These recipes for pizza dough and sauce are very easy to make. The dough rises in 30-45 minutes. I made the sauce and prepped the toppings while the dough was rising.  I’ve been making this easy pizza sauce for years and love it.  The dough recipe was one I hadn’t tried before.  It was on the back of the Flieschmann’s Active Dry Yeast packet.  I had another recipe in mind but when I saw it, it looked so easy that I gave it a shot. I made this while my parents were in town and they loved it. Of course it’s pretty easy to pick up the phone and order a pizza but making a homemade one really isn’t that hard and it’s so worth it.

Pizza Dough

1 envelope Flieschmann’s Active Dry Yeast

1 cup warm water

2-1/2 to 3 cups all purpose flour

3/4 teaspoon salt

2 tablespoons olive oil

1 teaspoon sugar (my addition)

Soften yeast in warm water, in a mixing bowl.  Add 2 cups flour, salt, sugar, and oil.  Stir in enough remaining flour to make a soft dough.  Knead on lightly floured surface until smooth, about 4 to 6 minutes.

Place in greased bowl; cover and let rise in a warm place until doubled, about 30 to 45 minutes.  Punch dough down.  Pat dough into a greased large pizza pan. (Make sure you use a large pan unless you want very thick dough!) Top with desired toppings. Bake at 400 degrees for 20 to 30 minutes.

Pizza Sauce

8 ounces tomato sauce

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon sugar

1/4 oregano

1/4 teaspoon basil

1 teaspoon minced garlic

1/2 tablespoon olive oil

few dashes, black pepper

dash, crushed red pepper flakes (optional)

Combine all ingredients and spread on pizza crust.

Note: Instead of oregano and basil, sometimes I use 1/2 teaspoon of Italian seasoning and that works very well, too.

I used mozzarella, italian sausage, pepperoni, green peppers and onions on the pizza for Scott and my parents. I made a small no cheese pizza for myself with grilled chicken, roasted red peppers, green peppers and onions. I sprinkled a little dried cilantro on both of them before baking. Yummm! 🙂