Four Year Anniversary = Homemade Pizza

By putting up with me for 4 long years... your reward is homemade pizza.  And having made homemade pizza for about 2 years now,  I have to say I'm getting a little better each try!

I decided to celebrated our 4 years of togetherness (although two days later) by surprising the hubby with two of his favorite pizzas - (1) Onion & Italian Tuna and (2) Pepperoni & Mushroom.  Either he is a really good hubby (nah...) or he really enjoys my pizzas (yes!), he ate 5 huge slices and wanted more!  I ate 4 myself (hahaa), so I must love me a lot too.

I recommend making your pizza COMPLETELY from scratch... and yes, I mean the pizza dough too!  It just makes your pizza so much more special and incredibly yummy.  I've been using the same pizza dough even since I've started - Emeril Lagasse's Basic Pizza Dough.

I follow the recipe to the T and start with dissolving the yeast and sugar in warm water with the steady stirs of my spoon.  After 5 minutes of waiting, you should see foaming gunk water.  You should also smell the yeast (warning: not a pleasant smell).

Next comes the salt, olive oil, and half of the required flour (I put 2 cups of flour initially).

After stirring the two cups of flour in the wet mixture, your dough should be a gooey mess.  I then start putting a bit of flour each time and stir, until the dough turns into a soft ball that can be transferred to the counter for kneading.

I do the required kneading (about 5-7 minutes), adding a little bit of flour each time as needed.  You don't want the dough to be sticky to the touch, so flour this thing like crazy!  After kneading, coat a bowl with olive oil and put this big ball of flour in it.  Make sure to cover the dough with the olive oil in the bowl.  Put a damp towel (I cheat and use a wet paper towel... but hey it works!) and let the dough sit for at least an hour so that it can rise.  And yes... this dough will get bigger and bigger...

When ready, take out your dough and split it in two.  Unfortunately (or fortunately?), this recipe always calls for 2 pizzas.  Since it uses 1 package of yeast and it would be pretty hard to split the yeast, you have to make 2 pizzas each time. 

Roll out the divided dough with a rolling pin.  You can pick up the dough and try to stretch it or toss it at times, just like how those pizza guys on TV do it!  It helps with elongating the dough than the rolling pin can do.  Line your pizza pan (got this round pan at the Dollar Store, score!) with cornmeal or flour, and place the dough on the pan.  It's not the prettiest thing... but I say it builds the pizza's character...

The next step is placing the toppings (my favorite part, probably because I can delegate this to the hubby), which we have pepperoni, onions, mushrooms, Italian tuna, and tomato sauce.  A note on the Italian tuna: my hubby first fell in love with Onion & Tuna pizza while on vacation in Italy with his friends.  I konw, it sounds a little weird and gross (really? Tuna on pizza?!!), but after taking a bite of this in Italy earlier this year, I understand why he is a true fan.  Italian tuna has a very different taste than American tuna.  Somehow with the combination of the onions and cheese, it brings out the sweetness and unique taste of the Italian tuna, and man, it is Oh So Good!  I had actually tried to make this using American tuna a year ago (before I had the Italian version), and I thought my hubby's taste buds needed some changing (like chopping them off)... it wasn't that great.  But after having it in Italy, we were determined to find Italian tuna here in the States. Although we sacrificed our wallets for this Italian tuna ($3.29 at a North Beach deli), I do believe it was well worth it.

Onion & Tuna without the second layer of cheese.  This pizza is rectangular (only had one round pizza pan, so used a rectangular cookie sheet... you think I would of splurged for another dollar pan!).

Pepperoni & Mushroom with all the toppings, ready for the oven.

In the 500F oven and for about 15 minutes (make sure to put on a timer and check it when it dings!), your pizza should be ready:

It's been 3 hours and I am still stuffed.  What a great way to celebrate our anniversary... :)