The do's and don'ts of Pizza

Now remember this is all my opinion and may not be what you think at all.  But this is my blog not yours. Lets start out with the first layer, the crust.  It must be fresh. None of this frozen dough or premade crust.  La Bellas in Littlestown does this right with fresh dough. http://www.ltownlabellas.com/ If you are ever in town and want a good slice along with many other Italian dishes please visit.  No they are not paying me.  Cooking it.  I think the dough should be cooked a little before toppings even start to touch it.  First off the sauce will just saturate the crust if you put it down on raw dough. With a slight crust to it the sauce and other toppings will not make it all soggy and make for a longer cooking time and overcooking the toppings.  On with the toppings.  The sauce can not be too sweet or too runny. Sweet sauce is good but over sweet will take away from the other flavors of the toppings and make it harder to eat.  It will be like eating a dessert and that is not what you are going for when eating a pizza.  A fresh sauce is ideal.  I try to make mine from scratch and use tomatoes and add my own spices.  I can limit the amount of salt as well. Making the pizza too salty has the same effect as too sweet.  Also it makes you want to drink more during and later.  Not a good idea.Cheese.  Here is where we will probably agree.  Fresh cheese of your choice.  Mine is always mozzarella and nothing else. Some of you out there like multiple cheeses and that is fine in your house on your pizza but not mine.  I want the stringy white cheese that makes it so good.  If I can have a ball of it and slice it myself that would be perfect but most of the time that is not possible so I have to go with the bagged cheese.  Now here is where you all will get mad at me. So if you want to stop right now i understand.  Veggies are alright on pizza.  The basic for me.  Onions if they are browned before not while cooking.  Again you will over cook the pizza trying not to have under cooked onions.  Some of you like all the peppers, mushrooms, broccoli and other viggies on top. Leave them off.  Mushrooms are just gross.  They have a bizarre texture and it does not go well with pizza.  peppers just ruin the flavor of the pizza.  they are so overpowering that you never taste anything else.  Now don't get me wrong.  I like veggies just not all them on my pizza.  On to the meat.  Leave off the sausage. Way too much grease. It gives me heart burn and acid re flux.  You already have it with the cheese and too much of it is not a good thing.  Pepperoni is about the same for me as sausage.  If it is on the pizza i can pull it off and be fine with it.  I would rather not have to do that because i lose cheese doing it.  Precooked bacon is a great thing but not too much. Yes precook your bacon.  Floppy bacon will only add to the grease.  By precooking it you can drain the grease and have the awesome crispy texture. Yeah I said it, not too much.  same reason as the sausage, too much grease. Shrimp and other sea foods.  I love it on my pizza.  it all must be precooked at least a little and preseasoned but only a little.  Too much seasoning will ruin the flavor of the pizza. Anchovies can be added only if they are alone.  They are so salty that you should limit the amount on top.  2 per slice max.  it is up to you for any other toppings.  I would leave most everything off my pizza and just add a little of my favorites. Spread it out on top. You don't need a topping in every mouth full.  Cooking the pizza.  Ideal way is in a brick oven heated by wood.  I like the char black power on the bottom.  speed cooking one in an electric oven is most of the pizza joints way to do it so when you have one cooked in a brick oven you will never want to eat it any other way.  I even grilled the pizza on the gas grill.  Not the same effect as wood but you can add wet wood chips to your grill to give it the smokey flavor. Crust must be crispy on the outside and not too burnt in the middle.  Turning the pizza should be done to get the over all equal cook.  if you slice a pizza and pick up said slice and it flops down and your toppings fall off into your lap you cooked it wrong.  you should be able to bend and hear the crust break along the edge and fold the pizza slice.  I might have left off a few things and you might have thought of a few things.  If that is the case please comment and let me know.  What toppings do you like on your pizza?  Did I offend any of you and your tastes in pizza?  God bless all of you, thanks for reading and see you at the table. For pictures of a real pizza please refer to my blog on Pepe's Pizza and check out their website. http://www.pepespizzeria.com/