This pizza was inspired by the Viola at Pizzeria Limone, it’s a chain pizza place near me that makes fabulous pizzas. Sometimes you need to have pizza night at your own home though, or there are a few things you want to tweak about a favorite dish from a restaurant and that’s what I did here.
As a bonus since I was making pizza dough anyway I used 1/2 the dough to make mini pizzas for my little. Now on her picky days I have a dozen frozen cheese and garlic pizzas that will heat for 30 seconds in the microwave or about 10 minutes in the oven.
Pizza night was a win/win for the whole family!
So first you’ve got to work on your dough, you can use store-bought, but personally I love baking breads and think the extra time is worth it! This is a pretty simple dough recipe, but it does need some rise time. I usually set my oven to 200° when I start the dough and then cover the bowl and put it next to or on top of the oven so it will rise faster in the warmth.
While the dough rises you have at least 20 minutes to prep all your toppings, or an entire bar of toppings if you have a lot of people and palettes coming to the table.
Add a little sugar if you’re using blackberries, it will really help bring out the juices..and of course add some sweetness to your pizza.
Once your dough has doubled in size, or you gently press a finger to it and it springs back, then it’s ready to roll! Pull it out of the bowl onto a lightly floured surface, and separate into at least 2 halves. This will give you two full sheet trays of pizza, if you prefer small pizzas then divide further.
At this point I pre-heat my oven to 400° and foil a sheet tray. Spray the foil with non-stick spray and transfer your rolled out pizza dough, you can do a little more stretching on the pan. Prick the dough with a fork to prevent bubbles.
Then I brush the dough with olive oil, and sprinkle around minced garlic.
I haven’t yet perfected a pizza sauce that has been worth the extra time spent making it on pizza night. So far I have used a jar of pizza sauce, if it says garlic or basil on it then I’m usually sold, and make sure to use as many fresh toppings as possible to balance it out.
Here are the Little’s mini pizzas, she’s pretty simple in her toppings right now, but also very particular about cheese types and garlic.
The full size pizza spends about 20-25 minutes in the oven. If you have a tray on each rack, swap them 1/2 way through baking so the bottom tray doesn’t have a darker crust and underdone toppings.
I use kitchen shears to cut my pizza, personally I find it much easier than a pizza wheel.
Pizza Dough Recipe
Prep: 15 minutes
Rise: 20~ minutes
Bake: 15-25 minutes (size dependent)
- 4 1/2tsp. Active dry yeast
- 1 1/2c. Warm water
- 2tsp. Sugar
- 1tsp. Salt
- 1/4c. Olive oil
- 4 1/2c. All purpose Flour
- Add the yeast, water, and sugar to the bowl of a stand mixer, allow the yeast to get foamy, this will take about 5 minutes.
- Add the salt, olive oil, and flour to the stand mixer.
- Start on low-speed until the dough begins to form a ball.
- Knead the dough on 3rd speed until it has formed a ball and is not tacky to the touch, about 5-7minutes.
- Put your dough into a greased bowl and cover with plastic wrap or a damp towel.
- Leave in a warm place to rise until doubled in size for about 20 minutes.
Pizza
Prep: 15 minutes
Bake: 20-25 minutes
Preheat: 400° (Standard Oven)
- Olive oil for brushing
- 1 tsp. Garlic
- 1/4c.-1/3c. Pizza sauce
- 1/2c. Thinly sliced red onion
- 1/2c. Blackberries, tossed in 1/2tsp. sugar
- 1/4c. Chopped basil
- 1/2c. Mozzarella, fresh, pearls or sliced
- 1/3c. Prosciutto, sliced
- Roll out dough and prick with a fork to prevent bubbles in the dough.
- Brush with olive oil and garlic.
- Spread pizza sauce all over dough.
- Add toppings.
- Bake for 20-25 minutes.
Under the Knife 