Kitchen Sink Pizza

Mmmm... pizza. The ultimate student food. Its delicious, filling and incredibly cheap; in fact, the joint around the corner from my house sells large pizzas for $5.99! It is almost impossible to beat that! But all that grease and fake cheese definitely starts to take a tole on the waist line. So I decided to start making my own pizza at home and I was determined to make it just as cheap, but a lot tastier. As you will see in the future, this pizza is only the first of my crazy concoctions!

First up, the Kitchen Sink Pizza. What on earth? Well.. it is pretty much pizza, with whatever you have in the house on it - possibly including the kitchen sink, but thats optional (HA!).

So what makes a good homemade pizza? Well the dough of course. I have made my own dough from scratch, but that will be a different day and a different post. For now, let's look at where you can buy some delicious dough!
- Local bakeries sometimes have fresh dough to buy
- Farmer's market (London, Ontario at the Covent Garden market has some great pizza dough at the bakery inside)
- Metro - not as fresh, but certainly delicious because they usually have different flavors such as Garlic and Rosemary (which I used today).

Best part about all this? I think the most I ever paid for this dough was $2.50 and I can usually get 2 pizzas out of the dough (well depending on how thick or thin you like your crust).

Another great thing is about this pizza, you can literally use whatever you have on hand. Anyone can make one really. The reason I post this recipe is to show you how you can actually use anything and chances are it will taste way better than anything out of a box. Plus you can load on the veggies and without even realizing it, you made yourself something healthy.

So let's take a gander...

Kitchen Sink Pizza

1 bag of pizza dough (well possibly half a bag)
1/4 cup of flour (just so the dough doesn't stick to the counter)
1/4 cup of cornmeal (OPTIONAL!)
1 small jar of pizza sauce (OR Ragu! Haha.. I had no pizza sauce so I used Ragu. Told ya.. whatever you have!)
2-3 cups of sliced mushrooms
1-2 peppers (I happened to have roasted red peppers - check that recipe out another day)
3 cups of spinach
2 tbsp of oregano
Cheese.. any kind. I had goat cheese and parm - but that wasn't going to stop me from making some good stuff!

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F
Roll out the pizza dough on a floured surface until you receive the thickness (or thinness) you desire. Sprinkle some cornmeal on a baking sheet. You really don't have to do this, but I happened to have some and it adds a nice crunch to the dough. Place the dough on the baking sheet and spread out with your hands until it meets the corners. Well... try your best, dough is stubborn.

Spread the pizza sauce (or whatever sauce) over the dough and sprinkle oregano over the sauce. If you are using Ragu or some pasta sauce, adding oregano kicks it up a notch. Place all vegetable toppings on top. If you are using spinach, put it underneath the other vegetables because it tends to burn. Sprinkle cheese on top.

Put in oven on middle rack for approximately 15-20 mins. Depending on how you like your crust. I like mine on the crunchier side so I will leave it in a little longer. Once the crust is a golden brown and hard to the touch, the pizza is done!

Let cool for a bit before cutting. Trust me on that one.

No more pizza boxes yay!

Cooking for 1 Tip: Pizza dough freezes nicely. Can you believe it? Wrap it really good in saran wrap and put it in a freezer bag. When you go to thaw it out and use it again, you may need to add a little more flour because it may be a bit wet. Also, knead it before you roll it out.