![Pizza [Image courtesy of John Sullivan/wikimedia commons]](https://staticr1.blastingcdn.com/media/photogallery/2017/10/12/660x290/b_502x220x82/pizza-image-courtesy-of-john-sullivan-wikimedia-commons_1628029.jpg "Pizza [Image courtesy of John Sullivan/wikimedia commons]")
The History Channel tells us that Pizza originated as street food in Naples in the 1800s as cheap flatbread with toppings. After Italy was unified King Umberto I and Queen Margherita visited Naples and, legend has it, sampled the local cuisine and gave it their royal approval. Pizza became a craze throughout Italy and was eventually carried to the United States by Neapolitan immigrants.
Pizza can be eaten at a restaurant, delivered, or even picked up at a supermarket for heating and eating at home. However, if you’re feeling adventurous, you can try Making the confection at home from scratch.
The dough and the sauce
A number of recipes for dough and sauce exist on the Internet. Making the dough consists of the most drudgery as it involves a lot of kneading and rolling. The ingredients most often include flour, water, yeast, a little sugar, and olive oil. Making the sauce, by contrast, should be easy. Just throw the ingredients, which will likely consist of tomato sauce, tomato paste, and a number of herbs and spices, into the blender and let the machine do the work.
The toppings are the key
The toppings will make or break your home made pizza. In general, three types of pizza exists; meat pizza, veggie pizza, and supreme (both meat and veggies.) Acceptable meat toppings includes pepperoni, Italian sausage, ground meat, ham, and bacon.
Acceptable veggie toppings include onions, olives, roasted garlic, and sliced bell peppers. By all means, after your first few experiments you can try to use exotic ingredients like buffalo chicken or habanero peppers.
That said, the more comfortable you become with making pizza at home, the more adventurous you can get with your choice of toppings -- as long as you don't use pineapple.
The cheese finishes the pizza
Many people throw shredded Mozzarella on their pizza and think that they have done their work. Mozzarella is among the most boring of all the cheeses. I recommend a mixture of Parmesan and Asiago cheese. Grate the cheese over the top of the pizza until the toppings are well covered.
Cooking the pizza
A fresh pizza like this does not take as long to bake as the frozen kind you get at the store. Preheat the oven to 450 degrees and put the pizza in on a pan that has been treated with cooking spray. Start checking at five minutes. When the cheese is melted to a medium to dark brown, the pizza is done. Pull from the oven, let it rest for a couple of minutes, then slice and serve.
