Not much can top homemade pizza

An excerpt from the blog "My Daughter's Kitchen."

There is nothing more universally loved than fresh-from-the-oven, homemade pizza. It appeals to adults and children alike; it can accommodate meat-eaters and vegetarians; it never fails to impress.

And, once you get the oven hot, you can keep the pizzas coming every 10 minutes! Special requests of more cheese or no onions, for once, are not the least bit annoying.

But it does require the advance prep of making dough the night before, so it is never a last-minute endeavor. If you remember to buy fresh yeast (yeast is not something that can hang around in the pantry for months), you probably already have the rest of the ingredients for dough: water, flour, olive oil, salt, sugar.

That being said, it takes years to perfect the perfect pizza crust. I have made lovely crusts over the years, chewy, nicely browned along the edges, with impressive yeasty air pockets - but not one can compete with the likes of the ethereal pies at Osteria, even though this time I tried Marc Vetri's recipe from his cookbook Rustic Italian Food.

My pizza is, however, a world above what I can order for take-out in my neighborhood, at a fraction of the cost. My favorite pie is the simple Margherita: marinara, fresh mozzarella cheese, and a few basil leaves. I also love the pistachio pizza made famous by Pizzeria Bianco in Phoenix: a simple mix of pistachios, olive oil, red onion, Parmesan cheese, and fresh rosemary.

A few notes: If you want to make pizzas regularly, buy a pizza stone and a pizza peel (available at kitchen stores - Sur La Table, Crate and Barrel, and the like). The stone is placed in the oven and heated for about an hour before the pizza is cooked and helps to produce a crispy crust. The peel is a wooden paddle that makes sliding the pizza onto the stone much easier.

Once you get over the initial intimidation, pizza-making becomes a pleasure: There is satisfaction in kneading the dough until its texture turns silky under the heels of your hands, magic in the rising of the dough, and joy in pulling a hot, beautiful pizza from the oven. It may not be perfect, but in the end, that is also part of its appeal.