Restivo Pizza

Oscar could eat pizza everyday, if I let him. He'll eat just about any kind but his two favorites are Joe's Pizza and my mom's. Pizza is pretty much a Friday night affair at the Restivo house. Even if it was just Oscar and me and my parents, Oscar and my dad agreed that we still needed two extra large pies, salads, and subs. They loved the leftovers the next day. One year, we even threw Oscar a surprise birthday party in Joe's party room with my family - party hats and mom's cookie cake included.

When my mom came over the summer, she really wanted to make Oscar pizza. I didn't know how we were going to do it because I don't have a bread machine and they don't even sell frozen bread dough (a shortcut) here. My mom - being the smart person that she is - came up with the idea to use a cibatta bread mix. It was perfect! The dough was nice and thick and made for a great Italian pizza. So now everytime I make it, I think of her :)

Oscar has only a few requirements that would classify me as being a good mom - two are directly related to food - being able to make chocolate chip cookies and homemade pizza. At least now I have that going for me!

Restivo Pizza
1 Cibatta bread mix plus 1 extra tblsp olive oil
1 can crushed tomatoes (the regular size - not the 28oz can)
1 onion
1 clove garlic
1 tsp sugar
1 tblsp olive oil
1 red pepper
Pepperoni
2 c mozarrella cheese
Salt

For the sauce
Chop half of the onion and clove of garlic. Sautee the onion and garlic over med-low heat in 1 tblsp of olive oil until onion are translucent. Season with salt. Add the can of crushed tomatoes and 1 tsp of sugar. Let it simmer for about 20 minutes until the sauce thickens.

For the dough
Follow the directions on the package and add 1 extra tblsp olive oil to the mix. After letting it rise for 30 min, lightly grease a baking sheet with olive oil and stretch out the dough to make a nice crust. Top the dough with a little sauce and put it in the oven for 12-15 min at 35o.

For the pizza
Take the crust out of the oven and top with the rest of the sauce, pepperoni and cheese. Then, top the cheese with the sliced red pepper and the other half of the onion. Bake for another 15-20 minutes at 350 until the cheese starts to brown.

Me making pizza while I talked with my mom :)