Happy Friday, ladies, gentleman — and one of our newest readers, Grammy! Hope the week has been fantastic and you’re ready to take advantage of what’s looking like a lovely spring weekend.
Today, we’re gonna talk about pizza. Growing up, as my mom (hi!) knows, we ate a lot of pizza. Mostly from Little Caesar’s, sometimes from Hungry Howie’s, and less often from Pizza Hut. And during the summer, Greek -style pizza from GHoP is a bit of a Friday night staple.
Nowadays, though, Mrs. CWD and I do pizza fair amount on weeknights, but not usually from a takeout place. We end up making our own. Pizza is shockingly easy to do — you can make it in the oven, in the toaster, in the microwave (goo!), on the grill, or probably even an open fire. It’s the everyman dinner!
The chart below is a quick decision making tool you can use to figure out what type of pizza you’re going to make — then, we’ll jump into actually how to make them, using our 20-minute dinner the other night as an example.
See ya on the other side.
ORDER PIZZA: Self-explanatory — pick up the phone (or app?) and order.
NAAN PIZZA: What we’re making below — cheese, sauce, and toppings on pre-made naan.
STORE-BOUGHT DOUGH: If you want to get a little more fancy (or put some thought into this), buy your dough (fresh or frozen) during your weekly shopping run.
HOME-MADE DOUGH: I’m not gonna tell you how to make it, but the internet certainly will.
Anyway, here’s the recipe for Naan Pizza. You could swap out the naan with store-bought or home-made dough in the recipe below — I’d just recommend par cooking the dough so everything finishes at the same time.
About 30 minutes* before you’re ready to eat, pre-heat an oven to 400(F) and also cook a boat load of sausage however you like it best. For me, it’s throwing it on the ol’ Traeger for 20-ish minutes, or you can cook it in the over, on the stop-top, grill, or sous-vide. When it’s done, slice into coins and set aside.
Grab a few pieces of naan** (that you bought earlier in the week, or maybe made yourself) and ladle some pizza sauce*** on top. Top with cheese and whatever other toppings you like. Spinach, peppers, onions, mushrooms, pineapple — you do you. Add the sausage*** on top of the naan, pop it in the oven, and cook until the cheese is bubbling.
*If you’re short on time, you can crumble or cut the sausage into smaller pieces and cook on the stove top.
**If you don’t have naan, you could use pita, regular bread, a bagel, or even a tortilla. It’s all deadly.
***If you don’t have pizza sauce, you can use pasta sauce, crushed tomatoes, or pesto. Whatever floats your boat and pantry stock.
****If you don’t like sausage, feel free to omit. Or use bacon. Or pepperoni. Or leftover steak, chicken, or whatever protein you have on hand. The only rule is that there are no rules.
That’s it. Enjoy! As always, feel free to experiment. Welcome again to our new readers, and feel free to drop a comment with questions, concerns, or suggestions!