Apparently it is National Cheese Pizza Day on Sunday (September 5). I don’t need much of a reason to eat pizza, but obviously I had to celebrate this special day.

I thought about making cheese pizza but I didn’t want plain cheese pizza. I like having toppings, so that’s what I did. I definitely had lots of cheese on here so the thought was still there.

Anyways, let’s get to this pizza. I hope you like my freeform crust. I bought refrigerated dough from the grocery store and I wasn’t in the mood to roll it out properly. So I tried to just press it down to fill the pan, which worked to an extent. But as you can see, it wasn’t the most evenly-shaped, but it tasted delicious which is what counts!

I made my own pizza sauce because I love making my own sauce. I used tomato passata (crushed tomatoes) as the base and just added a bunch of spices and a little sugar to make it perfect. It’s so easy and you can make the flavour exactly how you like it. The recipe is down below. You can make half the recipe and it should be enough for one pizza. But I made the full batch and used some as a dip for the crust.

I don’t have an exact recipe for you with amount of toppings used, I just sprinkled my ingredients until the sauce was fully covered and everything was nicely distributed. Here is approximately what I used:

• 1/3 cup tomato sauce
• 1 cup shredded cheese
• 5-6 cherry tomatoes, sliced
• 5-6 olives, sliced

As for cooking, I did that in three stages. First was baking the plain crust for 10 minutes to get it started. Then second is after adding the sauce, cheese and toppings, I baked for another 10 minutes. I also broiled it for about 2 minutes just to get the cheese extra bubbly. Look how beautifully golden brown and crispy the crust is – that’s what you want!

This was just a good meal. Making your own pizza, even if you are using a store-bought dough is so much healthier and tastier than frozen. Give it a try, if you never have!

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Tomato Sauce

• 1 cup tomato passata (crushed tomatoes)
• 1 tsp sugar
• 1/2 tsp: parsley, basil, oregano
• 1/4 tsp: salt, pepper, chili flakes

Combine all ingredients in medium bowl. Use as desired and store leftovers in airtight container for up to 1 week.