When I was a kid, we had pizza every Wednesday night. It was also the night my dad drank a beer (which at the time I thought was absolutely repulsive – I know better now ;)). It was always a cheese pizza and I absolutely loved it. Growing up in NY, good pizza surrounded you on every corner so I really looked forward to it every week.

As a parent now, I want that cooking break for pizza night at the end of the week – on Friday! And with the weather now cold, I don’t want to go out for it. So I’m making it instead!

I stopped off at the pizza shop this am after school drop-off and picked up some fresh pizza dough (alternatively, you can buy dough in the refrigerated section at any supermarket – Trader Joe’s has a good whole wheat one that costs about $2). All that’s left to do after that is assembling and baking. I didn’t use a fancy pizza stone, just a plain old baking sheet. And if you have any leftover basil from the summer to make homemade pesto with, that would taste great in place of store-bought pesto too.

The ease of this pizza is you can put anything on top – ricotta cheese, no meats, lots of meats, more veggies, anything leftover in your fridge… the possibilities with pizza are endless.