Dough:
2(+/-) cups flour
2 ¼ tsp yeast (one packet)
1 ½ tsp sugar
¾ tsp salt
⅛ - 1 tsp Italian seasonings (optional; see notes below)
2 Tbsp olive oil (plus extra for assembly)
¾ cups warm water
Sauce:
28 oz. crushed tomatoes
2 Tbsp olive oil
¼ cup onion (chopped finely)
¾ tsp oregano
1 tsp basil
¼-½ tsp red pepper flake (optional, but incredibly tasty!)
3 cloves garlic (minced)
1 tsp salt
Toppings:
Mozzarella Cheese
Limitless!
Directions:
Dough - Proof yeast in water (if using fast-acting you may skip this step). Combine 1 c flour, sugar, salt, and seasonings in a bowl. Add oil and proofed yeast mixture and stir well to combine. Gradually add remaining flour (you may need more or less than the 2 cups) until you have a cohesive, smooth ball (about 6-8 minutes of kneading). Coat a large bowl with oil and transfer the dough ball. Roll the ball in the bowl to coat evenly with oil. Cover and allow to double in size (30 minutes or so - perfect for making the sauce!) Gently deflate and knead 3-5 times until the dough is smooth. Roll the dough into a circle (roughly 12”) and place it on your pizza pan*. Form a crust (optional) and coat the entire crust in enough oil to give it a slight sheen (do NOT overdo this or your crust will be soggy). Perforate the dough with a fork to allow air to escape (avoiding a bubbly crust), leaving approximately 1/4 to 1/2 an inch perimeter for a crust.
Sauce - Add 2 T olive oil to a pot and heat over medium heat. Add oregano, basil, and red pepper flakes (optional). Add onions and salt and saute for 3-4 minutes. Add garlic and cook for an additional minute or two. Reduce heat to low and add the tomatoes. Simmer for 30 minutes. Use immediately or cool and refrigerate/freeze.
Assembly -
Preheat the oven to 425° F. Once your crust is ready, add approximately 2 T of sauce to the center of the crust. Use the back of a spoon and spread the sauce outward from the center in a circular motion to ensure even distribution. Add ¾ - 1 cup of mozzarella cheese in the same spiral manner. Add your desired toppings, then top with an additional ¾ c of cheese. Bake your pizza for 13-15 minutes or until golden brown.
Notes:
Dough notes:
If you are using “Italian seasoning” I recommend 1 t of seasoning. I like to use ¼ t basil, ¼ t oregano, ¼ - ½ t rosemary, and 1/8 t red pepper flake. This is completely customizable though!
You can refrigerate your dough for 24 hours in advance. If you enjoy a thin, crunchy crust you can roll out immediately from the refrigerator, top, and bake. If you prefer a slightly thicker crust, allow it to come to room temperature before rolling out and topping.
Sauce notes:
If using fresh tomatoes, add 1 1/2 tsp sugar to the sauce.
You can store your sauce in the fridge for 2-3 weeks, or freeze for 3-4 months.
Pizza assembly/cooking notes:
*If you are using a pizza stone you will want to preheat your stone with your oven. Once your oven and stone are preheated you will want to toss your prepared crust onto the stone and work quickly to top your pizza. You may want to adjust your baking time down a minute or so to avoid your crust getting overly crispy - unless you like that!
You can prepare this pizza in advance and freeze it for up to 3 months. If you go this route, I highly recommend pre-baking your crust for 8-10 minutes (you don’t want it to brown) before you top and freeze your pizza. You will follow the same cooking directions as before for a frozen pizza or let it thaw in the fridge for 24 hours and bake for 5-10 minutes or until cooked through.
The Stroy Behind the Recipe:
We started a Messianic journey a couple years ago (read about that here) and with the chaos of trying to clean the house, make Challah, and still prep for dinner after work (before I became a stay-at-home-mom) I was never very excited about what I was going to make that night. For a few months, I made whatever was on the list for that day. I should note, I am a person who NEEDS routine. I had a list of dinners I would make (about 2 ½ weeks worth of meals on rotation) but nothing really seemed to fit for us on Shabbat - and I was trying to make more from scratch to be healthier.
I attempted pizza one night (a Wednesday, to be exact) with a similar recipe to the one above, and topped it with sausage, bacon, pepperoni, and tons of cheese. My family LOVED it! It was a little overwhelming to try and add another batch of dough and cook all those meats then bake the Challah at one temperature and the pizza at another, and especially trying to get it all done before sundown in the middle of December! I was lucky enough to work from home on Tuesdays and Thursdays and I was able to leave around 2:00 pm on Fridays to pick up my daughter and get home around 3:30 pm. This gave me an hour to get all my cooking and cleaning done (insert panic here). I started to use my time on Thursdays to clean the house and prep my Challah so I could just pull the dough out once I got home and have everything ready (for my Challah recipe/tutorial, click here!).
To no one’s surprise, my almost-two-year-old absolutely loved the idea of getting to eat pizza every Friday and it was a meal I even looked forward to! I tweaked the recipe to my family’s liking, changed the toppings when we went kosher, changed them again when I tried to eliminate dairy (thanks, breastfeeding), once again when I wanted to go plant-based, and now we use a hodgepodge of the different toppings we liked from each of those “experiments”. Side note: if you are dairy-free and are struggling with a good replacement for mozzarella cheese, I highly recommend Miyoko’s!
Our daughter gets so excited now for Shabbat because of pizza! She is four now so the whole Shabbat thing is only exciting for a few minutes until we get to the pizza portion of our evening and quickly fades away once it is over. She likes Shabbat, but her excitement is noticeably different once the pizza is put in front of her.
Feel free to hop on our YouTube to watch the step-by-step tutorial, or our Instagram to see the excitement that is our Bellott Shabbat Pizza Party! As always, feel free to comment your tips, tricks, suggestions, or content ideas below! Thank you guys and God bless!
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