We love pizza! Kevin has been making it for years and has many different kinds we enjoy. Before our weight loss, he made it with a thicker crust and full fat versions of sausage, pepperoni and a multitude of cheeses. As we worked on our weight loss we wanted to have our pizza and eat it too! To solve this Kevin changed his recipes and now uses a thin crust (staying away from thicker or pan versions), fresh vegetables and cheeses that are lower in fat. The chart below shows calories and fat of a typical slice of take out pizza vs Kevin’s Healthy Kitchen pizza.

Using better ingredients and thinner crust saved us 130 calories, 7 grams of fat and 3 grams of saturated fat!

Making your own pizza does take a couple of key items in your kitchen including a pizza stone (you can see ours is well seasoned!) and a pizza peel (kitchen stores usually sell them together), but once you do it, you’ll never order take out again!

A word about dough: Kevin is obsessed with dough and has done everything from making his own from scratch, to buying fresh rolled out doughs. We now use the balls of fresh dough sold in most grocery stores, and roll it out with a rolling pin. The store bought balls of dough are usually sold in 1lb bags. We cut them in half to make 1 pizza to split between us, and freeze the rest. 

Dough can be tricky to work with but there are a few things you can do to make it much easier! Common problems include:

1. The dough sticks to the peel and makes it hard to get it off the peel and into the oven. In the ingredients list below you’ll see 1 tablespoon of cornmeal. The corn meal keeps the dough from sticking to the peel.
2. The dough is larger than the pizza stone. If the sides flop over the edges of the stone it’s a mess in the oven (ask us how we know that!). To solve this, Kevin created a template by placing the pizza stone on top of a light weight piece of cardboard. He drew a circle around the stone and cut it out. He repeated this with the peel except he used a pizza cutter and carefully made a circular line in the grain of the wood. The cardboard template is used after the dough is rolled out by placing it on top to make sure the dough is the right size, trimming and shaping as needed. After the dough is transferred to the peel, the outline is there as well, to make sure the pizza will always fit on the stone properly.

Tomato Basil Pizza

This recipe uses fresh in-season tomatoes instead of sauce. The taste of ripe in-season tomatoes purchased from your local farmers market, make this pizza something special. Trust us – you won’t miss the sauce!

 

8 oz fresh ball of Pizza Dough

4 sliced Roma Tomatoes

2 tbsp Light Olive Oil

5-6 large fresh Basil Leaves, coarsely chopped

1/2 cup shredded part-skim Mozzarella Cheese

2 cloves minced Garlic

¼ cup Flour

1 tbsp Corn Meal

1 tsp Kosher Salt

Preheat your oven broiler on high to heat the pizza stone. Dust your workspace with flour and roll out dough to about 13” across using your template if you have one. Spread corn meal on the pizza peel and transfer the dough from the work surface to the peel. Move the peel back and forth to make sure the dough moves freely. If it sticks anywhere spread corn meal under the trouble spots and move again until it moves freely.

Kevin’s Tip: “Using the spiky end of a meat tenderizer, gently tap around the whole dough. This helps make sure you don’t have large bubbles or blistering anywhere on the pizza.”

Turn off the broiler and set the oven on 450 degrees.

Paint the dough with the olive oil all the way to the edge. Add 80% of the cheese, then the garlic and tomato slices. Slide the pizza off the peel and onto the hot stone. Bake for 5 minutes. Open the oven and pull the oven rack out exposing the pizza and add the basil and remaining cheese. Finish baking for 4-5 minutes or until the crust is brown.

Kevin’s Tip: “As soon as you pull the pizza out of the oven, sprinkle it lightly with kosher salt. It will bring out the flavor of the tomatoes and make this pizza even better!”

Serving Size: 1 slice

Calories 181 | Fat 6g | Saturated Fat 2g | Carbs 27g | Protein 5g | Fiber 2g