52 Sunday Suppers: Homemade pizza, Spinach Salad & Affogatos

When the moon hits your eye like a big pizza pie, that’s amore!

Family pizza night equals love in our home.

Shortly after Husband and I were married, friends gave us the cookbook New Pizza by James McNair. Inspired by the delicious recipes in the book, we started making our own homemade pizzas and found that the process of kneading dough and creating mini masterpieces side-by-side in the kitchen was our kind of Friday night. Since those early years, we’ve added four Littles to the mix and it turns out their favorite family meal is Friday pizza night, too.

The Littles love the deliciousness of the melted mozzarella overflowing with their favorite toppings. Husband is the Chief Dough Operator and rolls the homemade goodness to perfection. Me? I love that on family pizza nights, we all linger in the kitchen a little longer together. We usually make it to the table to eat, but on this occasion the true fun happens around the kitchen counters. The scene bursts with activity – rolling, tossing, spreading, topping. It’s a mess, but worth every ounce of spilled flour and sauce smudges.

Here’s a glimpse from Friday night. . . (Littlest is tossing a blanket, not pizza dough! Wouldn’t that be something?)

This week’s 52 Sunday Suppers menu lends itself perfectly to a fun family night. The homemade Neapolitan pizza dough is super easy to prepare and can be made in advance. I made it in under ten minutes before I took the Littles to school on Friday morning. Don’t let homemade dough stop you from the fun, our favorite store bought pizza dough is Udi’s, which is also gluten-free.

Our favorite toppings, include:

• red sauce, homemade or store bought
• fresh mozzarella, sliced and grated
• cherry tomatoes
• pepperoni
• pesto, homemade or store bought
• sauted mushrooms
• caramelized onions
• black kalamata olives
• pineapple

We tossed up the Best Spinach Salad and finished the meal with affogatos. Affogatos are Italian versions of ice cream floats. A scoop or two of your favorite flavored gelato topped with a shot of espresso. Y’all, it’s lick your bowl good. The Littles opt for an extra scoop of gelato and nix the espresso. Gelato flavors to inspire your affogatos – salted caramel, peanut butter & Nutella, and cookies & cream. Our neighborhood gelato shop, Tèo sent us home well prepared for the Italian dessert. Most grocery stores carry gelato, but substituting your favorite ice cream works just as well, too.

 

 

Week Two Menu

The Schell’s Favorite Neapolitan Pizza Dough

Susie’s Easy Pizza Dough (cinnamon stick recipe, too!)

The BEST Spinach Salad

Affogatos

click for a printable PDF of this week’s menu

I hope this week’s menu inspires a fun family dinner night. Making homemade pizza is a perfect casual supper to host for friends and neighbors, too. You could have a Bring Your Own Topping Party! Susie hosted a Sunday supper for pastor’s wives and I can’t wait to try her pizza dough and cinnamon sticks.

Be sure to come join Susie & me on Facebook where we’ll dish up tips and inspiration for this week’s 52 Sunday Suppers menu. And we want to hear from you! Let’s talk pizza (and amore!) this week.

Happy Sunday, friends!

Love,