Nostalgic Pizza

Remember those school lunch pizzas? The rectangle shape ones? I don't really but I didn't really eat hot lunch ever. When I was in high school I'd get Subway or Cousin's Subs a'la carte on Tuesdays and Thursdays... And eat junk food. Chocolate milk and chips. Healthy. Anyway, husband remembers these pizzas and he loved them and wants to have them again. So what did I do?

I recreated it.

Of all the things I could duplicate... Olive Garden's Chicken Marsala... Serendipity 2's Frozen Hot Chocolate... and he wants cafeteria food. Alright. As long as he eats it. 

To my surprise, it looked and smelled amazing. I made homemade pizza dough and the sauce and everything from scratch. I didn't eat any because I'm...on this diet... But he and Sofia loved it. I served it with corn. All that was missing was a carton of chocolate milk and a prison tray. Here's the recipe. Nothing special at all...pretty basic actually. 

Crust:

• 1 package yeast
• 1 teaspoon white sugar
• 1 cup warm water 
• 2 1/2 cups flour
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 1 teaspoon salt
• Shortening and cornmeal for dusting

Sauce:

• 1 pound ground beef
• 1 teaspoon dehydrated onion
• 1 teaspoon granulated garlic
• 1 12oz can tomato paste 
• 1/2 teaspoon ground pepper
• 1 1/4 cup water
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 3/4 teaspoon dried oregano
• 3/4 teaspoon dried basil
• 1 pinch marjoram
• 1 pinch thyme

Oh, you'll need like two standard size bags of shredded mozzarella cheese, too.

Now that you've assembled your arsenal, let us bring back the painful memories of eating alone in the school cafeteria.

Directions: 

Brown the beef and drain. Add onion and garlic and cook on medium/low for 5 minutes. Add tomato paste, water, salt, pepper, basil, oregano, marjoram, and thyme. Stir, cover, and let simmer on low while you prepare the dough. 

Preheat your oven to 450*F. 

In your mixer bowl, dissolve sugar and yeast in warm water. Let it sit until it gets creamy, around 10 minutes. 

Stir in flour, salt, and oil. Use the dough hook and mix until smooth and elastic. Let rest for 5 minutes or so while you prepare the pan. 

Grease your cookie sheet, including the sides. I used a standard jelly roll pan. Sprinkle the bottom with cornmeal. Set aside. 

Turn dough out onto lightly floured surface and flip over, shaping into a ball. If it's sticky, sprinkle flour on it. Place the dough ball in the middle of your pan and smash it and spread it around the pan including up the sides. Use your fingers to form the crust edges. 

Sprinkle one bag of mozzarella cheese on the crust. Cover with half the meat sauce. Sprinkle second bag of mozzarella cheese over the meat sauce. 

Bake at 450*F for around 15-20 minutes. 

Oh yeah, and the other half of the meat sauce? Store in the freezer to make pizza burgers later on in the week. I ended up with all this extra sauce so that's the solution. 

You're welcome.