So Mama Kathleen just left yesterday after visiting for a week. My only request during her stay was to teach me how to make her pizza dough and to make it for a group of my friends. And what I thought was a simple request turned into quite a major ordeal. Little did I know that my Mom cooks "by feel." So when I asked her to give me the measurements for her dough she promptly started laughing hysterically at me like I was a crazy person. Therefore, I decided to follow behind her with a measuring cup and spoon and figure out the measurements, so I could pass them on to you all and memorialize the pizza recipe of my childhood. She did allow me to do this, however she did roll her eyes at me every time I told her to wait I needed to measure haha.

So here is the recipe, well to the best of my ability-Mama Kathleen's Pizza Dough

1 1/8 cup warm water
1/4 oz yeast
1/8 tsp salt
1/2 tsp olive oil
2 1/2 cups unbleached all purpose flour

Combine yeast and warm water. Add salt and olive oil. Let sit for 5 minutes. The yeast should start to look bubbly.


Add the yeast mixture to the flour and combine.


Dust the counter with flour so the dough doesn't stick. Put the dough on the counter and knead.


The dough should still be elastic but not sticky. It should not be sticking to your hands (Mama Kathleen's description).


Grease a clean bowl with additional olive oil so the dough doesn't stick to the bowl. Add the dough to the bowl and put in a warm location.  Let rise for 45 minutes.


** If you live in a cooler climate like Nor Cal turn the oven on for 10 minutes at 350 degrees so it gets warm and then turn the oven off and put the dough in the oven to raise. **

My Mom does not knead the dough again after it rises. She shapes it into pizza shapes using her hands and adds the topping of her dreams. She does not use pizza stones as she does not know how they will bake the crust, she uses cookie sheets...so we had rectangular pizza.


Each batch of dough makes 1 large pizza.

Since we were doing a pizza party we were planning on making 5 pizzas. So I got my Mom 2 large bowls thinking she could double the dough recipes in those bowls. However, I was dead wrong!! My Mom needed 5 bowls, one for each crust, cause God only knows what would happen if you increased a dough recipe. Love you Mom xoxo!!!


Cook the pizza in a 425 degree oven until I quote,"the Mama feel says it's done." And although that technique has worked amazingly well for Mama Kathleen over the years, I wanted something a little more concrete that I could pass on to all of you. So the pizza cooks for approximately 15-20 minutes or until the bottom of the crust is lightly brown, when lifted with a spatula.

Since we were doing a pizza party we spread the dough and all of the toppings out on the dining room table and had ourselves a jolly good time playing with toppings.


Here are some of our creations:

Fresh Mozzarella, Marinara Sauce, Mushrooms and Olives

Fresh Tomatoes, Basil, Mushrooms & Fresh Mozzarella-served with balsamic vinegar to dip

Artichoke hearts, basil, fresh tomatoes and Feta

Salami, bleu cheese, marinara sauce and something else

Olives, artichoke hearts, fresh mozzarella, red onion and marinara sauce

Pepperoni, marinara sauce, olives, fresh and grated mozzarella

 And a few pics of finished pizza. Sorry I didn't get more pics of the pizza out of the oven, but they were devoured...my friends are kind of like locusts when it comes to pizza:





Mama Kathleen is going to kill me for putting her pic in my blog, but it was a great night filled with laughter, good friends, good wine and good pizza so it needed to be captured. Cheers!