Easy Pizza from Scratch

Pizza tastes much sweeter when it is hand-made. Making your own dough, pizza sauce, and assembling an entire pizza from scratch may sound overwhelming, but with easy dough and sauce recipes, it may be less time consuming than waiting for the delivery guy.

For the dough, I used this recipe: http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Pizza-Dough-237338
I followed the recipe exactly except instead of sugar I used a tablespoon of molasses. This gives the dough a flavor reminiscent of that of Mellow Mushroom dough. Next time I am going to see if letting the dough rise for a shorter amount of time gives it a less airy texture.

I always make my own sauce. I have tried lots of bottled pizza sauces and none suit my fancy. I started experimenting one day and found that I could make pizza sauce that tasted fresh and wholesome with just a few ingredients. I don't like a lot of sauce, so if you are a tomato lover I would suggest multiplying this recipe by1.5 to give a more hearty spreading of sauce. The recipe is as follows:

3 roma tomatoes, thinly diced
1/8 of a white onion, diced
1 clove garlic, minced
A dash of red pepper flakes
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp sugar
1 tsp oregano

Place all ingredients in a saucepan and simmer on low for 25 or so minutes. Stir occasionally. If you like your sauce creamier, I suggest blending the sauce in the pot with one of those nifty hand mixers after it has been cooking for a few minutes.

Now, for efficiency sake I suggest getting the dough to the point of rising, then making the sauce and getting your cheese and toppings ready while it rises. You can use any topping you like. I used black olives, but some of my other favorites are ham and black olives, bacon and ham, and just plain old pepperoni.