Pizza has been a problem for me. My husband Bob doesn’t have the same love of food that I do, and as a result I am usually resigned to eating what he likes to eat if we order takeout. He likes cheese and/or sausage pie, while I prefer more adventurous kinds. You know – ham & pineapple, chicken pesto, etc. But it’s ridiculous to buy two different kinds of pizza. And sometimes rogue toppings spill over into his half. So I just eat plain pizza.
And Bob loves pizza – some weeks we’ve been known to order it two or three nights. Crazy.
A few weeks ago, I proposed an experiment to him – let me make homemade pizza, instead of ordering it. If you don’t like it, I won’t make it again. But if you do like it – and I’m betting you do – we can have really great, fresh pizza and we’ll save a lot of money. He agreed.
And it worked out pretty well – the pizza tasted great, and Bob was semi-converted. But it wasn’t quite right – I was still making and eating an 8-cut plain cheese pizza. So my pizza problem was only half-solved.
Until I stumbled across a simple (and versatile) pizza crust recipe that called for turning the dough into 4 personal-size pizzas, instead of one giant one. I feel kinda stupid that I never thought of this before. Now, it’s not that I’ve never heard of personal pizzas. I moved out from under my rock years ago. I just never thought to apply them to my life situation.
But now I have, and I’m a changed woman.
Last week, I made plain pizza for Bob, and peppers & onions for myself. Tonight – inspired by a pizza I had at Wheatfield’s a few weeks ago – I made roasted tomato, olive, peppadew, and feta topped with mesclun mix and drizzled with balsamic reduction. The crust puffs up so perfectly, and it’s done in eight minutes. Eight minutes! I was happier than a pig in Pizza Hut. And Bob was pretty happy, too. I know he’ll probably never give up takeout pizza forever, but I feel like we’re at least moving in the right direction.
I now keep a batch of the dough in the freezer at all times, in case the pizza urge strikes. I’m pretty excited about all of the possibilties that are now in front of me (bacon! hummus! avocado! wild mushrooms!). Today, in fact, I bought myself a pizza peel. I’m not sure how I went 40 years without one.
Bread Challenge Update: I promise my next bread post will be coming soon. I made naan this week, but I can’t seem to get the post to write itself. I’m working on it!
Life at Goal 
Your pizza looks like I want to pick up the phone and order one just like it, but instead I will try your suggestion and make one. Where in the Albany area did you find peppadew? Thanks for your recipes and great photos. Patti
I usually can find peppadews in Hannaford, on the olive bar in the deli area. I’ve also seen jars of them at Price Chopper ($3.99 per jar, in the produce section).
They are so delicious…I first discovered them on the Mediterranean Veggie sandwich at Panera Bread.
Pizzaaaaa!! I love homemade pizza.
Oh, also: I probably would not use reduced-fat feta cheese on pizza again – it gets really rubbery when baked. Not delicious.
Bacon, artichoke, spinach is one of my favorites.
Hmm. I was going to make wild mushroom and Swiss this week, but I may change my mind. That sounds pretty great.
The proscuitto/arugula and the tomato/basil I just made were quite nice. Not as good as last week’s, but great stuff.
Love homemade. Even though I have easy acceds to DiFazio, I Love, and Guiseppe’s, it’s just more fun to make your own.
Yeah, we’re just around the corner from Tufano’s, and they make pretty decent pizza. But I really like mine. And, I’m cheap, so homemade satisfies that particular personality flaw too.