Looking for unique pizza ideas? The beauty of making them at home is that you can create something delicious based on ingredients you have available. Start with a good, store bought pizza dough. Roll it out as thin as you like while preheating your pizza stones in a 500 degree oven. We routinely make two pizzas from one pound of dough. I keep a couple balls of dough in the freezer so we can make them whenever the mood strikes. If you would like to make your own dough from scratch, here’s a recipe from dishcrawl.com.
One of my favorites that can be made with basics I usually have on hand is Quattro Stagioni, meaning the 4 seasons represented by each of the ingredients. We first had it in Venice at one of the few places that was open while everyone else was enjoying siesta. We hadn’t adapted to local time/customs yet that early in the trip.
You can decide if you want to arrange the ingredients separately on each quadrant of the pizza or distribute them evenly, which is the way we often do it.
Once you have rolled out the dough and placed on a preheated pizza stone, top with red sauce. Sometimes we use store bought sauce and sometimes I make it myself. Top with mozzarella and follow with the ingredients listed below.
Toppings For Quattro Stagioni Pizza
- sliced capicola ham or prosciutto
- chopped black olives such as Kalamata
- sliced mushrooms
- artichoke hearts
Why do I say this is one of those unique pizza ideas that you can make from ingredients on hand? Because even if you don’t have fresh mushrooms or artichokes, you can always keep some in the freezer and canned in the pantry. That’s one of my strategies for being prepared and shopping less often while always having the makings of a great meal.
We don’t buy capicola often, but prosciutto makes a regular appearance at our place, so even if I didn’t buy it for this pizza in particular, it’s likely that I have a few slices sitting in the refrigerator. And guess what? Using even 3 out of 4 of these items still makes a great pizza.
Bake for 10 minutes or until crust is golden.
Ingredients for Basic Red Pizza Sauce:
- a few cloves of garlic
- canned tomatoes
- basil (dried or fresh)
- oregano (dried or fresh)
- French thyme (dried or fresh)
- olive oil
Chop the garlic first and then add the other ingredients to taste and puree. Buon appetito!
By the way, fantastic pizza doesn’t always require red sauce. Learn step by step how to make our favorite pizza without it.