Quick Pizza Night Dinner

I don't always cook from scratch. Friday night is usually pizza night at my house. Our custom has been to order a pizza for delivery.  Now that we are doing the retired-on-a-tiny-fixed-income gig, we are cutting corners where we can. We decided to see if we could get a grocery store pizza for less than what we pay for a delivered pizza. We wanted something good and not too heavy. Usually we spend about $30 for a medium delivered pizza (we end up with a couple pieces left over for snacking the next day). I like to limit my cheese intake on pizza, mostly because it is clumpy and greasy and high in calories.  Most pizza places these days will provide less or no cheese. Unfortunately, this is not the case with grocery store frozen pizza, so frozen pizza was out of the question.  


At our local grocery store they sell the parts for a pizza, which means I can put it together myself! We got two corn meal crusts, a small tub of sauce, fresh basil, and fresh mozzarella cheese for about $20.00. This was enough for two small pizzas. However the crust is pretty dense and filling so I only made one. The store also sells pizza dough, but rolling out dough is too hard for me, so I have to pass that up.

Since I can't stand to let it be. I zested a lemon to sprinkle on the sauce. This adds a bit of brightness and citrus flavor to store bought sauce. This time of year we have plenty of citrus, I have lemons from my own tree and a neighbor's. Here is how I put the pizza together. 

First the crust.

corn meal pre-made grocery store crust

Then I zested the lemon. Try to use only the yellow part, but don't overly obsess about this. I use a peeler and then chop it. Zesting tools just don't work for me.

lemon zest being chopped

Here are my ingredients all assembled.

mozzarella, pizza sauce, basil, lemon zest, crust

Then I put it all together: sauce, zest, basil and cheese. I tore the cheese, fresh mozzarella tears nicely.

ready for the oven

Baked at 450F for 15 minutes (be sure and check what your crust recommends). Here it is after baking.

ready to eat

And plated, with a dusting of Parmesan and red peppers. Enjoyed with my current favorite rose wine, La Vieille Ferme.

plated with a glass of rose

My husband and I agreed it was better than delivery pizza! Give it a try, its easy.