Hearty Goat Cheese (“if you please!”) Pizza

Homemade pizza is a standard at my house. I have a special place in my heart for pizza because my husband charmed me by making a few during our very first dates together. It was a rainy, cold day just like most of the days this week. So we stayed in, he made a pizza for me, and I introduced him to Lost. Making him my Lost buddy was incredibly selfish of me, but that is another story for another time. =)

Allow yourself an hour since this dough needs to rise. Of course you can buy a pizza dough at the store if you want something quick, but this recipe makes 2 medium pizzas. You can make one and save it for later in the week like I did.

Pizza Dough

1 cup hot water (just really hot from tap works fine)
1 packet active dry yeast
1 tablespoon sugar
1 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup vegetable
3 cups all purpose (or bread) flour (NOT SELF RISING)

• Add the above ingredients, one at a time and stir, until you get to the flour.
• Add 2 cups of the flour and mix it in.
• Gradually start adding 1/4 cup at a time until the dough mixture gets perfect. Sometimes it takes exactly 3 cups, sometimes a little less, so just evaluate the consistency as you go along until the dough mixture gets perfect- “not too sticky, not too flaky” as Joe says.

Hearty Goat Cheese (if you please!) Pizza

The “if you please!” part of this comes from Joe’s grandma, Mim. She treats her little doggy, Little Man, to a piece of cheese every afternoon at 5:30 p.m. And he WILL get mad if she forgets.

I added the following ingredients, starting with the sauce, and working my way up to the shredded cheese topping.

Enjoy!

• Classico Roasted Red Pepper Alfredo sauce (or a tomato-based sauce if you don’t have this on hand)
• fresh chopped basil
• goat cheese, 2-3 inches of a roll, crumbled OR 1 cup crumbles
• artichoke hearts, quartered (easy to find in a can near the pickles and olives)
• sun-dried tomatoes, chopped
• jumbo black olives, sliced
• shredded mozzarella