Serves a Crowd
The Five Marys Pizza Party
- Prep time 3 hours 30 minutes
- Cook time 15 minutes
- Serves 6
Author Notes
The key to a great homemade pizza (made in a hot pizza oven) is not to use too much sauce, as it can make your pizza soggy or hard to handle. I like to start with a little olive oil and salt, or a red marinara sauce. Then add your favorite toppings and freshly shredded cheeses.
A traditional Margherita is always my first pick; fresh tomatoes, basil, and mozzarella with a little sea salt on top. But four cheese is a crowd-pleaser. I like to have Gruyère, fontina, mozzarella, goat cheese, and (always) freshly grated Parmesan on hand. Realistically, as long as you have some fresh veggies, you can make a great pizza! Sliced tomatoes, olives, squash, zucchini, mushrooms, sliced green onion, and arugula are some of my favorite options.
My girls like to make a pizza with *all* of the cheeses, then as soon as it comes out of the oven, I drizzle with good olive oil and sprinkle on some sea salt, freshly ground pepper, and shaved Parmesan or Asiago cheese. I like to add arugula to it after it comes out hot, too (this avoids having the greenery wilt in the oven). For something a little different: Parboil some potatoes. Slice them super thin and put them on the pizza with sliced green onion and crumbled bacon. Before you put in the oven, crack a raw egg in the middle for good measure. Sautéed sausage, caramelized yellow onions, and sautéed mushrooms are great options to have on hand as well. —Mary at Five Marys Farms
Ingredients
- For the pizza dough:
-
4 cups
bread flour
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1 3/4 cups
warm water, divided
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1 teaspoon
kosher salt
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2 teaspoons
dry active yeast
- For the toppings:
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Five Marys Merguez lamb sausage, cooked and crumbled
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Five Marys Italian pork sausage, cooked and crumbled
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Five Marys ground beef, cooked and crumbled
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Five Marys bacon, cooked and roughly chopped
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24 ounces
(3 packages) mini portabella mushrooms, thinly sliced and cooked
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Goat cheese, crumbled
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Mozzarella cheese, torn into small pieces
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Asiago or Gruyère cheese, shredded
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Parmesan, shaved
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Caramelized onions
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Marinara sauce
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Red onion, thinly sliced
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Zucchini or yellow squash, thinly sliced into rounds
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Bell peppers, thinly sliced
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Roma tomatoes, sliced
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Black olives, pitted and sliced
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Arugula
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Golden potatoes, cooked and thinly sliced
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Small eggs
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Olive oil, for drizzling
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Fresh basil, torn
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Fresh rosemary
Directions
- For the pizza dough:
- Make the pizza dough: Add flour and salt to a large mixing bowl. In a small bowl, hydrate yeast in ¼ cup of the warm water and let sit for 5 minutes. Add remaining water and hydrated yeast to the flour and salt; mix with a wooden spoon pressing along inside of bowl. Mix until dough takes on a "shaggy" appearance. (If necessary, add a drizzle of olive oil).
- Turn dough out onto a work surface and knead by hand until smooth and elastic, about 7 to 8 minutes. (Flour your hands as needed to work the dough.)
- Place in a large, lightly oiled bowl. Cover with plastic wrap and leave in a warm location (top of the stove is a great place) about 2 ½ to 3 hours, or until doubled in size. Turn dough out onto a floured surface, divide into 5 to 6 portions and roll gently into balls. Place dough balls on a sheet pan lightly coated with oil and cover with plastic wrap. Allow dough balls to rest about 20 minutes, covered. And then make pizza!
- For the toppings:
- Heat your oven to 450°F (if using). Working carefully with oiled hands, shape your portioned dough into rounds about ½-inch-thick.
- If using a specialty pizza oven, top pizzas with sauce and cheese. Using the pizza stone, bake for just 2 to 3 minutes or until golden brown and crispy. Rotate half way through if it's closer to the heat source. Pizzas cook fast so keep an eye on them in your pizza oven! Remove from the oven, add your remaining preferred toppings, then return to the pizza oven for 1 to 2 minutes more.
- If using a traditional oven, slide onto a hot pizza stone to pre-bake for 3 to 4 minutes. Remove from oven to add pizza sauce and your preferred toppings. Return to oven and bake for 8 to 12 more minutes or until the crust is golden and the cheese is bubbly.
- Cut into slices and serve warm.
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