Mushroom Basil Pizza

Ahh, mushroom pizza, could there be a more perfect food? I know lots of people don't care for the humble mushroom, but for me, appreciation of these little gems was something I was raised with. I don't know if mushrooms are popular to all Lithuanians but they were huge in my family growing up. My first Lithuanian word, and the only one I remember, is grybas. I believe you can't really pick what you don't like, so I know it's not your fault if you've given mushrooms a chance and you still can't stand them. My husband is a mushroom hater :(

My 'new favorite' mushroom pizza has plenty of mushrooms, of course, but also fresh basil, fontina, mozzarella, and parmesan. I make my own 'red wine' pizza sauce, and make my own crust with the help of my trusty Oster bread machine, which I use all the time on dough cycle. I've tried tons of crust recipes from all over the internet and my own extensive cookbook collection. I was recently lead to a crust recipe on allrecipes from a friend on a cooking board. I surprisingly hadn't tried that one before, probably because when I do my allrecipes search I tend to type in "pizza crust" and this recipe is for "pizza dough" so I was excited to try something new but didn't have my hopes up. What I got was a perfect silky soft but not sticky dough with a very subtle flavor -- could be enhanced by adding herbs to the dough, but really not necessary since the crust is just a vessel on my mushroom pizza. I know that on some pizzas crust is key, like New York style or Chicago style -- neither of which, sadly, have I figured out how to duplicate at home. Secret ingredient in this dough? Flat beer.

We eat a lot of pizza in our family, I know it's not the healthiest food, but if you make it yourself at least you know what's in it, and you can make some amazing creations that no delivery or take-out place could ever compete with. I've come to the point where I actually prefer homemade pizza over take-out, even from a 'gourmet' pizza place.

I'm sure there will be many more pizza posts in my blog, probably even some more mushroom pizza posts since I just love it so much and really enjoy making them, and so do the kids :) but for now I will leave you with one more picture of my super nummy creation...