Semi Homemade Gourmet Pizza Recipes

GOURMET HOMEMADE PIZZA

Steps:

• In a large bowl (dough will rise considerably!), combine all the dough ingredients and stir well, until smooth. It will be stiff, but be sure all the flour is incorporated. Cover the bowl and let stand at room temperature approximately 18-24 hours. Doing this the night before is best.
• Using a silicone bowl scraper, scrape the dough onto a well floured surface. It will seem very loose and sticky at this point still. That's normal. Generously dust the top of the dough with some flour, then use the bowl scraper or a bench scraper to roll the dough around a bit in the flour on the work surface, to coat thinly. You will find it should quickly become workable and no longer sticky. Divide the dough into two equal pieces (or four, for mini pizzas). Shape each piece into a ball, then cover with a clean towel and let rest for 1 hour.
• Prepare your oven: Place your pizza stone into the cold oven on a rack in the lower third of the oven. I like to remove any top rack at this point, too, just to not have that obstacle when transferring the pizza into and out of the oven. Preheat oven to the highest setting, typically 500F. Let the oven preheat while your dough rests.
• Prepare your sauce: If you are making your own pizza sauce, prepare that when the dough is resting as well. Using a fine mesh strainer, drain the juice from the canned tomatoes, then gently squeeze the tomatoes to let some of the juice inside the tomatoes drain off as well. Place the tomatoes into a food processor, with the garlic, olive oil, spices and a generous pinch of salt. Pulse a few times, to break it up, but not so much that it is completely smooth. A few small pieces of tomato visible is about right. Set aside.
• Dust a sheet of parchment paper with flour or cornmeal. Take a ball of dough and gently stretch it out a bit. Place it on your prepared parchment and gently, using just your fingertips so you don't deflate the dough too much, press and stretch outward to shape the pizza and make it bigger. If it seems to not be enlarging much, lift it up by the outside edge and let it hang in the air. The weight of the dough will stretch it out. Rotate around the edge and let it stretch in the same way. Return the dough to the parchment and finish stretching and shaping. If you like a thin crust pizza, your dough will need to be quite thin. Leave the outside edges thicker, for the lovely bubbly edge crust.
• Spread the pizza sauce on the dough. Place 2-3 slices of prosciutto onto the pizza. I like to twist it a bit so it doesn't lay flat on the sauce. This helps to get some lovely, crisp prosciutto as it bakes. Scatter some goat cheese on top, then some shredded mozzarella (not too much, just enough to fill in here and there).
• Bake your pizza:
• Trim the parchment paper close to your pizza, so there is little excess that might scorch in the hot oven. Using a pizza peel, transfer your pizza on top of the parchment paper and onto the hot pizza stone. Allow to bake 7-8 minutes. If you like, you can very carefully pull the parchment paper out from under the pizza at this point. Allow the pizza to continue baking until the crust underneath has some good colour, the topping are bubbly and the top edges of the crust are quite dark in spots. Remove pizza to a cutting board and allow to rest a couple of minutes. Top with fresh arugula to serve.

GOURMET PIZZA

Steps:

• Preheat oven to 425 degrees.
• Roll out dough. Brush olive oil on dough.
• Arrange remaining ingredients on dough.
• Place in oven for 10-15 minutes.
• Let sit 5 minutes before slicing.

PAT'S DELICIOUS SEMI-HOMEMADE ITALIAN PIZZA

Steps:

• Pour the two packets of pizza dough mix into a large mixing bowl. Add the water and mix with a fork until a ball forms. Ignore the package directions and do the following: cover with a damp towel and set in a warm place for 15 minutes, allowing the dough to rise a bit.
• Preheat the oven to 450-degrees F.
• After the dough his risen, spray a 16-inch (or 18-inch) pizza pan with the cooking spray (I use an olive oil spray) and place the dough ball in the center. Wash your hands and rub the 1 teaspoon of olive oil on them -- work the pizza dough out toward the edges. TAKE YOUR TIME! When this is accomplished, place the pizza dough in the preheated oven for 8-9 minutes until there is some VERY SLIGHT BROWNING here and there on the dough. Remove it from the oven and allow it to cool for 3-4 minutes so you can work the sauce on to it without burning your hands.
• Once you have the sauce on the pizza, sprinkle on the sliced olives and any other toppings you wish, (such as cooked sausage, banana peppers, etc., but NOT the pepperoni). Then, cover the pizza evenly with the cheeses. Cover the pizza with the pepperoni slices and sprinkle the basil all over the pizza.
• Return the pizza to the 450-degree F. oven, on the rack just below the center, for about 10 more minutes, until you just get some slight browning on the cheese. Remove from the oven and slice with a pizza cutter. Wait 2 minutes before plating up the pizza.
• NOTE: This makes a super covered dish if you get the pizza ready for the final baking and then do the final baking on-site. Cut it into 2-inch squares for this. I like to take 2 or 3 pizzas along for this as you'll see that it disappears much faster then the entree dish!

SEMI-HOMEMADE GOURMET PIZZA

Steps:

• Spread out pillsbury pizza crust & flatten as much as you can. They tend to rise quite a bit.
• Spread both sides with olive oil.
• Sprinkle both sides generously with italian or pizza seasoning.
• Bake at 350 for 12 minutes and remove from oven.
• While baking crust, begin preparing ingredients. Chop and saute sausage until browned.
• Remove from pan & spoon into separate bowl.
• Add onion, basil, mushrooms and tomato slices into saute pan and add dash of olive oil (my husband didn't care for the tomatoes, but they were easily removed after cooking).
• Cook veggies until onions are translucent and remove from heat.
• Flip crust over so that crusty side is facing up and spoon sauce onto crust.
• Sprinkle sausage and veggie mixture over sauce.
• Sprinkle mozzarella cheese evenly onto pizza and top with colby jack cheese.
• Bake pizza at 350 for 15 minutes.
• Cool for a few minutes and slice into 8 pieces.

SHRIMP OR LOBSTER GOURMET PIZZA

Steps:

• Dough: dissolve yeast in water in a large bowl. Allow to set for a few minutes until it begins to foam.
• Add sugar, salt, oil and 1 1/2 c flour and stir gently to combine. Add remaining flour and combine thoroughly. (I usually knead it a little in the bowl too.).
• Let rest for about 30 minutes. Pat out onto large, greased pizza pan.
• While dough is resting, mince garlic and mix with olive oil and allow to set to infuse flavor throughout.
• Spread oil and garlic over entire crust. Sprinkle with Parmesan cheese. Layer the shrimp or lobster meat, tomato, basil and mozzarella as desired and sprinkle with black pepper to taste.
• Bake at 400°F for 20 minutes.

WW GOURMET PIZZA

Steps:

• Coat a large nonstick pan with cooking spray. Warm pan over medium heat. Add onions and reduce heat to medium low. Cook for 15 to 20 minutes, stirring frequently, until onion browns and become very fragrant.
• Meanwhile, prepare pizza crust for baking according to package directions. Mince tomatoes and crumble cheese. Tear spinach into pieces. Preheat oven to 425.
• Spread caramelized onions on pizza crust and bake for 12 minutes. Remove from oven and add tomatoes, spinach, and cheese. Bake until cheese is melted, about 3 more minutes. Season with pepper and serve.