Pizza dough

Makes four ten inch pizzas

2 packages of dried yeast
big pinch of sugar
1 1/4 cups lukewarm water
3 1/2 cups King Arthur flour
1 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup olive oil.
Corn meal

Warm oven, 200 degrees for 2 minutes should be fine. SHUT OFF OVEN!!!
Sprinkle yeast and sugar into 1/4 cup LUKEWARM water in WARM bowl. Let stand 2-3 minutes. Stir yeast and sugar to make sure it is dissolved. Place bowl in oven and let stand 3-5 minutes until yeast bubbles and doubles. If yeast does not bubble, start over with fresh yeast.
Sift flour and salt into mixer bowl.
Make a well in center of flour. Pour in yeast mixture,1 cup LUKEWARM water and 1/4 cup olive oil. Use paddle blade to combine ingredients. Use dough hook, oiled, for 6-8 minutes to knead. You might have to keep pushing dough down to keep in bowl. Take out of bowl and knead on lightly floured surface until dough is smooth and silky. If dough is too sticky, dust with a little flour and continue kneading. Place in large, oiled bowl. Turn dough over so top is oiled.Cover bowl with plastic wrap, I use a big elastic to keep it tightly sealed, and place in oven that is still WARM, for about 1 1/2 hours or until doubled. TAKE OUT OF OVEN!!!
Preheat oven to 500 degrees.
Squeeze dough down, break off 1/4 of dough. With the palm of your hand, flatten into a circle about 1 inch thick. Hold the circle in your hands and stretch dough by turning the circle and gently pulling your hands apart at the same time until dough is 7 or 8 inches across. Put on floured surface and roll with rolling pin from center to side until big enough to cover 1/2 of cookie pan. Dust cookie pan with cornmeal. Repeat with another 1/4 of dough. You can now recover dough and bowl and place in refrigerator for pizza tomorrow. Put on pizza sauce, thinly spread, and toppings of your choice, sprinkle with grated mozzarella and asiago or parmesan and dribble with olive oil. Bake on lowest shelf of oven for about 10 minutes.THE SMOKE ALARM IS NOT A TIMER!!!

Pizza Sauce

3 Tablespoons olive oil
1 cup finely chopped onion
1 Tablespoon finely chopped garlic
4 cups plum tomatoes, coarsely chopped but not drained. I like to put them in a bowl ans squeeze them instead of chopping.
1 six ounce can of tomato paste
1 Tablespoon, at least, of crumbled oregano
1 teaspoon of dried basil
2 teaspoons of sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons of salt
Black pepper
1 large bottle of good red wine

Heat olive oil in3-4 quart heavy pan. Add onion and cook over moderate heat until onions are soft and transparent but not brown. Add garlic and cook until fragrant but not brown, stirring frequently, 1-2 minutes. Stir in everything else but wine, bring sauce to boil, turn heat to very low and simmer uncovered, stirring occasionally, for about 1 hour.
Open wine. You now have about one hour to spend occasionally stirring a pot, and an open bottle of good wine. Get a glass!!!
When sauce is finished it should be thick and fairly smooth. Taste and, depending upon how much wine is left, season with salt and pepper.
You only need about 1/2 cup of sauce for each pizza. It freezes well.

Use a 1 pound package of Whole Milk mozzarella for topping, 1/3 pound grated should do two pizzas. If you want Pizza Margarita, slice don't grate. Put four or five slices on each pizza and top with fresh basil leaves. Don't forget to dribble with olive oil.

Olive oil. Extra Virgin olive oil is wonderful in dressings and salads. It is a waste of money if it is going to be cooked with. Heating turns it into regular olive oil. I think Spanish olive oil is better than the others.

Tomatoes. Red Pack plum shaped tomatoes are the fine! Try to get tomatoes packed in juice not puree but puree is fine. Anything cooked with tomato paste is going to have plenty of tomato taste. Progresso plum tomatoes packed in JUICE are the best but are hard to find here.

Remember: Seven days without pizza makes one weak. (week).