Pizza is a 'treat of a meal' served year round in our house, but it's fun to vary the toppings with the seasons. In this pizza, earthy mushrooms pair with nutty gruyere, freshly shredded mozzarella, red wine sauce, and a sprinkle of Italian seasoning, to us it is a perfectly simple fall pizza. This pizza is hearty and filling, packed with flavor, and really easy to make.First start out with your favorite pizza dough...I frequently use this bread machine recipe that I first saw on allrecipes, it's great, but we're huge pizza fans so we are always trying new crust recipes. This is our 'old standby.'
Bread Machine Pizza Crust
3/4 cup warm water
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 teaspoon lemon juice
2 1/4 cups bread flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon dry milk powder
1 tablespoon sugar
1 teaspoon bread machine yeast
Put the ingredients in your machine in the order suggested by the manufacturer, in my Oster you put the wet ingredients first, layer the flour on top, and end with the aditional dry ingredients and yeast. Set it on dough cycle and press into your pizza pan, this makes two smaller round pizzas, or one big rectangular pizza, the size of a large cookie sheet.
For the sauce I love to try new recipes as well, but this is a favorite, and you can have it done in about 60 seconds.
Quick and Easy Red Wine Pizza Sauce
6 ounces tomato paste
1 tablespoon sugar (you can decrease or leave out if you do not like a sweeter sauce, or you can sub honey for the sugar)
1/2 teaspoon garlic powder or roasted garlic
1/4 teaspoon oregano
1/4 teaspoon basil
2 tablespoons red wine
2/3 cup water
Whisk all ingredients together and spoon on your pizza crust, use the back of the spoon to spread the sauce around. You do not need a lot of sauce, but you do want the crust mostly covered in a thin layer. The recipe will give you enough sauce for at least two big cookie sheet pizzas, I usually just store the extra in a little container in the fridge for later uses.
For the toppings I used 2-3 cups thinly sliced mushrooms, 2 cups freshly shredded mozzarella, 1/2-1 cup shredded gruyere, and a sprinkle of pizza seasoning.
Bake at 375 for about 17 minutes, I'd start checking at 15, it may need as long as 20, just kind of watch the pizza. I like to broil the pizza for the last 60ish seconds, just to get the cheese nicely browned. I know not everyone is a mushroom fan, but if you are, this pizza might become a favorite :)