Pizza is a great recipe with a lot of versatility in it. You can add anything that you want in a pizza as long as the ingredients you want are available and will fit perfectly with the other ingredients.
The thing about pizza is that it can be modified to your taste. Despite this sounding complicated, you can always go back to the basics and add only a few ingredients on the pizza.
Pepperoni is a common topping for pizza and cheese is an essential ingredient. So by combining just the two for your pizza, it would still be great as they give a distinct taste.
The pizza was one of the most looked-down foods when it was first introduced. It was considered as a food for peasants as it only contained simple ingredients.
But since its arrival in the world, it has been considered as one of the most amazing foods that humankind has ever created. Now, we have different flavors to try from different places.
There are complicated pizzas with a lot of ingredients and procedures. So it is always nice to step back a little bit and go for the simpler versions of this amazing food.
Thankfully, we have one of the best simple pizza recipes in this post. The Pepperoni and Cheese Pizza is a fairly simple pizza flavor but still contains the basic ingredients and flavors.
When you have the dough and the sauce ready, then this pizza recipe is very easy. Just keep the ingredients fresh and get the best ones that you can find and let’s get started!
Table of Contents
Pepperoni And Cheese Pizza Recipe
Ingredients
– 8 ounces of Pizza Dough or 1 ball enough for a 12-inch pizza
– 1/2 cup of pizza sauce (Grab the sauce of your choice)
– 20 slices of pepperoni
– 12 ounces of grated mozzarella cheese
– Half teaspoon of ground black pepper
– 1 teaspoon of fresh oregano
Procedure
Step 1. Preheat The Oven
When you try this recipe for the first time, you should always keep in mind that the preheating of the oven is the very first step that you need to take.
The ingredients of a pizza, especially this one, are easy to cook meaning that in a few minutes, they will be done and the pizza is ready.
So preheat the oven to 500 degrees Fahrenheit. If you are using any sort of pizza stone, then place it inside the oven as well and let it preheat for at least 20 minutes.
The longer that you let the pizza stone preheat, the more spring oven you will get, and the better the crust of the pizza will turn out. You can also resort to a cast-iron skillet or a pizza pan if you do not have a pizza stone.
Step 2. Make The Sauce And The Dough
If you have all the time in the world, then, by all means, make the dough and the sauce your own. This way, you will get more control over the flavor and consistency of these two.
This is highly recommended and it is pretty easy to do. But if you do not have the time, you may go and purchase your dough and sauce of choice.
Step 3. Stretch The Dough
If you have dough ready, flour your working area and then stretch the dough into a 12-inch circle. The 8 ounces of dough will be enough for this thick pizza.
But if you want to go thinner than that, 8 ounces of dough will also be enough for a 14-inch pizza. So it is your choice if you want a thicker or a thinner pizza.
The thickness of your pizza should also depend on how much toppings you are going to put in it. It is best to make it thicker when there are a lot of toppings that you want to put.
Step 4. Arrange The Pizza
Once you have stretched the pizza dough into your desired shape and size, start with the sauce and put a thin layer over the dough. Use a ladle to spread it around the dough evenly.
Leave a little bit of space on the sides, about half an inch. Chop half of the pepperoni into thin strips and then sprinkle them over the pizza sauce.
Get the grated cheese and sprinkle it all over the sauce. You can go thicker with the cheese if you have a thick crust or go as thinly as possible if that is what you prefer.
Then, place the unsliced pepperonis and then carefully place them over the cheese. Make sure that they are evenly distributed so that every slice of pizza will have an ample amount of the toppings.
Step 5. Cook The Pizza
If you are using a pizza stone, then place the pizza on a floured pizza peel and then carefully slide it on top of the pizza stone.
Let it cook for 6 minutes and then rotate the pizza halfway through to cook the other side. This will also take around 6 to 8 minutes.
Remove the pizza from the oven after 6-8 minutes or when the crust has turned golden brown and the cheese has melted perfectly. You can also use a cast-iron skillet.
If you chose a cast-iron skillet for cooking the pizza, then place the dough on the skillet and then place it over a burner at high heat for 2 minutes.
This will cook the crust right away but leaves the toppings uncooked. Place the skillet in the oven and let the pizza cook in there for at least 10 minutes.
Step 6. Serve!
Get the pizza out of the oven once the crust has turned golden brown. Let it warm down for a little bit, slice, and serve!
Notes
1. This pizza recipe is one of the best recipes as it can be preserved. You can let it rest on the fridge for up to three days and reheat it when you want a slice.
2. This pizza was made in a powerful home oven. So if you have an oven that has a hard time reaching 500 degrees Fahrenheit, then you can go as low as 375 degrees and cook the pizza longer.
Tips
There are some things that you need to understand and master so that you can make even the simplest pizza recipe, a great one. So here are some tips that you can use.
Use a Pizza Stone
Although a cast-iron skillet is good for pizza-making, pizza stones are still considered as the best option to make the pizza crust as great as it possibly can.
A pizza stone is a cookware that will help remove the moisture from the pizza crust, therefore, making it a crispy crust with chewy insides.
Pizza stones are also great at retaining heat so if you preheat it well with the oven, a pizza stone will be a beneficial tool to make the pizza cook evenly.
Go Homemade
As much as possible, make your ingredients a home. This will give you more control over the flavors and the nutrients that you want your pizza to have.
The dough and the sauce can be made at home. You can easily make them with the right ingredients so you can create something with the consistency that you like.
It is recommended, but we do understand that not all of us have the time. So the best alternative if you cannot make them at home is to buy your favorite brand of store-bought dough and sauce.
Pepperoni
The pepperoni in this recipe is selected out of personal preference as well. So if you want a crispier finish on the toppings, go for the thinly-sliced pepperonis.
Naturally, the thicker pepperonis will give a less-crispy texture, and instead, they are chewy. So it is up to you to select the best pepperoni that you think there is.
Our technique of layering the pepperoni can also be altered. If you want, you can buy less pepperoni so that you only have one layer and remove the sliced ones.
Conclusion
As you may have seen on the guide, pizza is all about being free and creative. So if you want to add more ingredients to the recipe, then you can do that.
Pepperoni and cheese pizza is one of the simplest yet delicious flavors of pizza. It contains enough protein from the meat as well as the flavor that is enhanced by the cheese.
It is a perfect food for when you are in a hurry since you do not need to attend to other complicated ingredients. All you need to do is place the toppings evenly on the pizza and cook it.
So if you want a quick meal after work that you and your family can enjoy, get the oven ready and ook the recipe above and enjoy a simple, perfect pizza night!
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