Andrew Meyer's Pizza from Scratch

WKSU's News Director Andrew Meyer is an avid cook, and his feature in the November edition of the To Do List included his favorite pizza recipe. Give it a try tonight!

Dough:
1 cup water
2 ¼ tsp yeast
1 tsp sugar
1 tsp salt
2 tbsp olive oil
2 ½ cups AP flour

Pizza Sauce:
2 16oz cans petite diced tomatoes, well-drained
1 6oz can tomato paste
3 cloves of garlic, minced
1 tsp dried basil
1 tsp dried oregano
Salt and pepper to taste

Toppings:
16oz mozzarella cheese
Other toppings as desired

How to make it:
In a stand mixer, whisk yeast into water. Add in sugar, salt and olive oil and whisk. Add in flour and mix with dough hook until flour is incorporated. Dough will be tacky. With floured hands, form into ball, place in bowl, cover with a clean dish towel and allow to rise. The longer you let the dough rest, the more flavor it will develop. I recommend making the dough in the morning.

Set one rack of oven to lowest level, the other to the highest position. Preheat oven to 450.

Take your dough ball and start to work out to a round pizza shape. Place on lightly oiled baking sheet and finish shaping your dough as desired. Spread sauce onto dough (not too thick), then cheese, then toppings. Bake on lowest rack in oven for 15 minutes, then move to top rack for 5 more minutes. Remove from oven and immediately slide pizza onto cutting board. Let rest for 10 minutes, cut and enjoy.