I know, I know. Where have I been? Sorry friends, but sometimes work, friends, and Junior League obligations kick in and I have no spare time. This week we will have two posts to make up for my busy-ness in the last couple weeks.

We love pizza. There is an amazing little pizza shop near our house, and we admittedly order from them almost once a week. However, sometimes I get a hankering for homemade pizza. I was originally going to make this with a friend of mine who is a vegetarian, but we got a little wine happy and wound up eating out. It happens. I’ve never tried making my own dough before, and was amazed at how easy my handy dandy bread maker made everything. Just make sure you set aside 90 minutes or so for your dough. You can also totally buy store bought. I also made my marinara sauce the day before, because it is always better the day after! We froze the rest of it for an easy meal one night.

Pizza Dough

• 2/3 cup water
• 4 tsp olive oil
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 2 cups bread flour
• 1 packet Fleischmann’s RapidRise Yeast
• 1 tbsp cornmeal

Add the your water and oil to your bread machine, then your flour and cornmeal. I also added some grated Parmesan cheese and some dried basil. Feel free to have a little fun here. Next time I may try garlic and basil. Yumm. Make a little well in the middle (but don’t go all the way to the wet!) and put your yeast in. Don’t ask why, but I’m sure it has something to do with activating the yeast prematurely. Hit the dough cycle and you’re done. Enjoy a glass of wine, or frantically make Spinich Artichoke Dip while you wait.

Marinara Sauce

• 1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
• 7 garlic cloves (I used 6 big ones)
• 28-oz can whole San Marzano tomatoes
• Crushed red pepper flakes (to taste)
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 fresh basil spring (I used 2!)

Heat the olive oil and add your garlic once it’s hot. Fun fact, don’t fry your garlic. Quickly add tomatoes and put 1 cup of water in the can to get the last bit of tomato out. Add in red pepper flakes, salt, and basil springs. Simmer for about 15 minutes. Since I was using this as a pizza base, I put it in the food processor to break up all the big chunks. If you’re using this as a pasta sauce, break up you tomatoes by hand before putting them in your pan.

To assemble:

One your dough is done, put a light dusting of cornstarch on your pizza pan and roll out your dough as thick as you like. It was pretty easy to keep it round, which was pleasantly surprising.

I put my marinara sauce on top, and then did the pretty pattern of mozzarella cheese, tomato, and basil on top. It baked for 25 minutes at 425. This resulted in a slightly soggy crust. Next time I’m going to bake it a little first, then add my sauce, and generally do less tomato. It was still really great, but made for weird leftovers the next day. I’d do this for a big gathering that way it all gets eaten right away!

About Barbaresco:

Here we have another Italian wine. I am so excited about going to Italy this summer and just basking in their wines. Anyway. Barbaresco is made from the Nebbiolo grape and gets to fermentation earlier because of where it grows. It was not a bold red, but very light in color. It tasted a little bit like cherries, with little spice notes. No headache, but I only had a glass before I switched to white for The Bachelor. Coming soon we have Spinach and Leek Risotto with a Chenin Blanc.