In January I went to this pizzeria in Long Beach, CA to meet some friends from out of town. The place we met at was called Michael's Pizzeria, I had never heard of it before, but it was supposed to be really good. Well... that was an understatement. The pizza there was the best pizza I had ever had in my entire life! I wanted to go there and eat it every day! But Long Beach is pretty far from my house, so the next best thing was to make it myself.
Well that turned out to be a big undertaking. It was hard to find the Napoli style sauce that I wanted which is what I thought made the pizza so tasty. I'm not sure if I got the sauce exactly how its traditionally done, but I would say that its the best dang pizza I have ever made. Enough of the back story, on with the PIZZA!
First step when baking anything! Preheat the oven! Preheat it to 400°F.
Pre-cooking the dough!
Napoli Style Pizza
I bought the canned dough from the grocery store for this recipe (Ralph's/Kroger brand), but I have two links to recipes for homemade dough below.
Instructions for canned dough (also on the can)
- Preheat oven to 400°F, if you haven't done so already.
- Put a very small amount of oil or cooking spray onto a cookie sheet to help the dough not to stick.
- Place the dough on the cookie sheet and press dough out from the middle and toward the edges (picture above).
- Pre-cook the dough for 5-7 minutes, depending on the package.
- Take out the slightly cooked dough and place onto your stove or a wooden cutting board.
- Go to "Sauce" for the next steps.
We used this brand of tomatoes this time, but I think any San Marzano canned tomatoes will work.
Sauce blended!
Sauce (we used this amount of sauce for 3 pizzas)- 1 (28-ounce) can of San Marzano whole tomatoes
- 2 cloves of garlic, roughly chopped
- 1/2 teaspoon dried oregano
- Salt and pepper, to taste
Instructions
- Place the sauce ingredients into a blender or food processor and pulse until smooth with small chunks (picture above). This will take only a minute or less.
- Spread evenly onto the pre-cooked pizza with a spoon before adding other ingredients.
- Go to "Toppings" for the next steps for each pizza.
Some pretty ingredients.
I found this cheese at Ralph's (Kroger).
Sauce time!
Completed Margherita Pizza before it goes into the oven.
- 1 whole package of fresh mozzarella (8 oz), sliced into disks
- 1 roma tomato, sliced into disks
- 5 fresh basil leaves, ripped or sliced
Instructions to complete the pizza
- Add toppings and then the fresh mozzarella and basil on top.
- Put the pizza back in the oven for 7-10 more minutes or until done and cheese is nicely melted.
- Cut pizza into slices and enjoy!
You can really put anything on pizza, so that's what we did here.
Toppings for Special Vegetarian Pizza (shown above)
- 1 whole package of fresh mozzarella (8 oz), cut into chunks
- 1/2 sweet onion, sliced
- 1/2 red bell pepper, sliced
- 1 roma tomato, diced
- 1 jar of artichoke hearts, drained
- 1/2 can black olives
- 1/2 box of sliced mushrooms
- 5 leaves fresh basil, ripped or sliced
Instructions same as above!
Toppings for Half n Half Pepperoni Pizza (shown above)
On Half:
- Shredded mozzarella cheese
- 4 slices of thick cut deli pepperoni (can use any kind of pepperoni)
On Other Half:
- 1/2 a box of mushrooms
- 1/2 can of black olives
- Shredded mozzarella cheese
- 4 slices of thick cut deli pepperoni
Instructions
- Put the mushrooms and olives on first, then top it with shredded cheese and then the pepperoni.
- Put the pizza back in the oven for 7-10 more minutes or until done and cheese is nicely melted.
- Cut pizza into slices and enjoy!
Melted cheese and perfectly done crust!
Nom.
That yellow-orange stuff is grease. Gross! But soooo good!
(The bf's pizza = the greasiest)
Please enjoy the following yummy close ups!
I would love to know if you try out this recipe, so please let me know in the comments or on Google+.
Thanks for stopping by!
XOXO Shelly
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