Cheese Pizza - From Scratch

Everybody loves pizza. Not everyone makes their own pizza. I grew up in a household where Saturday night was pizza night. I knew, my family knew it, my friends knew it, everyone knew Saturday night was Al's Pizza. If you didn't live in my house you tried to find a way to be there on Saturday night if at all possible. So it is still difficult for me to accept that not everyone knows how to make homemade pizza.

Making pizza from scratch is so easy it borders on embarrassing once you get the hang of it and getting the hang of it is even easier then making pizza from scratch. Don't dwell on that last sentence it will only make you crazy...for PIZZA!

Whether you start with store bought dough or go all in and make your own it takes less time to prepare a fresh scratch cheese pizza, including cooking it then it takes to order one and pick it up or wait for delivery. It takes 5 minutes longer to make a fresh, 100% natural, wholesome, healthy, tasty pizza from scratch then it does to heat a frozen pizza from a box. I PROMISE!

Ingredients 
1 Ball of Pizza Dough
1 1/2 - 2 Cups Part Skim Mozzarella
1 8 Oz Can Tomato Sauce (Not Pizza Sauce)
1/4 Cup Grated Parmesan Cheese
1 Tbs Dried Oregano
1 Tbs Dried Basil
1 Tbs Dried Thyme
1Tbs Granulated Garlic or Garlic Powder
1 Tbs Onion Powder
1 Tsp Black Pepper 
1 Tsp Salt
1 Tbs Extra Virgin Olive Oil

Preparation
Before we start notice in the ingredients I specified NOT PIZZA SAUCE. Good you were paying attention. The difference between tomato sauce and Pizza Sauce is that in Pizza Sauce they add some kind of cheese product and I prefer that you add the real deal and use grated cheese instead, you'll appreciate it the difference in flavor, trust me.

Stretch your dough, round, rectangular, or other, to 1/4" or thinner and spread olive oil evenly on top. You could drizzle the olive oil at the end if you prefer. Spread a thin coat of tomato sauce covering the dough to about 3/4 of an inch from the edge. Evenly add the herbs, Oregano, Basil, Thyme and seasonings, Garlic and Onion Powder, Salt and Pepper. 

Cheese is next. You can increase or decrease the amount of cheese you use depending on your preference for cheesy goodness. You can use shredded or sliced, your choice just cover most of the top with cheese. If you like your pizza saucy add the remaining sauce on top of the cheese.

Cook it at 450 degrees on either a pizza stone or top rack until the crust is lightly brown and the bottom is dark golden to light brown. Total cooking time will vary since you can't trust the temperature of ANY oven between 7 and about 12 minutes.

Enjoy and when it's done there's no box to throw away.