My daughter was sick at home from school on Friday. We stayed in and took it easy since I was recovering from a virus as well. My plan was not to cook that evening and order in. Her favorite ‘ordering in’ dish is mushroom pizza. We had some errands to run and were walking past one of the pizzerias in our town. It occurred to me that maybe we should buy a serving of pizza dough and make our own! I remembered I have homemade marinara sauce in the fridge-I had made it for the chicken parm a few days ago- and I also had the shredded mozzarella cheese I bought for the same dish! So, the only thing we had to buy was mushrooms- it ended up being a very economical dish. In these times, it is smart to be able to save money, re-use leftovers and still eat healthy!
It took lots of tries before I came up with the perfect way to make homemade pizza. It involves your local pizzerias pizza dough and your outdoor grill. Pizza dough is one of those things that seems quite easy to make but is very hard to master. I have decided to make my life easier and buy it. It took a while to find the right pizzeria to buy the dough. We have three pizzerias in our town- we frequent one regularly- but I don’t buy the dough from there. Somehow their dough doesn’t work very well at home.
The next thing I realized is that home ovens are just not hot enough to cook the top and bottom of the pizza well enough. Usually the bottom is left almost raw and very doughy. I decided to use my out door grill to cook the bottom and then bring it inside to cook the toppings under the broiler. This method works really well and results in a pizza that looks just like you get at a pizzeria with a great crispy crust. Most importantly you control everything that goes on the pizza. My daughter gave it two thumbs up! My husband and I had a yummy green salad and a delicious Cabernet with the fabulous pizza!

• 1 serving pizza dough from your local pizzeria
• 1 cup marinara sauce
• 1 cup shredded low moisture part skim mozzarella cheese
• 12 ounces cremini mushrooms, sliced
• 2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil, divided
• 1 garlic clove, minced
• Salt to taste

Preheat grill. Preheat oven on broil.

In a non-stick pan, heat one teaspoon olive oil. Add the mushrooms and cook on a high flame for 4-5 minutes. Once all the moisture is gone, add the garlic and salt to taste. Keep aside. Spread pizza dough on a round perforated pizza pan. Spread one teaspoon olive oil. Pierce holes in the dough with a fork and place the pan on the grill. Cook the pizza for 5-7 minutes (depending on your grill). The bottom should be golden brown. Take out and add the marinara sauce, cheese and the mushrooms. Now place the pizza under the broiler in the oven. Cook for 7-9 minutes (again depending on the intensity of the broiler), making sure the cheese is melted and the top is golden brown. Slice and serve.