On Sundays, we eat pizza!

In the Condit house, we celebrate the end of the weekend with a pizza party.

We start the dough in the late afternoon, prepare the toppings, crank the oven as hot as it will go, and let the smell of fresh dough, sauce and cheese fill the house. It's a fun project that we can do together (one of the only times we share the kitchen), and then we can sit down and enjoy the fruits of our labor with a glass of wine.

I don't know about you, but my idea of "good pizza" has changed over time. My first memory with pizza was my sister and I asking to eat our Papa John's ham and pineapple pizza on the floor of our new bedroom. My parents bought a new home the summer between my 3rd and 4th grade years and we spent most of the summer remodeling. There were many long hours at the house ripping up carpet, pulling down (and putting up) wall paper, sanding and painting.... The silver lining for my sister and me was that it meant a lot of take out food while our parents were busy working. We were so excited about the new house and getting a new, bigger room to share that we would take our pizza upstairs with paper plates and and paper towels and sit on the floor eating while we dreamt about all the things we were going to do in that room. The possibilities were endless.

Fast forward to high school and we had pizza at school two days a week from Papa Johns and Pizza hut. There were other items to choose from on those days, but I never got sick of pizza. In fact, even on the non-pizza days, I often ordered the Pizza Hut bread sticks from the cafeteria. (If you hadn't noticed before, I am a carb-o-holic. It started young and is still going strong.) I continued the thick crust phase the whole way through college when my roommate and I would order a large stuffed crust pizza and a calzone and make it last all week. A step up from living off of ramen and cereal, I suppose.

After college, I moved to Connecticut and quickly fell in love with the thin crust pizza we tried in New Haven. I got really excited about all of the different toppings too: prosciutto & arugula, hot honey & pepperoni, bbq pork, pineapple & goat cheese, even clam pizza! A little different from the person pan pizzas of my youth, but still delicious.

While I would like to say that thin crust is my favorite, I honestly like pizza in any form (even Chicago deep dish).

Asher and I each have versions of our favorite pizza to make.. this one is mine, but i'll have to document his for you too! I hope you use this recipe to chase away the Smondays like we do. My dough and sauce was inspired by this recipe, with just a few tweaks. If you want a classic Margherita pizza, Laura's recipe is amazing!

Ingredients

Dough (makes 2 pizzas):

2 1/2 cups flour
1 teaspoon sugar
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon active dry yeast
7 ounces of warm water
1 tablespoon EVOO

Sauce (will make enough for a few weeks of pizza nights):

1 28oz can of San Marzano tomatoes
6-8 cloves of garlic.
1 tablespoon EVOO
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon black pepper
2 teaspoons dried oregano
1 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes

Toppings:

1 1/2 cups of cubed mozzarella cheese
1/2 yellow onion
1 cup cooked sweet Italian sausage
2 tablespoons EVOO

Instructions

Dough:

Wisk together the flour, sugar, salt and yeast in the bowl of a stand mixer
Add the warm water and EVOO and use the dough hook to knead until combined (about 2-4 mins); the dough will form a ball around the hook and the bowl will look clean (if the dough is sticky and not coming together, add some more flour)
- While the dough is coming together i like to heat some water in the microwave to create a toasty place for the dough to rise
Pull the dough off the hook, add it to a medium bowl that his been lightly greased with olive oil, cover with a clean kitchen towel, and let it rise in a warm place for 2 hours
After two hours, separate it into two balls and let rise again until you are ready to make the pizza (at least 10 mins)

Sauce:

Combine all ingredients and blend them together (I use an immersion blender, but a regular blender would work fine)
- This sauce is so so easy, which means the quality of ingredients is really important; don't use just any can of tomatoes... San Marzanos are the way to go

Assemble & Bake the Pizza:

Preheat oven to 550 degrees (if using a pizza stone, preheat that too)
Roll the dough out into a 10-12 inch circle (will be very thin)
Place the dough on a pizza peel or heavily floured sheet pan so you'll be able to easily slide it onto the preheated pizza stone (if you don't have a pizza stone, place the dough on a sheet pan that can handle the high heat)
Brush 1 tablespoon EVOO over the dough
Add about 1/2 cup of the sauce and spread it out to within 1/2 an inch of the edges
Top with cheese, sausage and onions to your preference
Slide the pizza onto the pizza stone (or place the sheet pan in the oven) and bake for 7-10 minutes until the cheese is melted and the dough is cooked through
Top with a large pinch of black pepper
Repeat with second pizza

This pizza is very delicious! The sausage and onions go great with the simple sauce and mozzarella cheese.. and you can't go wrong with fresh dough. What are your favorite toppings for pizza?