Eh, Put It on the Pizza

Sometimes you just need pizza. It's one of the greatest comfort foods of all time. Who doesn't love pizza? Seriously--having a party? Can't go wrong with pizza. Want to relax on the weekend and order in? Just pick up the phone and have pizza delivered to your door. Need all the essential food groups in one bite? Pizza!

But as convenient as it is to order in pizza, it's also a great food to prepare with friends. The other night I met up with a good friend to make pizza, sip on red wine, enjoy some music, and even watch a late-night home viewing of Romeo + Juliet. 

We started off with pizza dough from a local New Jersey bakery. If we were up for it we could have made it from scratch, but instead this dough served as a delicious and convenient alternative. After struggling with rolling out the dough for some time (we have issues), we began to prepare the toppings. Rather than using tomato sauce we loaded the pizza up with pesto, adding a thick layer of basily goodness to the dough. Next we topped it with lots of shredded mozzarella cheese, followed by sliced baby bella mushrooms, romano cheese and basil Italian sausage, and caramelized onions. 

After twenty minutes in the oven our golden-brown pizza was ready to be devoured. The flavors were delicious and even more satisfying knowing that we'd made it ourselves and each collaborated to the masterpiece. There are so many options for pizza toppings, but I have to say that our combination of pesto, sausage, mushrooms, and onions was pretty killer.
 

Speaking of communal cooking experiences with pizza, you may want to check out this demented video. If you like watching disturbing videos that you wish you could turn away from but simply can't because they are so weird that they hold your gaze for far too long (i.e., Jersey Shore) then feast your eyes upon this slowed-down version of a Olsen Twins' song "Gimme Pizza." Simply bizarre.