Pizza - Who doesn't love it?

This weekend we had some friends of ours over for games and dinner R and H.  We planned to order pizza, but I woke up on Saturday morning craving a really good pizza  (believe it or not I have yet to find a good pizza place in all of Los Angeles). 

I pulled out my favorite cookbook "America's Test Kitchen"  (btw: This is the best cookbook ever).  And got the recipe for pizza dough.  Surprisingly pizza dough really isn't that hard to make.  It really only takes about 20 minutes or so of hands on time, and the yeast really does do the rest of the work. I guess what I am saying is for a Saturday night this is totally worth it (especially if your husband is an expert pizza dough tosser :). 

I would actually love to post the contents of the recipe for the dough online, however, since the cookbook is copyrighted I will respect that and not post the contents.  So if you want it I suggest you buy the cookbook, it is a great investment.

Okay after looking at a couple of recipes for pizza sauce I came up with my own which is listed below: sauce. 

1 28 oz Can Crushed Tomatoes
1 Tablespoon Sugar
3 Garlic Cloves Minced
2 Tablespoons Olive Oil
S and P to taste
*5 dashes of Worchestire Sauce (about 2 teaspoons)

I combined all of the ingredients in a medium sauce pan and allowed it to simmer over medium heat for about 10-15 minutes. 

Toppings:  We made three pizzas.  Personally, I think a good pizza starts with good cheese.  In the Los Angeles area I prefer Trader Joes for gourmet cheeses as it has the best prices (if I don't have time to make it into the farmers market).  I bought a whole milk motz. and an Australian Parmesan, and then grated the cheese by hand. 

Pizza 1:  Veggie
              Cheese - Motz and Fresh Parm (both grated by hand)
              Artichokes
              Kalmata Olives
              Sliced Cherry Tomatoes
              Baby Portebello Mushrooms

Pizza 2:  Meat
              Pepperoni
              Sliced Cherry Tomatoes
              Mushrooms

Pizza 3: Sweet and Swine
             Pinnapple
             *Prosciutto (instead of regular ham - so much better)

I baked all of the pizzas at 500 degrees on parchment paper placed on a baking stone for about 12 minutes.

Although all of the pizzas turned out really yummy.  The Sweet and Swine with the prosciutto ended up being the house favorite.