Easy Homemade Pizza Crust

I love crispy pizza crust and it seems like when pizza is delivered, it always has soggy or doughy crust. No matter how you try to crisp it up in the oven, it doesn't seem to work.

Our friends, Tom and Mia,shared a simple

pizza/salad/wine dinner with us while

our kids were at football games.

I dug this recipe out of my old recipe box and thought I would give it another go. I also had another inspiration from a Food Network cooking show. (While walking on the treadmill at the gym, I watch the cooking shows--an oxymoron if ever there was!) The cook on the show made pizzettas--very thin pizzas. I used my pizza crust recipe and it turned out great.

Recipe for Pizza Crust:

1 1/2 cup flour (divided)

1 (1/4 oz) package dry yeast (quick rising)*

3/4 tsp salt

1/2 cup water, heated until hot

1 T olive oil

parchment paper

*Very important that the yeast package says "quick-rising"

Whisk 3/4 cup flour with yeast and salt. Add water and oil gradually. Add the remaining 3/4 cup flour. If too dry, add 1 T water. Place dough in a clean bowl sprinkled on the bottom with flour. Sprinkle more flour on top of the dough. Cover with a warm, damp tea towel and let rise for 30 minutes. Knead the dough to soften it up before rolling out. If you want to make one pizza, roll the dough out as one piece. If you want to make "pizzetas", divide the dough into three sections. Roll the dough into a ball, then place it on a large square of parchment paper. Add a little flour to the dough so that it doesn't stick to the rolling pin. Press the dough down to make a large circle, then start slowly rolling it out from middle to edges. Keep doing this until you end up with a very, very thin crust. (Remember it will still rise a little more.) You can slide the pizza and parchment paper onto a cooking sheet or place in a shallow baking pan (still on the parchment.)

To make Olive Tampenade/Pecorino Cheese Pizzetas:

Spread olive tampenade (store bought--can find near refrigerated pestos) on pizzeta, drizzle a little olive oil, then add thinly sliced pecorino cheese on top.

To make Pizza Margherita:

Top with sliced Roma tomatoes, chopped fresh basil, drizzle with olive oil, and sprinkle some parmesan, salt, pepper (You will add mozarella during the last 10 minutes of cooking.)

To make Spinach, Sun dried Tomato, and Feta Pizza:

Drizzle olive oil lightly on crust, then top with sauteed, slightly wilted fresh spinach, sliced sun dried tomatoes, and feta cheese crumbles.

Before cooking pizzas or pizzetas, let rise for 7 minutes after you have topped them. Bake at 400 degrees for 20 minutes. Add mozarella if desired and bake for 10 minutes more. The crust should be crispy and delicious!