Pizza 4 Ways and How to Make Pizza Sauce, Mozzarella & Italian Sausage

Pizzas range from Chicago-style deep-dish to the authentic Italian Neapolitan thin-crusts. Depending on what part of the country you're from you can find every topping and style imaginable, including sauce on the bottom, on the top and no sauce at all. Without a doubt though, the best pizzas around, no matter the style, are the ones made by hand using only the freshest ingredients. Below I've included four of my favorite styles of pizzas. Of course I can't stop at just sharing recipes for making your own crusts, so I've also included how to make your own whole-milk mozzarella, red pizza sauce and sweet Italian sausage. 

Margherita Pizza With White Flour Crust

The first pizza recipe is a classic margherita with a light and slightly chewy crust. It's sure to be a crowd pleaser. Head out to your local farmer's market to get the freshest and most flavorful ingredients or better yet, head to your own backyard and grab them out of your garden! For the sauce of this pizza, we're only using fresh, crushed tomatoes. Try to find tomatoes that are sweet and full of tomato flavor. I'd argue that the standard Roma or Beef Steak tomatoes won't cut it for flavor, so do some tomato taste testing if you aren't familiar with the range of flavors tomatoes can have.

Whole-Wheat Crust Pizza Topped with Homemade Red Sauce, Mozzarella and Sweet Italian Sausage

Next, I included a recipe for a whole-wheat crust pizza. While a white-flour crust pizza is always enjoyable, it's lacking in the nutrients area and if you are anything like my family and me, pizza makes a fairly regular appearance in your home. The more nutritious the pizza can be the better. This pizza is made from scratch form the beginning to the end. Starting with the homemade crust and sauce, and ending with fresh homemade mozzarella and sweet Italian sausage. The whole-wheat crust is full of flavor with a soft texture and a bit of a crunch on the bottom. 

Sourdough Pizza Crust Topped With Mozzarella, Parmesan, Sweet Peppers and Artichoke Hearts

Every real food person needs to have a good sourdough crust recipe on hand – it's a good way to use up some of your wonderful sourdough starter. You can purchase starter online, or better yet start it yourself using equal portions, by weight, of water and flour. The more vitality your starter has the lighter your crust will be. You can also use white flour as a replacement for the whole wheat, if that's your preference. However, the whole wheat lends a nice flavor, especially with the mixture of cheeses and vegetables for the toppings. 

Zucchini Crust Pizza Topped With Red Sauce, Mozzarella, Prosciutto and Pine Nuts

Finally, if you don't want to sit down to a meal full of grains, the zucchini crust pizza is perfect for you. This recipe comes from Shannon and her website www.nourishingdays.com and incorporates suggestions from one of her commenters. While this is a pizza you'll be eating with a fork, it's filled with pizza flavor and is a great way to get some more vegetables into your kids!

Homemade Mozzarella

 At the end of this post you'll find a list of some of my tips for making your own pizzas at home. I hope you enjoy these recipes as much as my family and I enjoy making and eating them in our home! I'd love it if you would take a moment and vote for me for Project Food Blog, simply click HERE.

Thank you!!!