Pizza, anyone?

On my way home tonight, I had to stop at Citizen's Bank to make a deposit for my Condo Association.  Luckily for me, there is a Citizen's located in the Stop and Shop on Rte 44 in Raynham right near where I work.  I decided while I was in there that I was going to make pizza for dinner tonight.  We don't eat meat on Friday's during Lent, so pizza sounded like a great idea!

I decided while I was aimlessly walking around the market that I was going to make a traditional red pizza, but I was also going to try to make a Ricotta Cheese and Caramelized Onion pizza (I had this a few times from Bertucci's and it's just delicious).

My shopping receipt consisted of the following:
1 28-oz can of Pastene Pealed and Crushed Tomatoes (my family is obsessed with Pastene, so it's all I buy)
2 1-lb bags of Calisi Pizza Dough (I'm partial to making my own dough, but on a Friday afternoon, I'm all for store-bought dough)
1 16-oz container of Part Skim Ricotta Cheese
1 Almond Joy egg (deliciousness for the ride home!)

When I got home, I decided that instead of spreading the dough out in a cookie sheet like I usually do, I was going to use the pizza stone.  Now, when I moved into my condo, the previous owner left behind her pizza stone.  It had never been used, and I really didn't know how to use it but one of my employees at work explained to me what to do (heat it up first, then bake, etc). 

So I first decided that I would caramelize the onions so they could cool before putting them on the dough and I could fix the other pizza while I was waiting.  While they were cooking/cooling, I made the pizza sauce on the stove top, rather than just putting the sauce on the dough and all the seasonings on top.  I remember my dad's Auntie Mary doing this when I was young.  I always thought it was such a novel thing, since I had only ever seen my mom layer everything on the dough.  I have to admit, it was pretty delicious.

As for the second pizza, it was really tasty, I wasn't as happy about it as I was the red pizza.  I think buying part skim ricotta cheese was the first problem.  If I try to make this again, I think I'll go with the whole milk cheese.  Also, I only had about 2/3 of a massive onion, and after it was caramelized, I just don't think it was enough.  I'll have to play with it a bit next time.

With both pizzas, the dough got super thin in the middle.  So thin, that it actually was a bit soggy.  I'll definitely have to work on that.  I think even when they make pizza on TV, they keep the center thicker than the outsides.....I was thinking about that while I was spreading out the dough, but something between my brain and my hands got a little lost.  :o)

Here are a few pictures of the deliciousness!  With a glass of wine, dinner was pretty tasty tonight!