This was such a fun idea! Last week I decided that I wanted to make pizza for our Sunday Company Dinner. Since it’s summer, our group dwindles sometimes, so with pizza I thought I could be prepared for just a few people, or a lot of people. But how best to do it? It had to be homemade- there’s nothing like homemade pizza. And we have a friend with dairy allergies- could pizza be done well without mozzarella cheese? Well, I think it was a success all around, and here’s how I did it.
The first thing I did was to make the pizza crusts a day ahead of time. I used my recipe for Pizza Dough/Focaccia, only I made four batches of it. This really wasn’t difficult to do, I did it kind of assembly line style, and I had four bowls of dough rising in about half an hours time. The tough part was keeping track of which timer went with which bowl. As each batch finished its rise time, I divided each batch into 6 portions and rolled out the dough into smaller pizza crusts. This way, when topped, two pizzas would fit on one baking sheet. And to make the whole thing even more fun, each pizza was personal sized- everyone was going to build their own pizza. I ended up with 24 pizza crusts- I simply baked them up four at a time on the baking sheets until they were golden- and I actually flipped the crusts as well to get the color on both sides. It worked very well, and I stored them overnight in large plastic bags.
The toppings were even more fun. I wanted a little bit of everything available, making it friendly to both 
veg-heads and meat lovers alike. For the most part, this simply meant slicing and dicing and putting toppings into bowls, but there were some things that needed advance preparation. The Italian sausage, for example, needed to be pre-cooked, so I did that. I also roasted some zucchini and broccoli together for a fun topping. The best topping in my opinion though came from my garden. I picked some of my gorgeous rainbow chard and wilted that on the stove with some minced garlic. Holy cow, that made the best pizza! Of course, it was kind of sad to see this huge pile of chard wilt down to nothing… I also used both the stems and the leaves. The stems I sauteed in the pan in olive oil for about 5 minutes, then I added the garlic. Once the garlic started to have some color, I added the leaves, stirred them together, covered, and let wilt for another 5 minutes. I highly recommend wilted chard and mushrooms for the perfect pizza experience!
For the dairy allergy I decided that pizza probably wouldn’t be pizza without cheese of some kind, so I picked up a package of Veggie Shreds. I’ve always wanted to try them, and they were pretty comparable to mozzarella cheese, flavor wise. They didn’t get as melty and gooey though, so the texture was a little different, but on the actual pizza it tasted fine. Everyone else had mozzarella, and you could definitely see the difference when side by side. I’m looking forward to seeing what else I can do with these shreds though.
Overall the toppings on hand were: ham, pepperoni, Italian sausage, pineapple, mini bell peppers, vidalia onons, portabella and button mushrooms, rainbow chard, black olives, green olives, artichoke hearts, roasted red and yellow peppers, and roasted zucchini and broccoli. For the sauce I used two large cans of Muir Glen Crushed Tomatoes with Basil, and overall the pizzas were wonderful. All the kids had a blast making their own pizzas especially, but I think even the adults had a good time customizing their pizzas to their specific tastes. We popped some in the oven, but for anyone who wanted it, Andy also took several of the pizzas out to cook on the grill and add that nice smokey flavor to the pizzas. I think most everyone inhaled their pizza, and it was so fun we’re planning on doing a similar pizza night camping with an open fire. With plenty of planning ahead and just a touch of work to prepare ingredients, a build-your-own-pizza night is really fun and easy for a crowd.
Pizza Dough
1/4 cup lukewarm water (110 degrees) 2 1/4 teaspoon yeast (1 packet) 1 teaspoon sugar 3 cups bread flour 1 cup white whole wheat flour1/2 teaspoon salt 1 1/4 cups lukewarm water 2 Tablespoons olive oil
Combine 1/4 cup water, yeast, and sugar in a small bowl. Stir to combine, and set aside for 5 minutes.
In a mixing bowl, combine the flours and salt. Mix with a whisk to evenly incorporate the salt. Add the yeast mixture, remaining water,and olive oil. Stir with a wooden spoon as long as you can, and then use your hands to bring the dough together. Turn it out onto a lightly floured surface and knead until it is smooth. This should take between 3-5 minutes. Place in a bowl that has been oiled, cover, and let rise for 1 hour.
Punch the dough down, knead it briefly, and cover again. Let rise for 30 minutes.
Turn the dough out of the bowl onto your work surface. If you are making pizza, this is the time to stretch the dough to fit your pan, add your toppings, and bake at 500ºF for 10-15 minutes.
If you are making focaccia, gently stretch your dough to fit in your pan- I use a half-sheet pan. Use your fingers to press into the dough and put little dimples in the whole thing. Brush the dough lightly with olive oil, and sprinkle with any toppings you’d like. You can use fresh herbs, dried herbs, coarsely chopped olives or garlic, Parmesan cheese, sun dried tomatoes, roasted red peppers, etc. The only must is that you must sprinkle it with salt and pepper at the very least.
Cover your focaccia dough and let it rise again for 1 hour. When there are about 15 minutes left, preheat your oven to 500º so it is good and hot when the focaccia is ready.
Bake the focaccia for about 15 minutes. Keep an eye on it. You want to bake it until it is golden brown. If it is browning unevenly, rotate your pan or move it to a different shelf. Cooking at 500ºF will make the inside of the dough nice and fluffy while the outside gets crispy.
If desired, after you pull the focaccia out of the oven, you can brush it again with olive oil or melted butter.