"Welcome to Fort Collins!" Pizza Recipe
Living in a gorgeous place away from family and friends is a recipe for out-of-town visitors. From April to November we had 8 groups of guests from Minnesota. At one point it was 3 weekends in a row. By August we had our hosting game down to a science....
Most often our friends and family arrived on a Friday afternoon. Some took naps and others just wanted to chill at our home before venturing out. To save everyone a little money (so they can spend their money on amazing local beer or a Mary's Mountain Cookie) we would plan to make dinner at home.
What is easy to make and pleases most everyone?
{ Pizza }
Rob introduced me to homemade crust using plain greek yogurt and self-rising flour. We often made it on nights we had dinner together in Minneapolis. Slowly overtime I began to tweak the recipe. Specifically the sauce and crust. It needed more flavor. The sauce from the jar was too heavy and didn't taste that good. Overtime, we slowly moved our way from the jar, to canned tomatoes, to crushing our own to finally finding what we like most: sliced tomatoes. I guess you could call the tomatoes a topping now because we've created a different type of pizza sauce.
I used Dominoes pizza crust as my inspiration. It's buttery and has the perfect blend of herbs. I've created my own version which I think is better, if I do say so myself. ;)
We've received so many amazing reviews from our guests and many have asked for the recipe but there is one little problem.
I never use a recipe!
but...I've finally created a written recipe and have my fingers crossed it works for all of you.
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Kitchen utensils you need
Large oven-safe cooling rack with a grid design
You can find ours HERE.
Rolling pin
Small cereal sized bowl
Measuring cups + spoons
Pizza cutter
Large cutting board
Crust Ingredients
• 1 cup of plain Greek yogurt (or two 4.03oz containers of yogurt)
• Splash of olive oil
• 1 1⁄2 cups of self-rising flour
• Self-rising flour for counter surface
Sauce Ingredients
• 1.5tbs butter melted
• 4tbs olive oil
• 1tbl minced garlic
• 1tsp Italian seasoning
• 2tbs powered parmesan cheese
Toppings
• 2 large tomatoes
• Fresh basil leaves
• Cheese
• Your favorite veggies, meat, etc.
DIRECTIONS
Make the sauce first
In a cereal bowl melt butter
Mix butter while adding olive oil
Combine butter + olive oil mixture with garlic, Italian seasoning, and parmesan cheese
Mix well and set aside
Prep toppings
1. Slice tomatoes and cut pieces into quarters
2. Chop up onion, peppers, and other veggies
3. Set aside
Assembly
In a large bowl, mix yogurt and olive oil
Add self-rising flour and mix with a spoon until the dough is pulling away from the sides of the bowl
Knead the dough and add more flour as needed
Dough shouldn’t stick to your hands
On a floured work surface, continue to knead dough to the consistency you like
Roll out the dough into the shape you want
Dough should be a quarter inch thick
Transfer dough to cooling rack
Roll + pinch the edges of the dough to form a crust
Make sure dough does not hang off edges of the cooling rack
Cover the entire pizza with sauce
Don’t forget the edges! Use the back of the spoon or a pastry brush.
Place tomatoes across the pizza
Add your cheese and other toppings
Bake in a 450°F oven for 12-14 minutes or until cheese has started to brown
Slide pizza off cooling rack onto a large cutting board
Slice and serve
If you use this recipe, please let me know!