Who doesn’t love pizza? It is one of America’s favorite foods. Like most of you, I’ve had some memorable pizzas – those made by The Red Onion in Rangeley, Maine and the California Style from Pizza Harbor in Seaside, Oregon come to mind – and way too many greasy, tasteless concoctions. But the best pizza by far is homemade. Here at Casa Pottle the grandchildren love “make your own pizza” night. It’s a great way to get the kids to eat more veggies. Just the other night, the 4 year-old loaded her own mini pizza with spinach, bell peppers, and zucchini. The three year-old indulged in black olives, and the 11 year-old  – a budding foodie – added artichokes and Manchego cheese to her usual spinach and red peppers. I find that serving pizza is a great way to use up vegetable and cheese odds and ends for an anytime meal. The secret to making this actually work, is to make your own pizza crust and freeze it! Here’s one of my favorite pizza dough recipes.

Recipe:

• 1 cup white whole wheat flour
• 1 cup semolina flour
• 1 1/2 cups Kamut flour
• 1 1/2 cups bread flour
• 2 Tbsp olive oil
• 1 1/2 tsp each salt and yeast
• 1 – 2 Tbsp Italian seasoning
• 2 – 2 1/2 cup water

Combine all ingredients and knead until smooth. Place in a greased bowl, cover and let rise about 2 hours. Gently deflate dough and let rest. Preheat oven and a pizza stone if you have one , to 450 degrees. Make individual pizza crusts, any size you wish. I like to make small pizza crusts for the kids, and medium ones for the adults. Bake each crust for 2 – 3 minutes. Remove from oven and let cool. Stack crusts with parchment or waxed paper between each crust, and place in a zip top freezer bag. Freeze.

Remove pizza crust from the freezer, cover with sauce and toppings, and bake each at 450 degrees for about 15 minutes.

Recipe makes 2 very large pizza crusts, or many smaller ones (I made 16 small and medium crusts from this recipe).  And no, they aren’t really green. Not sure what went wrong with the photo!