Perfect Pizza

I have had a hard time finding a pizza crust recipe. Pizza was always a staple dinner in my house growing up, and I still love it. For a while I bought premade crusts, but those puppies are expensive. Mom always made her crust from scratch, but for some reason I could never get her recipe to come out right. Bread recipes and I often have a hard time, for whatever reason. AND THEN! I came across a new recipe. By chance, it was in one of my mom’s cookbooks (and by cookbooks, I mean 3 binders with loose sheets of papers, disorganized, and falling all over, that I organized for her into one concise and labeled binder. You’re welcome, Mom).  It wasn’t a recipe that she ever uses, and we were going to trash it, but I figured I might as well give it a whirl. The recipe came from a family friend, who comes from an Italian family and grew up in Chicago…someone who knows their pizza. And it turned out great!

The crust was nice and fluffy and flaky without you feeling like you are eating a chunk of bread with pizza toppings on it. The recipe is for a full pizza (including toppings), but it is made as a cheese pizza, so I added some extra toppings. Usually I just spread mozarella, but I followed the recipe for the cheese, and it made it extra delicious!

PIZZA CRUST

1 1/2 cups warm water

1 pkg. quick rise yeast

1 teaspoon sugar

1 teaspoon salt

2 tablespoons oil

3 1/2 to 4 cups flour

Dissolve the yeast in the water, then add all other ingredients. Let rise until doubled in bulk. Spread dough on pizza pan, then let rest for about another 15 minutes before adding any toppings

TOPPING

3 cups grated mozzarella cheese

1/2 cup grated Romano cheese

2 tablespoons olive oil

1/2 teaspoon oregano

Toss together above ingredients then put add to crust after spreading sauce over crust. Add any additional  toppings and bake at 425 until cheese is melted and crust is slightly browned.