Homemade Pizza- Assembling and Baking the Pizza

OK, now the fun part...assembling and cooking the pizza. Here is a basic veggie pizza...so yummy!

Ingredients:

1 batch basic pizza dough (homemade or store bought)
1/2 cup pizza sauce (store bought, homemade, simple tomato or marinara)
2 cups shredded mozzarella cheese
1/3 cup green peppers, chopped
1/3 cup canned mushroom pieces and stems, drained
1/4 cup onions, chopped
cornmeal
olive oil

Directions:

1. Begin by cutting a piece of parchment paper slightly smaller than your pizza stone and set aside.
Place the pizza stone in a cold oven, then preheat at 500 degrees for 30 to 45 minutes.

2. On a floured surface, begin by gently stretching the dough with your hands. Then use a rolling pin to stretch it out to 3/4 of the diameter desired.

3. Place the parchment paper on the pizza peel and sprinkle with corn meal. Transfer the dough to the parchment paper and using the rolling pin finish rolling out the dough. Brush the edge of the pizza dough with olive oil.

4. Gather your pizza sauce and shredded cheese. Freshly shredded mozzarella is best but I also like the convenience of pre-shredded cheese.

5. Spread a thin layer of tomato sauce.

6. Sprinkle all of the cheese on top.

7. Add the toppings to the pizza. I used green peppers, onions and mushrooms on this pizza. I really like to use canned mushrooms because they are packed in water and retain a lot of the moisture while cooking.

8. Then carefully slide the pizza onto the hot pizza stone.

9. Bake until the crust edges brown and cheese is golden brown in spots, about 8 to 12 minutes. Remove from the oven (use heavy duty oven gloves) and cut with a pizza cutter. I also like to sprinkle a little dried oregano, garlic powder and a pinch of red pepper flakes on my slice.


ENJOY!!!