Make-Your-Own-Pizza Party

A few weeks ago, my girlfriends from college and I, with our significant others, got together for dinner. Instead of going out to eat, we decided to save some money and try making dinner at home. Meghan graciously offered her place for a night of pizza making! We had decided to have a make-your-own-pizza party where each couple was responsible for bringing a component to making pizza. Joe + Ellen brought veggies and homemade pizza dough, which was a family recipe. Meghan + Charlie made the homemade pizza sauce and meats. Lastly, Jared + I were responsible for bringing the cheeses. We drank some beers, assembled the pies, had some laughs and enjoyed eating homemade pizza from scratch. Take a look at the photos from that night, and hopefully you and your friends will try this relatively cheap dinner party idea. The pizza dough and sauce recipes follows. Enjoy!

Thank goodness Joe and Ellen were responsible were bringing the pizza dough. They could have gone the easy route and purchased already made dough from Trader Joe’s, Walmart or even at a local pizza joint, but since Joe and Ellen LOVE to cook as well, they made the pizza dough. Here’s Joe slicing the dough to six equal parts.

As promised, Ellen allowed Pretty Tasty Things to showcase her dad’s recipe for homemade pizza dough. Thank you Ellen and Mr. Ahearn! The pizza dough was delicious!

Pizza Dough Recipe

INGREDIENTS:
1 1/2 cups lukewarm water
1 package of yeast
2 teaspoon sugar
2 teaspoon salt
4 cups flour
2 tablespoon crisco

DIRECTIONS:
1. Mix water and yeast together in a small bowl.
2. Mix the dry ingredients together and then add the water/yeast mixture.
3. Knead and add flour or water so that the dough isn’t sticky.
4. Knead in the crisco.
5. Put it in a greased bowl with a towel over it and allow to rise for one hour (works best in a warm and dark place, but doesn’t really matter). Dad’s recipe says to preheat oven to 450° and cook for 20 minutes, but start watching it at 15.

Vegetables are definitely a must for pizza. Ellen and Joe also brought all the veggies, which included a red onion that Joe sliced very thinly, green and red bell peppers, jalapeños, olives, mushrooms and artichokes. I think I used all of those vegetables on my pizza. I definitely loaded mine up!

Jared and I were responsible for bringing the cheeses. We went all out and brought a variety of cheeses used for both red and white pizzas. We brought mozzarella both shredded and fresh in a ball, feta, ricotta and Parmesan cheese. Don’t forget to bring a microplane grater for the Parm. Great investment if you don’t already have one.

Meghan and Charlie were in charge of the pizza sauce and meats. Even though Meghan spent a little more money on preparing the pizza sauce from scratch rather than buying something pre-bottled, it was totally worth it. The pizza sauce was out of this world. They found the recipe on allrecipes.com. The only thing they opted from the original recipe was anchovy paste. Despite that, the sauce had a lot of flavor without being too sweet or spicy. They also brought the meats, which included pepperoni and ground sausage.

Pizza Sauce Recipe

INGREDIENTS:
1 (6 ounce) can tomato paste
6 fluid ounces warm water (110 degrees F/45 degrees C)
3 tablespoons grated Parmesan cheese
1 teaspoon minced garlic
2 tablespoons honey
3/4 teaspoon onion powder
1/4 teaspoon dried oregano
1/4 teaspoon dried marjoram
1/4 teaspoon dried basil
1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper
1/8 teaspoon cayenne pepper
1/8 teaspoon dried red pepper flakes
salt to taste

DIRECTIONS:
1. In a small bowl, combine tomato paste, water, Parmesan cheese, garlic, honey, onion powder, oregano, marjoram, basil, ground black pepper, cayenne pepper, red pepper flakes and salt; mix together, breading up any clumps of cheese.

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