Bite Of Minnesota: Sicilian Pizza

Recently I fell off the pizza train. On purpose. My pizza intake was reaching an all time high: that stuff is addicting! I can't even count the number of times I came home from work and answered the "What's for dinner?" question with pizza. It's easy, somewhat quick, and somewhat cheap (although I do tend to gravitate towards those spendy specialty pizzas).

It was time to change things up and I put pizza on the off limits list, at least for a little while. I was pretty successful in this endeavor and recently earned back my pizza privileges but had to start with homemade first. This was a kitchen sink creation topped with Italian meats, onions, ricotta, and mozzarella cheese. I used a 13x9 pan coated with oil to create a thick and sturdy crust.

One of my favorite recipes for pizza dough comes from pastry chef and author Zoe Francois and her cookbook partner, Jeff Hertzberg. They have a whole suite of cookbooks showing how easy it is to make artisan bread, pizza, and flatbreads and I've been using those books for years. One batch of pizza dough makes 4 pizza crusts so it's great for feeding a crowd or you can do as I do and store the remaining dough in the freezer for future uses.

I suppose this means I'm back on the pizza train. What toppings should I use next?