Homemade Pizza and a Trip to Venice Italy

“See Homemade Pizza Recipe below”

When we went to Italy for the first time it was to Venice.  My husband used to do more traveling with his job and I would take my vacation from my work to go along on the nicer trips.  Luckily we had my Mom and Dad babysit because the kids were young then.  My husband was the main speaker for a company and the meeting was in Venice.  We stayed in a beautiful hotel.  One thing I remember about the hotel room was no shower curtains in the bathroom.  The water would just go into the floor and there was a drain. We walked around Venice to experience as much of the food and people and city as possible.  Early in the morning we might get a pastry and head over to Piazza San Marco  known in English as St. Mark’s Square.

 Many tourist go there so we always found going in the morning before the crowd as being enjoyable.  Then we would walk over to St. Mark’s Bastilica which is  beautiful church with beautiful pillars and a large dome.

On the second day we went to Murano Island for a glass blowing demonstration.  You take a water taxi to go to the  Murano Island for a glass blowing demonstration and visit the Murano Glass Musuem.

Venice is a beautiful place to walk around and enjoy the scenery and take pictures of the architecture and gondolas.

We would stop in the little cafes to have pizza.  Pizza in Italy is a thin delicious yeasty crust with olive oil, garlic, fresh basil and fresh mozzarella cheese and proscuitto.  Hot out of the oven, it couldn’t be tastier.
If you get a chance to go to Venice here is a place where you can take a pizza making class in Venice.

What a wonderful time we had in Venice.  The main event of the trip was a formal dinner held in a Palace. Taking a gondola to the palace was so romantic!  This was a chance for me to wear a formal gown and they had ordered a tuxedo for my husband.  Wonderful memories!   Here we are all decked out for the formal event.  It was in the late 80’s but you probably can tell that by the hair and dress!!!  It’s time to go back to Venice!

I wanted to learn to make pizza after I returned from Italy and I have tried several recipes.  Here is a great one that I found on Food Network.

This pizza dough is a regular crust with flour but if you are gluten free then check out the 2nd recipe forgluten free crust  on epicurious.

Homemade Pizza*

Pizza Crust ingredients:
3 1/2 to 4 cups bread flour
1 teaspoon sugar
1 envelope instant dry yeast
2 teaspoons kosher salt
1 1/2 cup water at 110 degrees
2 tablespoons plus 2 teaspoons olive oil

Pizza Crust directions:
Combine the bread flour, sugar, yeast and kosher salt in a bowl of a stand mixer.  While the mixer is running, add the water and 2 tablespoons of the the olive oil and beat until dough forms into a ball.  If the dough is too dry, add additional water 1 tablespoon at a time.  Scrape the dough onto a lightly floured surface and gently knead into a smooth firm ball.
Grease a large bowl with the remaining 2 teaspoons olive oil and add the dough.  Cover the bowl with a pastry cloth and put it in a warm area to let it double in size for about 1 hour.  Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured surface and divide it into 2 equal pieces.  Cover each with a clean kitchen towel or plastic wrap and let them rest for 10 minutes.

Pizza Sauce:

2 cans pizza sauce
4 cups shredded mozzarella cheese
favorite toppings
mushrooms
tomatoes
onions
green pepper
handful of fresh basil chopped
pepperoni
1/2 cup grated parmesan cheese

Directions:
Preheat oven to 450 degrees.  Roll each ball of dough out, a little at a time, into a round circle and place on round pizza pans.  Spread sauce on each dough.  Add mozzarella first, then mushrooms, tomatoes, onions, and green pepper and place pepperoni on top last.  The pepperoni will brown better if placed on top.  Sprinkle the parmesan cheese over the top of the pizza.

If you are baking 2 pizzas.  Place one on bottom rack and one on middle rack.  After about 5 minutes reverse the placement on the racks and place the one on the botton on the middle rack and the one on the middle on the bottom rack.  Bake for about 12 minutes.  Check to make sure middle is done and edges are brown.
*Pizza Crust recipe adapted from Pizza Dough recipe from Bobby Flay of Food Network. and King Arthur’sRecipe