Homemade Pizza Night

Gluten-free pizza for me!

Our meal planner for last week read 'homemade pizza' and my heart skipped a beat. I really like pizza, and homemade is the best. Now. I obviously can't eat regular pizza (if I could, I wouldn't have anything at all to blog about!), but I'm also not going to make Tim eat gluten-free pizza. The solution I've come up with is a cross-contamination avoidance system. I almost always do my pizza making the same way, and take special care not to get any gluten in my food. So far, it's worked.

I start out with the regular crust. I typically use a regular loaf of frozen white bread (they come in bags of 2-5 in the freezer section at most grocery stores).  I let that thaw and rise during the day, and before doing any other prep work, I get that crust ready to go, cover it with a tea towel and set it aside.

Regular pizza for everyone else!

Then I wash my hands and clean the counter and get ready to prep toppings while the regular crust is rising. Last night we used ham cubes, italian turkey sausage and pepperoni cubes so all I had to prep was the italian turkey sausage. I season my own turkey so I can control what goes in it, so I browned a pound of plain turkey burger with italian seasoning, garlic and a little bit of fennel.

Then I seasoned the sauce. I also use plain tomato sauce, so that I control what goes in there, and I season that as well with italian seasoning, garlic and a little bit of fennel (fennel is what gives pizza sauce its distinctive flavor).



Then I put sauce and all of the toppings on my gluten-free crust. I usually buy frozen brands, and haven't found one that is a whole lot better than the next, although they do all taste a little different. I like to change it up from time to time too - it keeps things interesting.

All in the oven at once!

After I add all toppings to my pizza, I move it to the table and take the regular crust (which has now had some time to rise) and add toppings to that. If I know I'll have extra sauce, I make sure to pour the sauce so that I don't touch the spoon to the bread and then touch the pizza.

When the regular pizza is ready to go and the oven is hot, I put both pizzas in the oven at once - the gluten-free pizza goes on the higher rack and the regular pizza on the lower rack! This ensures that nothing with gluten in it will drip on the gluten-free pizza...unless gravity breaks while you're baking your pizzas.