What's 4 Dinner, by Marie: Easy (Faster than Delivery) Homemade Pizza

First of all, I'd like to remind you to look back on my Foccacia recipe. This is the crust of my pizza.

http://whats4dinnerbymarie.blogspot.com/2011/11/foccacia-bread.html

Once you have the crust made, add whatever your favorite toppings are. The pizza I made tonight, I surprised the kids with cheese in the crust (YUM!), Italian Sausage and Black Olive!

To keep it fast, I used jarred pasta sauce. Use what you like. Not too heavy, it will be too wet. You can also make your own quickie pizza sauce by adding basil, oregano, thyme, salt, pepper and a pinch of red pepper to a can of tomato sauce. Again, though, don't put too much on the pizza. I also used Italian sausage that I precooked in a pan and then chopped up. Do NOT put raw meat on a pizza. Any and all meats are precooked. Pepperoni is already cooked.

I rolled the bread dough out, onto a pizza stone lightly oiled in olive oil, going over the edges. Dough shrinks back, so don't be afraid to roll out farther than the edge. Plus, I wanted extra dough to roll around the string cheese in the crust. After the dough is rolled out, top with sauce, toppings and mozzarella cheese. I also sprinkle a little oregano over the top of the cheese for a little zing.

Bake at 500* for 10 - 15 minutes or until browned and well done. The more toppings, the longer it will need to cook.

Delivery is what..... 30... 45 minutes?? Super Bowl weekend.... LONGER!

What a clever idea Pizza Hut came up with when they started putting cheese into the crust. I always thought the crust was the best part anyways, but now, even folks who didn't eat the crust would want to eat it! So string cheese gets rolled into the crust. I only do two sides, not all the way around. You could do it in a round pizza too, just cut slits into cheese so it goes around the curve.

OK, cheese is rolled in there... I really like my rectangular pizza stone. I find it to be more versatile than the round. The round stone limits me to pizza. The rectangular stone can be used for a myriad of items. I usually make my homemade pizza in rectangular shape. If you cook a lot of frozen pizzas, then the round stone will be perfect for you. Pampered Chef has many baking stones and I love them all!! I do have a round stone, but I use it more for biscuits than for pizza.

I've fully cooked my Italian sausage. I sliced it and then chopped it in my handy dandy Pampered Chef chopper.

Ready to sprinkle on pizza.

Poke the crust all over with a fork, to keep it from rising and growing bubbles in the crust. Spread spaghetti sauce on top. Not too much. It will soggy up your crust.

Add toppings. Here I'm sprinkling my chopped sausage on top.

Black Olives on top of sausage and now the mozzarella cheese. I would add pepperoni too. That's the only thing I like to put on top of the cheese as opposed to underneath. But, no pepperoni tonight. Someone ate the whole package last night! :O

A little sprinkle of oregano and it's ready for the oven. 500 degrees for 10 - 15 minutes depending on your toppings.

Start checking after 10 minutes. It's starting to brown, but not all over. I turned the pizza around, front to back, so it would brown evenly and back into the oven.