Homemade Pizza Party

This party all came about when a few friends were talking about anchovies and liking them on pizza. I was saying we should hang out and how I like making homemade pizza. So, we decided to make a homemade pizza party. We all brought toppings that we liked on our pizza. This is a great way to have a party and something very simple your friends can make. We had Anchovies (of course, this started the whole idea of the party), spinach, onions, sausage, shredded and fresh mozzarella, and portobello mushrooms. I made the sauce from scratch (recipe below, you can also buy store bought but when you see how easy it is to make you will never buy again!). I did not make the pizza dough since it takes a while to let it sit and proof up. I bought the dough (will try next time to make dough).
Took the dough and cut into 4 equal size portions. I taught them to stretch the dough with your hands by pulling and rotating the dough. You can make it as thick or thin of a crust you like. I like making thin crust. Another way to help stretch the dough is to use a rolling pin and roll out and rotate the dough after each rolling to even out the crust. (You do not want certain parts of the dough to be thicker than the rest because it will not cook properly). Then you put the tomato sauce, toppings, and cook in oven or about 10-15 min. until crust is golden brown and cheese has melted. Then cut the pizza and enjoy!

Pizza with chunky tomato sauce (top left); Pizza with toppings (top right);
first pizza made with veggies, anchovies, cheese, and spinach on one side and sausage, spinach, anchovies and cheese on other side (bottom left);
second pizza made where I got better at making the pizza dough round with added topping of portabelllo mushrooms ( bottom right).

Simple Homemade Pizza recipe:
(makes 4 personal size pizzas)
One store bought dough
Homemade tomato sauce, recipe below
any toppings you like (basil, sausage, spinach, anchovies, etc.)
Fresh and shredded mozzarella

1. Preheat oven to 450 degrees.
2. divide the pizza dough into 4 equal pieces and roll it out to a thickness of your liking by taking the dough and stretching it between your hands pulling and rotating as you stretch to get an even crust. You can use a rolling pin if needed to roll the dough out.
3. Once pizza dough is shaped into desired thickness, take tomato sauce and spread it on the dough leaving a 1/4 inch border so the sauce does not leak.
4. Add the cheese, your toppings you like and put in the oven for 10-15 minutes or until crust is golden brown and the cheese is melted.

Tomato sauce:
one 28oz can of crushed tomatoes
1 6oz can of tomato paste
1-2 tablespoons of dried oregano
2 garlic cloves, chopped finely
1-2 tablespoons of fresh basil, chopped finely
salt to taste

1. On the stove top, put the tomato sauce, oregano, garlic, basil and salt in a saucepan on medium heat.
2. Let sauce simmer for 30 minutes to get maximum flavor, stirring occasionally.
3. add 1-2 tablespoons of tomato paste to help thicken the sauce. Sauce will also thicken once cooled.
4. Add more salt to taste if necessary. If sauce is too chunky for your taste, strain sauce using a sieve.
5. cool completely and if not using immediately put in refrigerator.