Once the vegetables of summer start rolling in, I go crazy for the abundance of brightly colored, crispy, flavorful produce found at our amazing farmer’s markets, friends’ gardens, and my own garden (sometimes). I use these fresh veggies for everything under the sun: pasta salads, stir fries, lasagnas, tacos, garden salads, and gnawing on raw. But one of my favorite uses of Montana’s summer bounty is to make homemade pizzas, piled high with as many vegetables as possible. Often my finished product, while it tastes divine, bears little visual resemblance to the classic original.

My homemade pizza has evolved over the years; it began with a crust recipe that I discovered in college in my dearly beloved The Book of Bread. I love, love, LOVE homemade pizza crust. I don’t often share this, but I am a recovering mis-diagnosed celiac. It turns out that the Bozeman Deaconess of 1979 was kind of just sort of guessing as to why I couldn’t tolerate most foods, but I didn’t medically investigate that until about 1998, when I got a biopsy that proved I had never had celiac. But since we all thought I did for the first 20-plus years of my life, pizza was off the menu for most of my youth, dampening many a slumber party and college keg. Therefore, to this day, any version of bread, and tomatoes, feels like a special treat.

That said, as a busy woman with a family and 800 jobs, I will often purchase pre-made pizza dough, preferably from the Community Food Co-op or On the Rise, but when I have the time, I love to make this crust dough from scratch. You can omit the yeast, if you like a thinner crust, or don’t have time to wait for it to rise. Both are delicious.

Crust
• Preheat oven to 450 degrees
• Dissolve 1 T yeast in 1 cup warm water, set aside
• Mix ¼ cup dry milk and 2 tsp. salt in 1 cup warm water, set aside
• Combine the 2 above when yeast is fully dissolved
• Add ¼ cup olive oil and whisk
• OPTIONAL: add chopped fresh or dried herbs—I like basil,
    oregano, rosemary, fennel, and/or thyme. Minced fresh garlic is
    also tasty
• In a large bowl, combine the above with 1 and 1/3 cups white flour,
    1 and  1/3 cups whole wheat flour. Mix carefully and continue to
    add flour, beginning to knead as you would regular bread
• When dough is smooth and elastic, cover with a cloth and let rise
    in a cool place for 30 minutes
• Punch down the dough and shape into whatever pans you have –
    this recipe makes two pans’ worth if you’re using typical round
    pizza pans
• Sprinkle cornmeal over pan before pressing dough into place,
    to keep from sticking
• Bake for around 12 minutes, checking periodically
• Remove and let cool

Now for the fun part—toppings! I used to be a strictly cheese pizza girl, thanks to my stint as a vegetarian who was weirdly ignorant about the majesty of produce. I took the “veg” out of vegetarian, my mom would tell you. (Yes, I was extremely annoying to eat with for a long time, and before it was cool.) But today I am a proud CSA (community supported agriculture) devotee and have expanded the possibilities of what a homemade pizza can look like for myself. Here is a variation of how I treat a typical homemade pizza crust once it’s ready to go:

• Preheat oven to 375 degrees
• Cover crust with tomato sauce or pesto—NOTE: homemade sauces
    are even better, when you have an abundance of tomatoes and
    basil and time. When I don’t, I use Paul Newman’s sauces, because
    he was the most sublime man to ever grace the earth. I mean,
    because his company is highly philanthropic
• Decide whether you like the veggies roasted on top, or the cheese,
    and flip the below steps as needed
• Layer on those veggies! Fresh basil, bell peppers, onions, shallots,
    garlic, arugula/kale/spinach/chard, fresh tomatoes (especially
    those pretty multi-colored cherry tomatoes), zucchini, yellow
    squash, broccoli, mushrooms, jalapeños - whatever you’ve got that
    your palate craves
• NOTE: Sometimes I’ll add artichoke hearts, olives, or capers if I’m
    feeling Mediterranean
• Sprinkle with cheese—the more the better! I like a layer of
    mozzarella, a sprinkling of (cow) feta, and a top layer of parmesan.
    I’m not a sheep or goat cheese gal, but if that’s your jam, consider
    using local sheep or goat cheese to make your pizza even more local
• Sometimes I’ll put meat on the pizza too, as I often have spicy Italian
  or chorizo in my freezer from Black Dog Farm. Or I’ll do organic     
  pepperoni or Canadian bacon
• Pop in the oven and bake at 350 for about 10 minutes, depending on
   how well done you like your pizza
• Serve with a giant fresh summer salad and red wine whenever possible

I’ve always wanted to do my summer pizzas outdoors, as described by Barbara Kingsolver in Animal, Vegetable, Miracle. You know those huge, brick outdoor chimney-grill-oven operations you see in fancy outdoor kitchens? We had one in the backyard of my childhood home on South Willson in the ‘80s, which of course I didn’t appreciate at the time and used as a jungle gym. But someday, I hope to get this setup, where it would be even more of an adventure and possibly even more delicious to create a homemade pizza. If you’re one of those lucky folks, give this a try and report back—summer is young!