Craving Pizza? Check Your Fridge Before You Order
Written by Ridley Kozman
It’s no secret that I love pizza. I do. I bug my family on nights that we order in, as all I ever suggest is...you guessed it – pizza! But ordering pizza is expensive, delivery takes time, and sometimes your parents or your siblings just aren’t as enthusiastic about pizza as you are.
Fortunately, there's another option: make pizza with what you already have in your kitchen! Many people think making pizza requires special dough, ingredients, even a fancy domed pizza oven. Not true. Pizza is actually one of the most flexible foods out there. At its core, pizza consists of a base, a sauce, and toppings. Once you have that formula down, the possibilities are endless.
The Base:
No pizza dough? No problem. Look around your kitchen for tortillas, flatbread, a baguette, bagels, English muffins, naan, or pita bread. All of these different breads work, and each creates a different style of pizza. Tortillas become thin and crispy while bagels create mini personal pizzas. Pita and naan make chewy, thicker crusts.
The Sauce:
Traditional pizza sauce is typically a red, tomato, or marinara sauce. But that’s not the only option. Try regular, store-bought tomato or pasta sauce (tomato & basil works so well), olive oil, and
you can add garlic to it, Alfredo sauce, even barbecue sauce.
The Cheese:
Mozzarella is classic, but if it’s not in your fridge, see what you have. Perhaps it’s cheddar, Monterey Jack, provolone, parmesan, feta, or goat cheese. You can combine cheeses too.
The Toppings:
This is where things get fun and interesting. Open up your fridge and see what you can find. Look for bell peppers, mushrooms, onions, spinach, cherry tomatoes, leftover chicken or any meat, ham or turkey, pineapple, olives, and cooked bacon. This repurposes leftovers into gourmet pizza, and you can come up with cool, unexpected combinations depending on what you have in your fridge.
My Gourmet, at-home Pizza:
One afternoon after school, I was determined to have pizza. I took some pita, olive oil, sprinkled oregano, crumbled up feta cheese, half of a red pepper, and some chopped onion with some chicken from the night before. This was an accidental Greek-inspired pizza, and it was delicious. The result wasn't my ideal mixed veggie and meat pizza, but it was still awesome.
I put my pita-based pizza in the toaster oven, and it came out crispy, cheesy, and delicious. Most importantly, it completely satisfied the craving. The best recipes can happen by accident!
Making pizza at home is easy, inexpensive, and a culinary adventure. All you need is a base, a sauce, cheese, and inventive toppings. So, the next time a pizza craving strikes, don't automatically reach for your phone or beg your parents to order. Check the fridge and get going! Sometimes the best pizza isn't the one you order...but rather the one you invent.
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