Do you have a pizza night in your house? As finicky kids resistant to anything homemade, Mom's pizza on Friday nights was one the most hotly anticipated events of the week. Even now, ordering up a few Netflix movies and planning a pizza night feels like a special treat. This weekend, let's all have a pizza night!
Weekend Cooking: Have a Pizza Night!
One of our favorite recipes for homemade crust is still the one for our thin-crust pizza. It's quick and easy to pull together after a long day out and about. We've found that the dough does benefit from a little rising time (or even in the fridge overnight), but you can also use it right off the bat.
If we're feeling super fancy, we make a filled crust by simply rolling the outer edge of the crust over some fillings and pinching the dough shut. Our favorites are cubes of cheese, pesto, caramelized onions, minced garlic, or any combination of those. This also conveniently forms a rim to hold the pizza toppings!
We've done anything and everything for pizza toppings, it feels like! Pizza blanco is a perennial favorite, as is basic pizza with red sauce, cheese, and sausage. Lately, we've been mixing a little BBQ sauce into the red sauce for extra zing. And now that the farmer's markets are finally open, we can start adding some seasonal ingredients.
Almost as important to the evening as the pizza itself, don't forget about your beverages. As kids, this was one of the few nights we got to have soda with dinner, and we still love popping open a can of root beer or orange soda to go with our pizza. Of course, as adults, we've also added ice cold beer to the selection. The Sam Adams Summer Ale is fantastic this year (isn't it every year?), and has been our beer of choice for the past few weeks.
All you need now is to choose which movie to watch and make sure there are enough napkins for everyone's laps!
What's your favorite combo of pizza crust, pizza topping, and beverage?
More Related Pizza Links:
Chicago Style Deep Dish Pizza
Pizza on the Grill
Stovetop/Broiler Pizza
Throwing a Homemade Pizza Party
(Image: Flickr member DeaPeaJay licensed under Creative Commons)
http://www.flickr.com/photos/deapeajay/3309035033/
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I love the Manchu Spiced Garlic Chicken pizza recipe from Epicurious. It's spicy and sweet and gets raves. I usually cheat and use a Boboli crust -- I just bake it for about 10 minutes before I top it to make it more crisp.
http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Manchu-Spiced-Garlic-Chicken-Pizzettas-4278
view heather77's profile
we have homemade pizza at least once a week. i use the cooks' illustrated recipe for crust. it makes three crusts, so i use one and freeze the other two.
the sauce i make is super simple. i saute some minced garlic in a little olive oil. then i add a 15oz can of muir glen fire roasted tomatoes. let that cook a bit, but don't let all the moisture evaporate. pour it into a blender and puree. done!
my secret tip is to pour the sauce over the top of the pizza instead of putting it directly on the crust under the toppings. i find that we get a crisper crust when it's poured on top and it really doesn't taste any different!
as for toppings we go with mozzarella, pepperoni or sausage from the farmers' mkt, olives, red onion, spinach, tomato slices, feta... really whatever we have lying around. leftover broccoli is also really good.
when it's hot we do this same thing on our bbq.
as for beverages we love Bridgeport's Blue Heron Pale Ale or a nice red wine.
after writing this i think we'll have some pizza for dinner tonight!
view cassiopia's profile
We did this on Tuesday. My niece and her boyfriend are visiting this week. We made whole wheat dough. For sauce I took some basil/oil chunks from the freezer and mixed with cashews, garlic, salt, and pepper. We topped with cheese and peppers. Happy campers all around.
view kmarie's profile
we had a pizza night last night ! i made the spinach pesto recipe i found on this site and used that as the base for 2 pizzas: 1) pepperoni, mozzarella and parm and 2) kalamata olives, mozzarella and parm. Both were excellent.
I am also a big fan of making a pizza out of leftovers, especially stews or saucy items - like beef stew cheese makes an awesome pie, or pulled pork cheese and tomato, etc etc.
It's fun to make smaller pies so everyone can make their own. And in the summer we put the pizza stone on the grill which works really well!
theripetomato.wordpress.com
view theripetomato's profile
My favorite homemade pizza is thin crust with mozzarella tomato and fresh basil. Simple and delicious!
view poweredbytofu's profile
Every Friday. Pizza, Caesar salad, and Campari cocktails.
view cmcinnyc's profile
pita bread makes easy crust, slice apart if you like it thin.
view Kate (NC)'s profile
Oops. Did that last night.
view Alaricus's profile
We did a taste test between two vastly different homemade doughs and the Trader Joe's 99 cent one and literally could not tell the difference. So we just get the TJ's one.
My son loves "skull pizzas" (olives for the eyes, nose and teeth.) It keeps him busy!
For grown up pizzas: prosciutto and buffalo moz.
view MissMatlock's profile
I like to make the easy thin crust recipe that I got from the Kitchn and make 3 smallish pizzas.
We usually eat 1.5 and the rest is left for lunch the next day.
Best pizza for a weeknight!
view revolution9's profile
Yes! Friday nights are our pizza nights. I've gone all out and retrofitted my home oven with firebricks for fantastic results. Check it out here: http://www.salmoncabin.com/2009/04/perfecting-pizza.html
view Salmon Cabin's profile
I have many favorite pizza toppings, but I think my all time very favorite might be a
view melting's profile
oops looks like my comment got cut off -- my favorite is a white pizza with 3 kinds of cheese, pine nuts, prosciutto, and fresh herbs and garlic. delicious!
view melting's profile