Classic Pepperoni Pizza

Recently, a group of us decided to hit up the Scottsdale Culinary Festival. This year's event celebrated 36 years of food, booze, and live music, which we happily binged on for the day. Many local restaurants and breweries serve up mini versions of their favorite dishes and top-selling or newly tapped brews. It's always a great time had by all, especially the people watching. You can imagine how silly things can get after a few hours of $1 beers. Pretty damn silly. Not to mention the dance moves that can be seen in front of the live band stages. Like I said, a great time had by all. While we there we struck up the great pizza debate; where is our favorite pizza place in AZ? We talked about our favorite dine-in versus take-out versus homemade, and this is definitely a contender for my favorite homemade pizza. Simple, classic, and delicious.

Classic Pepperoni Pizza

Ingredients:

• 1 pizza dough ball (store-bought or homemade)
• flour for work space
• 1 cup tomato sauce (make your own at home or use your favorite jarred)
• 1 cup freshly shredded mozzarella cheese
• 2 tbsp. freshly grated parmesan cheese
• 1/2 cup sliced pepperoni
• 2 tbsp. corn meal

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.

Make sure that your counter/work space is well covered in flour. Also, make sure your dough ball is at room temperature and begin to stretch it with your hands or use a rolling pin to create a 12-14 inch round. 

Sprinkle the corn meal onto a non-stick baking sheet or pizza round and place the dough onto the prepared sheet. 

Spread the marinara sauce all over the dough, leaving a 1-inch border around the pizza. Top with the mozzarella, parmesan, and pepperoni.

Bake in the oven for 12-14 minutes, until the crust is golden brown, and the cheese is bubbly. Let rest for a few minutes before slicing into and eating. Unless you enjoy burning the roof of your mouth and not being able to taste for 4 days. Been there. Done that.