Cooking with the Shaws - Pizza

Cooking with the Shaws – Pizza

This recipe is one I have been using since my mom gave me the Shaw Family Favorites. It’s for my mom’s pizza. Now, growing up, I rarely had pizza from Pizza Hut or Dominoes or anywhere else. For one thing, they wouldn’t deliver out to the country where I was raised… and the other reason is that my mom made fantastic pizza almost weekly so there was no need for any “brought-on” pizza. :)

Don’t worry, I got plenty caught up on delivery pizza while in college. And none of those can touch homemade pizza.

I’ve started having Pizza Fridays at our house. It’s a good tradition. It makes for a quick and easy meal as long as I remember to get my dough going earlier in the day. While I LOVE to think outside the red sauce when it comes to pizza, last Friday I took it back and cooked my mom’s Pizza (p 155). Here’s how you can too…you may notice a few differences between the cookbook and what I put here….we have made a couple of changes like subbing Italian seasoning for oregano in the sauce):

Dough

1 pkg dry yeast

1 cup Water, warm but not hot

1 tsp Sugar

3 cups Flour

½ tsp salt

2 Tbsp Oil

Stir yeast and sugar into warm water and let proof for 5 minutes.

Beat half the flour into yeast mixture. Add salt oil, and remaining flour. Mix well.

Knead until smooth, adding more flour if needed.

Place in lightly oiled bowl, turning dough to coat. Cover and let rise until double…1 hour at least.

Sauce (I don’t know why, but I could eat this by the spoonful…and sometimes I do, but I’m weird like that)

8 oz Can tomato sauce

6 oz Can tomato paste

1 tsp Italian seasoning

1 tsp Salt

½ tsp Sugar

1/8 tsp Pepper

1 Tbsp Oil

Mix all together!

Toppings

Mozzarella cheese (12-16 oz for 2 pizzas)

1 lb sausage or ground beef or a combination of the 2, browned

Parmesan cheese to taste

This recipe will make 2 pizzas or 1 really big one. 1 of the smaller ones can feed 2-4 people depending on if you have sides or not. So you will need to divide the dough in half. If you just make one pizza, the dough freezes really well..just plop it in a Ziploc bag. Get it out the day you plan to make your next pizza and put it in an oiled bowl, cover it and let it thaw and rise.

The rest is pretty explanatory….spread the crust out on a baking sheet or pizza pan (dust your pan with cornmeal to keep it from sticking), top with sauce, meat, and cheeses. Bake at 450 for 15 minutes or so. Enjoy!!

This will probably be my only post this week. My grandfather passed away yesterday and I am probably going to drive down to Tennessee tomorrow for the funeral and such. Now don’t be sad for me. As awful as it sounds, I was not fond of the man. This is not a place to list the reasons why. Just know that I don’t have any warm memories of him. It makes me thankful that Joseph has such wonderful grandparents and won’t have to worry about having one that treats him like he’s nothing. I am sad…but not because I will miss him. I am sad because of the grandmothers that left me too soon and the grandfather that I never knew at all who I know would have loved me.

So anyway…enough sadness. I hope you all have a great week! I have many more Shaw Family recipes in the works and will be moving to another kitchen this week. I’m sure mom won’t mind. :)