Nutgraf

That gorgeous homemade pizza you see before you? Yeah, I did that. Made the dough from scratch, and even grew the rosemary (rosemary pizza dough? Try it sometime), tomatoes, basil and banana peppers my own self. And the kicker? It’s totally easy. About 15 minutes total prep time, zero skill and you too can have a work of art like this.

The masterpiece uncooked.

• Make pizza dough. I use Cuisinart’s recipe in my Kitchenaid, throw in some olive oil if the recipe doesn’t tell you to, and add about a teaspoon or two of fresh, chopped rosemary. Or whatever else you’ve got a taste for.
• Chop up a bunch of stuff. Tomatoes, basil, olives, peppers are on display here. But that’s only because I was too lazy to go buy pepperoni. Anything goes.
• Roll out your dough into a rough, pizza-like shape. Maybe half an inch thick. Use flour to keep it from sticking to wherever you’re rolling it out.
• Whack it on a cookie sheet covered with parchment paper or sprinkled with corn meal and finish shaping by hand. Some people swear by a pizza stone. I don’t care one way or the other.
• Smear dough with tomato sauce or whatever kind you like. Sprinkle with shredded mozzarella, add toppings, sprinkle with additional cheese. Some folks like to use slabs of fresh mozzarella. I support them wholeheartedly.
• Pitch in oven at 475 for about 15 minutes, or until the dough gets all puffy and delectable, starts browning and the cheese melts and develops strategic golden highlights.
• Remove from oven and let cool for a bit.
• Enjoy.
• Submit successful variations below, via the comments field.

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