bubbling.
Now you place the stone with the dough back into the oven for about 10 minutes, but you’ll have to check it every few minutes to make sure that it turns golden brown but doesn’t get dark or burn.
Once the pizza crust is partially cooked and starts to turn a light golden brown, take it out and place it on the heat safe surface or stove top.
Brush the entire crust surface again with olive oil.
Now you’ll need a can of homemade tomato sauce, or something from a can. Basic canned tomato sauce is fine.
What you’ll do before you get to this point is put 2 tablespoons of olive oil into a small pit with a chopped clove of garlic and sauté it for about 5 minutes. Throw some basil leaves, fresh torn up or dried and sprinkled, and then pour in about 16 ounces of the tomato sauce. Use your judgment as to the size of your pizza. You should be able to tell how much you’ll need for a super large pie vs a tiny pie. I’m trying to keep these instructions flexible.
Bring the sauce to a bubble and then quickly turn it down to a simmer and let it simmer for about ten minutes.
Okay, let’s fast forward back to the partially browned pizza crust.
Take your sauce and gently spoon it over the top of the pizza crust so that you leave about an inch that will be your “crust” around the edges without sauce. You don’t want to flood it, but put enough sauce in the center portion of the crust and spread it around so that it’s all covered. Now add about 2 cups of shredded mozzarella cheese over the saucy parts and whatever other toppings that you desire. This is the time to build your pizza masterpiece. Sliced pepperoni, mushrooms, onions, garlic, buffalo chicken pieces… ANYTHING you have on hand can go on a pizza. Just make sure that any non processed meats like chicken are already cooked. This is a great way to get rid of some leftovers. General Tso chicken pizza? No problem if you have the leftovers on hand!
Okay, once this is done, place the whole thing back into the oven for about 20 minutes. This time is flexible because you will peek in from time to time and see how it looks. Once the cheese melts and it looks cooked, it probably is. You don’t want to leave it too long since the bottom will get too cooked or burned, and you don’t want that. This is less likely to happen with a pizza stone and more likely with a pan, so don’t say I didn’t tell ya about the stone.
There you have it, an honest to goodness how to make homemade pizza recipe with the complete process and some great advice about getting a using a pizza stone.
The homemade dough I told you about is going to make a BIG difference in this whole process, so make sure that you write all of that down and USE IT.
Don’t worry if it doesn’t work out perfect the first time. Just keep at it. I swear to you that once you get this down and practice, you will be making homemade pizza BETTER than any that you can buy anywhere, and for a FRACTION of the cost.
You can make a homemade pizza for about a dollar or two of ingredients and some time and skill, compared to about $15-$20 for pizzeria pizza, and please don’t compare any of this to the chain store pizza or that frozen garbage from the supermarket.
Okay, there you go… Now that you know how to make homemade pizza recipe from scratch, DO IT.
