I found the pizza dough recipe on AllRecipes.com aptly named “Quick and Easy Pizza Crust“. It requires no rising, which saves a ton of time. Juniper is my sous chef and together it takes us ten minutes to prep. Here is our slightly modified version of the recipe:
Quick + Easy Pizza Dough
- 2 1/2 tsp. bread yeast, or one package (.25 oz) active dry yeast
- 1 tsp. sugar
- 1 c. warm water
- 2 1/2 c. all purpose flour
- 1/2 tsp. salt
- 2 T. olive oil
- 1 c. marinara sauce and desired toppings (see below)
- Preheat oven to 425 degrees. In a large mixing bowl, add yeast and sugar. Add warm water and stir gently to dissolve. Let rest for ten minutes.
- Add flour, salt and oil to the yeast mixture. Beat until smooth. (I use the dough hook attachment on my stand-up mixer.) Rest the dough for five minutes.
- Roll out dough on a lightly floured surface. Transfer to a lightly oiled pan, top with marinara sauce and bake for 8-10 minutes.
- Remove pizza from oven and add desired toppings (see below). Bake an additional 5-7 minutes until the crust is light brown and cheese is melted.

Fresh tomato pizza served with a simple Caprese salad (tomato, mozzarella, basil + olive oil)
To make the Fresh Tomato pizza, we add the following toppings:
- 2 c. shredded mozzarella cheese
- Fresh tomatoes cut into 1/4″ thick slices (or cherry tomatoes cut in half)
- Roasted garlic cloves (tossed in olive oil and previously roasted at 300 degrees for 20 minutes)
- Cooked chicken chunks (leftovers from a previous meal)
- Sliced black olives
Using homegrown tomatoes packs a ton of flavor into the pizza, making it the star topping. I used rich, juicy Brandywine tomatoes picked fresh that morning. Those few minutes in the oven cooked off a lot of the excess tomato water without drying the slices too much. It was a slice of heaven! Try it out and tell me how it goes!