Pizza, Pizza!

one of our favorite dinners is homemade pizza. not to be mistaken with homemade pizza co. (which is also fabulous). what i'm talking about is rolling up our sleeves, rollin' out the dough and topping it with just about anything.

we've made everything from pizza margherita to caramelized onion & goat cheese and on the sweeter side... apple & fontina with rosemary. just last week we cooked up a mushroom pizza in honor of my new found love of mushrooms. thank you navona notte! (one of our favorite restaurants in rome, which has a mushroom pizza that is out of this world).

because we like to keep this dinner easy & fun, we typically buy the whole foods pizza dough and some sort of tomato sauce (we most recently tried cucina antica and it was perfect - nice and light so it doesn't overpower the toppings you select). here are a couple of items in the kitchen to get you started:

1. rolling pin
2. pizza slice & serve board
3. pizza stone
4. parchment paper
5. pizza cutter

for recipes, check out pizza, calzone & focaccia by maxine clark. we received this book from friends as a wedding gift (along with the slice & serve board) and it inspired us! thanks LP & MC! :)

other ingredients to always have on-hand when making pizza... flour, olive oil, salt/pepper, fresh mozzarella, garlic, basil, fresh tomatoes. oh, and a great bottle of wine (or two)!

next time we'll be creating our own version of balena's brussels sprout pizza. it may take a while to get it right, but we'll sure have fun tryin'! and, in the meantime, we'll venture down the street for the real thing. balena (1633 n halsted street, chicago)

xx,
k

(photos taken by k)