We have all been in our bunkers for the past year and are slowly coming out. Here is a good reason to have a small get together with friends — National Pizza Party Day on May 21st!
You may want to go ahead and make the dough and get all the ingredients ready so that everyone just has to add their own toppings, you can even just have it all done so when you’re ready to take a break from your dance party and eat, you just pop them in the oven and they are ready in about 12-15 minutes. For a really quick and easy pizza party – use personal sized pizza crusts and just add the ingredients! That offers flexibility and ease and you can even have gluten-free or vegan options available for your pizza party.
Ingredients for perfect pizza dough:
- ¾ cup warm water
- 1 Tbsp active dry yeast
- ½ Tbsp honey
- 1 ½ Tbsp olive oil + more to oil baking pan and work surface
- 2 cups plus 2 Tbsp all-purpose flour
- ¾ Tsp salt
- ½ cup cornmeal for baking
Ingredients for easy pizza sauce:
- 1 ½ cup store-bought marinara
- 1 clove garlic
- ½ Tsp oregano, optional
Pesto Pizza ingredients
- Pesto
- Garlicky Green Parma! – use generously
- Mushrooms, cleaned and sliced or chopped — sauteed or just fresh
- Sun-dried tomatoes sliced thin
- Goat cheese (Heido Ho makes a cashew Ne Chevre that works well!)
- Mozzarella cheese, grated
Spinach Garlic Chicken pizza ingredients
- Ranch Sauce (see below)
- Better Than Bacon Parma!
- Tofurky’s chick’n
- Fresh spinach
- Romas, diced
- Red onions, sliced thin
- Mozzarella, grated
- Cheddar, grated
- Parsley
Mediterranean pizza ingredients
- Pesto
- Original Parma!
- Caramelized red onions
- Artichoke hearts
- Roasted red peppers
- Roma tomatoes, diced
- Roasted garlic
- Feta
- Kalamata olives
- Capers
- Basil, chopped
Chicken Picante Pizza
- Cream cheese – spread on crust before marinara
- Marinara sauce
- Chipotle Cayenne Parma!
- Tofurky’s Plant-Based Chick’n
- Garlic
- Fresh jalapeños (optional)
- Chili flakes
- Mozzarella
How to make the pizza dough
- Put warm water in a large bowl, add the yeast and let stand for about 7 minutes for the yeast to activate. Don’t use hot water or you will ruin the yeast.
- Whisk in honey and olive oil. Add flour, then the salt.
- Knead until well-combined (use a dough hook on speed 2 if using a mixer). The dough should be sticky.
- Cover with plastic wrap and leave in a warm place until doubled in volume (45 minutes to 1 hour at room temperature or 25-30 minutes in a warm 100 degree oven).
Marinara sauce
- Combine all sauce ingredients in a small sauce pan.
- Cover and simmer over medium/low heat until it is reduced by about a third.
- It needs to thicken or the pizza will be too juicy. If you need to cool sauce to room temp faster, transfer sauce to a bowl and place in a bath of ice water.
Ranch sauce
- ½ cup Cream cheese
- ½ cup Mayo
- 1 Tbsp milk (+-), start with less, you don’t want it too watery.
- ½ – 1 Tsp Onion powder
- ½ – 1 Tsp Garlic powder
- ½ – 1 Tsp Parsley
- A few drops lemon juice to lighten it up
- ½ – 1 Tsp dill – fresh
- Whisk it all together
- Salt and pepper to taste
How to assemble and bake pizzas:
- Generously sprinkle baking pans with cornmeal — this keeps the crust crisper and prevents sticking to the pan. You can also oil pans if you don’t have cornmeal.
- Grease a clean work surface and your hands with olive oil.
- Transfer dough to an oiled surface and cut into three even pieces.
- Form each piece into an 8″ round pizza crust using your hands and transfer to baking pans lined with cornmeal.
- Spread sauce/pesto on each pizza leaving a ½ inch border of dough all the way around.
- Add plenty of mozzarella and toppings.
- Bake pizzas at 415 degrees for 12 – 15 minutes or until the crust is crisp and toppings are cooked.
- Slice, serve and enjoy!