Back in 7th grade home-economics, the cooking segment consisted of learning how to make pizza with English muffins, some spaghetti sauce, a little cheese and a toaster oven.

Ingredients :

• 6 muffin halves (want to make your own English muffins? here’s how)
• 1 cup grated Mozzarella cheese, packed
• 1 Tbsp butter
• 1 medium onion, sliced thin
• 3/4 cup diced ham
• A pinch of chopped fresh sage
• 1/4 teaspoon stoneground mustard
• Optional: A few slices of fresh tomato

Method

1 Preheat oven to 425?F.

2 Melt butter in a medium skillet on medium high heat. Add the onions and cook until translucent, about 5 minutes. Add the diced ham, cook 5 minutes more. Mix in the sage and mustard. Remove from heat.

3 Put muffin halves, open side up on a sturdy baking pan. Distribute the cheese evenly, sprinkling over the muffin halves. Put the onion ham mixture on top of the cheese. If you want to use tomato slices, layer them between the cheese and onion mixture.

4 Bake at 425?F for 8-9 minutes, until the muffins and toppings are nicely browned, but not burnt. Cut into quarters for appetizers or just leave whole for a meal or snack.

When I first encountered a recipe for a thin-crust pizza using a flour tortilla as a base I was indignant. “That’s not a pizza! That’s a quesadilla!” But I soon got over my ire. This approach is actually rather brilliant, a great example of borrowing from one cuisine to expand another. The recipe for this thin-crust pizza is inspired by one I found in Everyday Food magazine. The trick is to keep the toppings thin and light, otherwise the crust will end up being soggy. It really helps to use a pizza stone; the pizza will cook up faster and crisper. I’ve included directions for both using a stone and not.

Ingredients :

• Olive oil
• 1 small red onion, halved and thinly sliced
• Pinch of sugar
• 1 teaspoon balsamic vinegar
• 2 large flour tortillas (sandwich wraps)
• 1 cup shredded Asiago cheese (about 2 ounces)
• 2/3 cup ricotta cheese
• 6 button or cremini mushrooms, trimmed and thinly sliced
• Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper

Equipment needed:
It really helps to have a baking stone and a pizza peel. If not, you’ll use a rimmed baking sheet with some parchment paper.

Method :

1a If you are using a baking stone, place the stone on top of the middle rack in the oven. Preheat the oven to 450?F. Allow the oven to stay at 450?F for at least 15 minutes before cooking, to thoroughly heat up the stone.

1b If you are NOT using a baking stone, place racks in the upper and lower thirds of the oven. Preheat the oven to 450?F.

2 Heat 1 Tbsp olive oil in a small saut? pan on medium hight heat. Add the sliced onions and cook, stirring occasionally, until the onions begin to soften. Add a pinch of sugar and the balsamic vinegar, cook for a few more minutes until the onions are thoroughly softened and translucent. Remove from heat.

3a If you are using a baking stone, sprinkle some corn meal on your pizza peel and place one tortilla on top of the pizza peel. (If you don’t have a pizza peel, you can use a rimless baking sheet.) Thoroughly brush the top of the tortilla with olive oil.

3b If you are not using a baking stone, line two rimmed baking sheets with parchment paper and brush with olive oil. Place a tortilla on each baking sheet and brush each with olive oil.

4 Sprinkle each tortilla with half a cup of shredded Asiago cheese. Add bits of ricotta cheese, 1/3 cup for each tortilla. Sprinkle with mushrooms and with the slightly caramelized onions. Sprinkle with a little salt and pepper.

5a If you are using a baking stone, and can fit both pizzas on the stone (it depends on the size of your tortilla) do it. Use the pizza peel to transfer the pizzas to the stone in the oven. If your tortillas are large, you’ll need to cook them one at a time. But that’s okay. Cooking on the stone goes very quickly. Bake the pizzas until the crust is crisp and very brown – 5-7 minutes using the baking stone. Cut with a pizza cutter or a knife.

5b If you are using baking sheets, place the baking sheets in the oven. Bake until the crust is crisp and brown all over (the time varies, depending on the oven and if your cookie sheet has already been heated, start with 10 minutes and check), rotating the sheets to ensure even baking. Cut with a pizza cutter or a knife.

Each pizza serves 1-2, depending on how hungry you are.

What to do when your 8-year old nephew comes to visit? Make pizza, of course! Well, not of course, actually. I didn’t think of it until we exhausted Sorry, Monopoly, and gin rummy. But it did turn out to be a brilliant idea as dad had just received a baking stone for Christmas, and my nephew Austin loves pizza. I told him if he helped me make it and didn’t make too many faces I would put him on my website and he would be famous. That seemed to get his attention. He thought the dough was “slimy and gross” but he loved picking his own toppings, and the finished product was “awesome”.

