Learn how to throw your own pizza party at home. This recipe will teach you how to make pizza, beginning with pizza dough, involving the tomato sauce, and including a variety of toppings.
A few weeks ago when we were in Dallas for the 4th of July holiday, Ryan and I hosted a "make your own" pizza party for his parents, brother + sister-in-law, and sister + brother-in-law. I've always wanted to do something like this, and since we just took an authentic pizza-making class in Italy, the timing worked out perfectly! Today I'm going to walk you through everything you need to do to have your own Italian-style pizza-making party at home. Trust me, with a little pre-prep, you can easily have a deliciously successful pizza-making evening at home with family and/or friends - there's fun to be had by all!
Ingredients
- Pizza Stone - we received this best pizza stone as a wedding present and have used it at least 100 times in the 2.5 years we have been married. It's well worth the investment and is the only way to get close to a wood-fired style crust in a conventional oven.
- Authentic Italian Ingredients - having a few high-quality ingredients on hand will ensure that you get restaurant-quality pizza at home. These are my favorite essentials....
- Double Zero Flour - this is a finely-ground, Italian milled flour that makes superior pizza and pasta dough. It has a lower protein content than all-purpose flour and lends great elasticity and tenderness to pizza dough. Find it at well-stocked specialty or Italian food stores.
- San Marzano Tomatoes - a version of plum tomatoes grown and harvested in the San Marzano region of Italy. They have a sweet flavor with very low acidity and have such a great flavor that you barely need to do anything to do them after opening a can! ind it at well-stocked specialty or Italian food stores.
A pizza stone getting good and hot in the oven!
Party prep
I started prepping for my pizza party about 2 hours before the guests arrived. During this time you will:
- Make your dough + let dough rise
- Heat your oven and pizza stone{s} - a hot oven and screaming hot pizza stone are key to pizza with a crispy bottom and chewy, tender crust! We used two pizza stones and baked two pizzas at a time
- Make an appetizer for people to much on while the pizzas bake - I chose this divine Kale Caesar Salad from A Cup of Jo
- Prep your pizza topping ingredients {see recipe below for topping recommendations}
- Divide your dough so that you have one dough ball per couple
- Set up your pizza making station - you'll need extra flour, rolling pins, parchment paper, pizza toppings, and a baking sheet for transferring your pizzas to the stones in the oven
Let everyone have a turn:
We had four couples and two pizza-making stations, so we let two couples at a time make their pizzas. The second set of couples made their pizzas while the first two couples baked their pizza. We all ate the salad as an appetizer while the pizzas where baking!
Fresh finishers:
In Italy, many restaurants would put a "finishing" topping on the pizzas once they came out of the hot oven. These are typically toppings that have fresh, delicate flavors. You want to put these one after the pizza bakes because exposure to high heat will mute the flavors, alter the color, or even burn these toppings. My favorites are below:
- Fresh, good quality extra-virgin olive oil - a drizzle is all you need!
- Olive tapenade
- Fresh basil
- Local honey
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Homemade Pizza Dough + Sauce
Ingredients
For the dough {makes 2 dough balls per recipe for a 12'' pizza} or 3 small 8'' pizzas}:
- 1 cup of warm water between 95-115 degrees F
- 1 teaspoon of granulated sugar or honey
- 1 package {or 2 ¼ teaspoons} active dry yeast
- 2-3 cups '00'/farina flour
- 2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
- 2 teaspoons kosher salt
For the sauce:
- 1 {14.5 ounce} can of whole peeled, San Marzano tomatoes
- ¼ teaspoon Kosher salt
- ¼ teaspoon freshly cracked pepper
- ½ teaspoon dried oregano leaves
- ⅓ cup chopped fresh basil leaves
Suggested toppings:
- THE HONEY PIG
- Fresh mozzarella cheese {You will need 3 ounces per pizza}
- Sliced spicy capicola {2 ounces per pizza}
- Thinly sliced wedges of fresh peach {1 small peach per pizza}
- Red pepper flakes
- Fresh basil torn with fingers {use to top once pizza has baked}
- Honey {use to top once pizza has baked}
Instructions
- Place your pizza stone{s} in a cool oven and set the temperature to 350. Let your stone heat for 1-½ hours.
- In a large bowl, combine the water, sugar or honey, and the yeast. Stir gently and let the mixture sit on the countertop for about 10 minutes. It should smell fragrant and look foamy on top if the yeast has been activated. If there is no foam or no bubbles have formed, your water was probably too hot. Pour out the mixture, clean your bowl, and start again with cooler water.
- Add 2 cups of the flour, the olive oil and salt to the yeast mixture. Stir with a wooden spoon to combine until a loose, wet dough forms. Turn the dough onto a well-floured surface and knead about another ½-1 cup of flour into the wet dough with your hands until a smooth, elastic dough ball forms. This should take 2-4 minutes to achieve.
- Place your dough ball in a greased bowl and cover the top with a towel or plastic wrap. Place in a warm, dry area to rise for 90 minutes or until double in size. I like to place my dough in a warm dryer that's been running for about 10 minutes prior to putting the dough inside.
- While your dough rises, make the sauce and complete any necessary prep work for your toppings.
- Pour the can of tomatoes into a small bowl. Using your clean fingers, break up the whole tomatoes into small chunks. Stir in the salt, pepper, oregano, and fresh basil. Refrigerate until you are ready to top the pizzas.
- When the dough has doubled in size, gently punch it down dump it onto your floured work space. Divide the dough in half and gently knead each half into a smooth ball. Place a damp towel or paper towel over your dough balls until you are ready to roll them out. Do not wait more than 15 minutes or so to roll them out, as they will start to rise again.
- Preheat your oven with the pizza stone inside to 450.
- Using a floured rolling pin, carefully roll out your dough to for a 12'' circle. You can vary the thickness according to your preference {I like about ¼'' thick}. Transfer the rolled dough to a sheet of parchment paper big enough to fit it on with about 3 inches of extra paper on each side.
- Spread a thin layer of sauce onto your dough, leaving about a ½'' border on the sides. Be careful not to add too heavy a layer of sauce, as this can prevent your bottom crust from getting crispy.
- Top with fresh mozzarella and other desired toppings {I recommend no more than a light layer of 3 different toppings - this will keep your dough from tearing or becoming soggy}.
- Using the overhang of parchment paper, transfer your pizza to the back of a baking sheet. Open the oven, place the baking sheet near the pizza stone, and carefully slide your pizza onto the stone. Bake for 12-14 minutes until the crust is golden brown on the bottom and the cheese is melted and bubbly.
- Remove your pizza from the oven by using the parchment paper handles to transfer the pizza back onto a baking sheet {this way your stone can stay hot for baking more pizzas}. Slice the pizza, top with finishing toppings if desired, and serve hot!
- When you are done baking pizzas, turn off your oven and let your pizza stone cool in the oven completely before removing it. Clean your stone according to manufacturer's instructions.
Luke Yancey says
I really appreciated that you mentioned the pizza stone. Not everyone knows you can use one, and it makes your crust taste so much better. Also, when mixing in the flour with the water and yeast mixture, I would recommend only using one cup at a time. Sometimes if you put too much of the flour in at once, the dough will be too thick!
Whitney Reist says
Thanks Luke - you are right about the flour and that is a fabulous [email protected]