Hawaiian Plus Pizza Recipe

I love pizza. I don't know if I've ever met a pizza I didn't like. The very idea of a yeast dough and cheese - that alone is enough to win me over. The other toppings add layers of flavor and texture to create a nourishing meal. Unfortunately, as everyday costs have risen, so has the "dough" it takes for a carry-out or delivery pizza. Our family budget these days just won't handle that except as an occasional splurge. So in the past few years we've experimented with budget-friendly ways to make our favorite pizza.

The added benefit of using a homemade pizza recipe is that you can control or eliminate the amounts of "unhealthy" ingredients, or those that conflict with allergies and other personal dietary limitations. For instance, my husband is a heart patient who is allergic to olives. So instead of olive oil, I substitute canola. You'll notice, too, that the pizza dough recipe has no salt. There's some salt in the cheese, sauce, and ham, but it's a manageable amount.

The standard pizza recipe consists of three parts: the dough, the sauce and the toppings. We'll discuss options for each of these, then recap with the actual pizza recipe at the end.

The dough is the most intimidating part of the pizza to make from scratch. There are several options available for the novice homemade pizza baker. The easiest are pre-made in the package, already cooked. I find those to be still too pricey for the quality. Another option is to buy a frozen pizza with minimal toppings and add your own. I've done the refrigerated pop-can dough, which works pretty well. There's also the boxed pizza kit, from which I've gotten only mediocre results.

After learning to make bread from scratch a while back, I realized that pizza dough is just a variation of flatbread. If you have a mixer with dough hooks, that's great. If not, start with a fork and then switch to your hands as the dough firms up.

If you are making your own scratch pizza dough, you can rest it for 15-20 minutes, then cover it with a plastic wrap and refrigerate up to 24 hours before use. In this case, you should allow at least a 10 minute warm-up to room temperature before assembling the pizza.

As to pizza sauce, I confess to using a jarred sauce, to which I sometimes add seasonings. You can use any tomato sauce, but may need to thicken it with tomato paste. In a pinch, I've been known to use pasta sauce and either reduce it on the stove, or "pre-cook" it on the pizza dough to dry it out before adding the toppings. Hey, when the pizza craving hits, you do what you must. If you prefer to avoid tomatoes, you can have a white pizza with a cheesy alfredo-type sauce, or a layer of moist riccotta cheese.

Pizza toppings fall into their own sub-categories: cheese, vegetables, meats, and other items I'll call "specials." It's important that no matter what toppings you use, they are as fresh as possible and cut into small, basically uniform pieces. Meats and most veggies should be precooked and drained of any juices or grease - unless you like soggy pizza. The great thing about pizza, is that you can use whatever you have on hand.

For cheese, I usually just go with a package of pre-shredded Italian blend... or whatever I have in the house. One layer of cheese goes on top of the sauce, and another layer on top of the other pizza toppings. Since we're watching the diet, I don't go overboard on the amount. However, part of the point of pizza for me is a delivery system for cheese, so I don't skimp too much, either.

My family likes fresh vegetables, typically sweet onion and bell pepper, sliced thin, and lightly sauteed in oil or cooking spray. Due to allergies, we don't do mushrooms. They are excellent on pizza, though, especially if you are not using meat.

Speaking of meat, my family likes meat on our pizza. However, most common meat toppings for pizza are not heart-healthy. I use the thin-sliced ham, which we usually have on hand for sandwiches. I tear or cut a few slices into bite-sized bits and deal them out evenly between the first cheese layer and the veggies.

Our "special" topping ingredient is a can of pineapple slices, very well drained and cut up into small pieces. With the ham, we end up with a Hawaiian style pizza with onions and peppers.

Enough talk. Here's the recipe.

My Favorite Homemade Pizza Recipe:

1 package yeast
1 cup warm water
1 tablespoon oil
2 1/2 to 3 cups all-purpose flour

1 jar pizza sauce
1 cup or more shredded cheese (Italian blend)
about 3/4 cup sweet onion sliced thin, lightly sauteed
about 3/4 cup bell pepper sliced thin, lightly sauteed
about 3/4 cup thin-sliced ham, cut into small pieces
1 8 oz can pineapple slices, well drained, cut into small pieces

In a large bowl, dissolve the yeast in the warm water.

Add the oil and flour (1/2 cup at a time) and mix until it forms into a doughball.

Cover the doughball in the bowl with a dish towel and let it rest 15 minutes or so. Some folks use a clean bowl coated with oil or butter and roll the dough until it is coated, then cover it to rest.

While the dough is resting, preheat the oven to 425 degrees F and prepare the toppings.

Punch down the dough and knead it a little to get the air out of it. If you want to try tossing it to stretch it, that's up to you.

Spread the dough out over a pizza pan that is lightly greased and/or sprinkled with cornmeal. Make sure the edge is rolled up slightly to keep the sauce and toppings contained.

Use a fork to prick the dough so it doesn't rise too much.

Optional step: At this point you can prebake the dough a few minutes. This depends on how crispy a crust you want and what toppings you use. You can also brush the pizza with oil if you like.

Spoon the sauce sparingly over the dough. Use the back of the spoon to spread the sauce evenly over the pizza, leaving the edges dry.

Add a layer of cheese, followed by even layers of veggies, meat, "specials", and a final layer of cheese. My pizza goes cheese, ham, peppers and onions, pineapple, cheese.

Bake pizza in 425 degree oven for 15-20 minutes.

Enjoy!