Homemade Pizza Dough

    So I haven't been posting much lately, but I have a really good excuse. I've been on a two-and-a-half week odyssey of a spring break backpacking all around Europe, and that meant no computer and limited internet access. But I think it's important to take technology breaks sometimes, especially during vacation, because it allows you to be more present. Within the next few days, I'll be posting multiple reports on my travels, but first, I thought it was time for a recipe. And this one is fitting too, considering that I did just spend a week in Italy. For the longest time, I've wanted to start making my own pizzas, and I finally got around to it. Obviously, the dough is the only slightly tricky part, and I'm sure I can improve in the future, but for a first attempt, this was actually pretty easy and pretty good! Of course you can put whatever you want on top, but I thought I'd start with the classic margherita.

INGREDIENTS:
3/4 cup warm water
1 packet of dry yeast
2 cups all-purpose flour
3/4 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon sugar
a few tablespoons of olive oil

a jar a pizza sauce
one blob of fresh mozzarella
2 fresh tomatoes
a bunch of fresh basil

DIRECTIONS:
1. The dough only takes an hour. And make it by hand, it's more fun that way! Start by mixing the yeast into the warm water in a big bowl, and let that sit for 5 minutes.
2. Mix the salt and sugar into the flour. Then gradually add that to the yeast bowl. When you have half of the dry ingredients mixed into the dough, add a few tablespoons of olive oil, then add the rest of the flour.
3. Transfer the dough to a floured surface and knead it for a couple minutes. Add flour if it's too sticky to work with. When you have it in a nice, neat ball, grease a clean bowl, and let the dough rise, covered with a towel for an hour.
4. Now punch the dough down, put it back on your floured surface, and roll it out to whatever size and thickness you want.

5. Preheat the oven to 425 while you prepare the toppings.

Spread a layer of pizza sauce on, stopping before you get to the edge, so you can roll it a little and place slices of tomato and cheese. Add the basil last, after it's cooked.

6. The cooking time really depends on the size of your pizza pan and the thickness of your crust. Start with 20 minutes, then just watch it.

Try it out, experiment with toppings, and enjoy!