The following method I patched together from recipes in both Joy of Cooking and Cook’s Illustrated The Best Recipe. I made two batches of dough, four pizzas in all, with varied toppings. Next time I’ll be a bit more patient with stretching out the dough so I can get it even thinner. Look to the end of this post for some excellent links about pizza from other food bloggers.

Ingredients

Pizza Dough: Makes enough dough for two 10-12 inch pizzas

• 1 1/2 cups warm water (105?F-115?F)
• 1 package (2 1/4 teaspoons) of active dry yeast (check the expiration date on the package)
• 3 1/2 cups bread flour (can use all-purpose but bread flour will give you a crisper crust)
• 2 Tbsp olive oil
• 2 teaspoons salt
• 1 teaspoon sugar

Pizza Ingrediends :

• Olive oil
• Cornmeal (to slide the pizza onto the pizza stone)
• Tomato sauce
• Mozzarella or Parmesan cheese, shredded
• Feta cheese
• Mushrooms, thinly sliced
• Bell peppers, stems and seeds removed, thinly sliced
• Italian sausage, cooked ahead
• Chopped fresh basil
• Pesto
• Pepperoni, thinly sliced
• Onions, thinly sliced
• Sliced ham

Special equipment needed

1. A pizza stone, highly recommended if you want your pizza dough to be crusty
2. A pizza peel or a flat baking sheet
3. A pizza wheel for cutting the pizza, not required, but easier to deal with than a knife

Method
Making the Pizza Dough

1 In the large bowl of a heavy duty electric mixer (such as a Kitchen Aid), add the warm water. Sprinkle on the yeast and let sit for 5 minutes until the yeast is dissolved. Stir to dissolve completely if needed at the end of 5 minutes.

2 Attach a mixing paddle to the mixer. Mix in the olive oil, flour, salt and sugar on low speed for about a minute. Remove the mixing paddle and replace with a dough hook. Knead using the mixer and dough hook, on low to medium speed, until the dough is smooth and elastic, about 10 minutes. If you don’t have a mixer, you can mix and knead by hand.

3 Place ball of dough in a bowl that has been coated lightly with olive oil. Turn the dough around in the bowl so that it gets coated with the oil. Cover with plastic wrap. Let sit in a warm place (75-85?F) until it doubles in size, about 1 to 1 1/2 hours. If you don’t have a warm spot in the house you can heat the oven to 150 degrees, and then turn off the oven. Place the bowl of dough in this warmed oven to rise.

At this point, if you want to make ahead, you can freeze the dough in an airtight container for up to two weeks.

Preparing the Pizzas

1 Place a pizza stone on a rack in the lower third of your oven. Preheat the oven to 450?F for at least 30 minutes, preferably an hour.

2 Remove the plastic cover from the dough and punch the dough down so it deflates a bit. Divide the dough in half. Form two round balls of dough. Place each in its own bowl, cover with plastic and let sit for 10 minutes.

3 Prepare your desired toppings. Note that you are not going to want to load up each pizza with a lot of toppings as the crust will end up not crisp that way. About a third a cup each of tomato sauce and cheese would be sufficient for one pizza. One to two mushrooms thinly sliced will cover a pizza.

4 Working one ball of dough at a time, take one ball of dough and flatten it with your hands on a slightly floured work surface. Starting at the center and working outwards, use your fingertips to press the dough to 1/2-inch thick. Turn and stretch the dough until it will not stretch further. Let the dough relax 5 minutes and then continue to stretch it until it reaches the desired diameter – 10 to 12 inches. Use your palm to flatten the edge of the dough where it is thicker. You can pinch the very edges if you want to form a lip.

5 Brush the top of the dough with olive oil (to prevent it from getting soggy from the toppings). Use your finger tips to press down and make dents along the surface of the dough to prevent bubbling. Let rest another 5 minutes.

Repeat with the second ball of dough.

6 Lightly sprinkle your pizza peel (or flat baking sheet) with corn meal. Transfer one prepared flattened dough to the pizza peel. If the dough has lost its shape in the transfer, lightly shape it to the desired dimensions.

7 Spoon on the tomato sauce, sprinkle with cheese, and place your desired toppings on the pizza.

8 Sprinkle some cornmeal on the baking stone in the oven (watch your hands, the oven is hot!). Gently shake the peel to see if the dough will easily slide, if not, gently lift up the edges of the pizza and add a bit more cornmeal. Slide the pizza off of the peel and on to the baking stone in the oven. Bake pizza one at a time until the crust is browned and the cheese is golden, about 10-15 minutes. If you want, toward the end of the cooking time you can sprinkle on a little more cheese.