homemade pizza

Pizza is pretty close to a perfect food. Carbs, protein, fat, salt, soft and crisp, slightly sweet, slightly spicy, what could be better? It is at once celebratory and conciliatory, the food you want to eat when you’ve kicked butt at work or when you dropped the ball. It can be as elegant as a cracker-thin flatbread anointed with truffle oil and prosciutto and figs or as down and dirty as a thick crust piled with five different meats and extra cheese stuffed in the crust. As the old joke goes, even bad pizza is still pretty good.

You can’t swing a proverbial cat around the internet these days without hitting six homemade pizza recipes, most of which are great. You’ve got the artisanal ones using homemade sourdough starter and baked to order in someone’s DIY backyard brick pizza oven. And you’ve got the down and dirty ones using store bought crust and jarred sauce baked in your kitchen. Grilled ones and griddled ones, super thin crust and extra thick, loaded with sauce and toppings and cheeses, and barely gilded with seasoned oil and shaved vegetables.

Okay, so has anyone heard of the pizza diet?? Fad diets come and go, but, according to recent news media this is the real deal, folks. New York chef, Pasquale Cozzolino, cut the calories with a daily margherita pizza, which sliced an astonishing 94 pounds. The word, "diet" is usually one that follows with unpleasant thoughts and a slight cringe, however, this is one we could get on board with. Perhaps not traditionally included in your weight loss nutrition plan, these pies are actually not too bad for you and lucky for us, not lacking in the flavor department either.