On this night, my husband asked for pizza. I had some leftover pepperoni and a couple of partial bags of cheese in the freezer. I also had some olives, pineapple, tomato paste and leftover dough in the refrigerator, which made homemade pizza an easy “yes.”
Lately, I have been baking bread regularly, using the same recipe to make loaves, buns, and whatever else I need that week. I like having dough ready to use, so I have gotten into the habit of making a large batch. That usually means I have some extra dough in the refrigerator, just waiting to be turned into something else.
This time, that something else was pizza.
The bread dough was several days old, so it had plenty of time to develop a lovely flavor. After taking it out of the refrigerator, I let it rest for a couple of hours before working with it.
I started by making a simple sauce with the tomato paste, olive oil, garlic powder, and Italian seasoning. I added some water and let it simmer for a few minutes.
While the sauce simmered, I rolled out the dough and placed it on my pizza pan. Then I spread the sauce over the crust and added the cheese and pepperoni.
After about 12 minutes in the oven, the pizza was hot, the cheese was bubbly, and dinner was ready.
I love being able to pull together a meal like this with things I already have on hand. The leftover dough became the crust, the bits of cheese and pepperoni found a home, and the tomato paste was put to good use.
My favorite part was no one ran to the grocery store and no one called for delivery