Pie, Oh My! Easy Make-At-Home Pizza

Put Down That Phone! Making It Yourself Is More Fun Than Dialing For Delivery, And The Kids Can Help

(CBS)  Here's a weighty figure: The average American eats 23 pounds, or 46 slices, of pizza every year. Multiply the cost a few dozen times, add tips for the delivery boy, and you'll see a heavy pizza habit can put a crimp in your household budget.

But if you made pizza at home - without any special equipment or a brick oven - would you be able to replicate that pizza parlor taste? Yes, according to Grace Parisi, the senior test kitchen associate at Food & Wine magazine.

Over the years, Parisi has developed her own pizza recipe. To prove that it's easy to make with the help of children, she brought her own kids to The Saturday Early Show to lend a hand. Parisi developed a three-course menu for "Chef on a Shoestring" that you can make at home for under $40.

Parisi has spent more than 12 years testing and developing the recipes that appear in her magazine, considered one of the food world's bibles. Despite her sophisticated palate, pizza remains one of her favorite foods, and the recipe she's sharing is one she wrote and uses at home with her 5-year-old son Malcolm and her daughter, Pia, 10.

According to Grace, it takes more time than effort to make pizza dough. She suggests making the dough ahead of time and letting it sit in your refrigerator overnight, or even up to three days. This allows the dough to develop a chewy crust with a slight tang; the longer it sits, the more texture and complexity it develops.

Her dough is a simple mixture of water, yeast, sugar, flour and salt. Once you've allowed the dough to sit overnight, you then need to allow an hour for it to rise. Parisi's recipe will make four 13-inch pizzas.

Short on time? You can also buy pre-made pizza dough - look for it in the refrigerated or freezer section of your grocery store. Parisi also says many pizzerias will sell you their dough; she often buys dough from a pizza place that she and her family visit regularly.

She feels the key to good pizza is a wonderful sauce. Her super-fast recipe: buy San Marzano tomatoes and place them in a food processor with some dried oregano, olive oil, salt and pepper. Top off your pizza with some fresh mozzarella. Of course the beauty of making pizza at home is that you can add any toppings you like; each family member can even make a mini-pizza, so those who love anchovies and other less-favored toppings can indulge.

If you're going to make pizza at home on a regular basis, there are three tools that Parisi suggests you invest in:

A baking stone: You'll get a crispier crust if you use a pizza stone. Place the stone in your oven at least 45 minutes before cooking so it can heat. You can also use plain, unglazed terra cotta tiles from a home improvement store - they cost only a few dollars. Or you can simply place the pizza on a baking sheet, then transfer to the oven rack during the final minutes of cooking to crisp up the crust. The Food & Wine
recommendation: Fibrament Baking Stone: This cement stone yields crispy crusts and is more durable than ceramic ($53; www.bakingstone.com).

A pizza peel: These are the wooden circles or squares with long handles used to get the pizza in and out of the oven; you've seen them at your local pizza parlor. They are not very expensive and will make your job much easier. The Food & Wine recommendation: Best Manufacturing Peel - Dough sticks less to wood than metal; this peel is ideal for a home oven ($27; williams-sonoma.com).

A pizza slicer: The Food & Wine recommendation: Typhoon Pizza Slicer: This mezzaluna-style cutter is easier to control than wheel cutters ($18; typhoonus.com).


ZUCCHINI CARPACCIO
TOTAL TIME: 15 MIN
(serves 4)

Ingredients:
1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil
2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
Salt and freshly ground pepper
1 pound small green and yellow zucchini, sliced 1/8-inch thick on the diagonal with a mandoline
1 bunch arugula (1/4 pound), large stems discarded
1 ounce Parmesan cheese, shaved (1 cup)

Directions:

In a medium bowl, whisk the olive oil with the lemon juice and season with salt and pepper. Add the zucchini and toss well; let stand for 3 minutes. Arrange the zucchini slices, overlapping them slightly, on a platter. Add the arugula to the bowl and toss with the dressing, then mound on the zucchini. Scatter the Parmesan over the top and serve.

Recipe by Jean-Georges Vongerichten