Homemade Pizza Recipe for National Pizza Month

Pizza has made the list of celebrated foods. As probably one of the most favorite dishes in many households, it is not that expensive to make. As a matter of fact, in its simplest version, pizza is very inexpensive and, yet, still delicious.

Let's see what days, or weeks, or months have been dedicated to Pizza!

The second week in January is National Pizza Week;
the second week in February is Great American Pizza Bake Week;
February 9 is Pizza Pie Day;
September 5 is National Cheese Pizza Day;
October is National Pizza Festival Month;
October 11 is National Sausage Pizza Day;
and November 12 is National Pizza With Everything Day Except Anchovies (http://www.tfdutch.com/foodh.htm).
Gone-ta-pott adds May 15^th as being National Pizza Party Day, although does not list some of the other celebrations (http://www.gone-ta-pott.com/national_pizza_holidays.html).

Given that October is just around the corner, we are going to take a look at this festivity. It is listed as a national event, but we need to keep in mind that no government official has made a public declaration to this effect. Suspicion falls on all those pizza aficionados who wanted one more reason to enjoy a nice pizza pie. After all, why not celebrate this wonderful dish?

There are many pizza recipes in books and on the internet, but the one my household follows the most is a recipe that has now been shared through three generations. We call it "la pizza con la patata" (pizza with potato).

The recipe is a basic pizza recipe but we add plain mashed potatoes, which give the crust a very soft texture.

Ingredients for the dough:

2 small potatoes (or 1 large one)
1 lbs all purpose flour
2 ½ teaspoon of salt
2 ½ teaspoon of sugar
1 packet of yeast (or 2 ¼ teaspoons)
1 cup warm water
1 tablespoon olive oil plus some to grease the pans and sprinkle on pizza

Let's prepare the dough, step by step:

1. peel and dice the potato(es), place in a pan, cover with water, and cook until tender. Once cooked, drain (you can keep 1 cup to use in your dough or drain completely), mash until smooth, and let cool until warm

2. in a container dissolve yeast, sugar, and salt in warm water (if you use the one from the potatoes, make sure that it has cooled down)

3. in a large bowl place the flour forming a crater in the middle, add the mashed potatoes and the previously dissolved ingredients and stir with a wooden spoon

4. place the dough on a lightly floured surface and knead until smooth

Now, traditionally you would split the dough in two (or more if you are making small individual pizzas), roll the parts into smooth balls, cover them, and let them rise in a warm place. I like to spread the divided dough directly in lightly greased pans and let it rise. This way I get the deep dish thickness I like.

Once the dough has risen (about two hours) and you have spread it in the lightly greased pans, you are ready to top them with your favorite pizza sauce, toppings, and a sprinkle of olive oil.

My pizza sauce consists of regular tomato sauce sprinkled with oregano. I then add any other topping I feel like eating that day or I have at hand. For example, as I sat down to write this recipe, I suddenly felt an urge to eat pizza, so I prepared it for dinner and used my usual pizza sauce, capers, green olives, and quesadilla cheese because I did not have mozzarella.

Place your pizza in a 400F preheated oven and bake for about 20 minutes, or until the crust is golden brown.

One more thing: if you don't have potatoes at hand, or you don't want to spend time cooking and mashing, you can successfully use potato flakes. I have used about 1/3 cup warm water and enough flakes to give me the consistency I needed.

Just remember one thing: any day is a pizza day!