Simple Gourmet Pizza Menu

When I lived in Florence, my signora (the lady of the house) would make pizza as a first course on the nights when she was rushed. But this was not your working-late-on-a-project-so-let’s-order-pizza pizza. It was simple, packed with flavor, and delicious. How did she make it? With spices and just the lightest dusting of cheese.

I’m all about this type of ingredient focused cooking, and that’s why this is both on of my lazy and special dinners. It is incredibly inexpensive (great pizza dough at TJs is only ninety-nine cents), really fast, and a huge crowd-pleaser.  Best of all, everyone loves the pizzas and requests them again and again. And it always leaves everyone stuffed!

“Lazy” Gourmet Pizza Menu
These doughy delights are modeled off of some of my favorite pasta sauces.
Total active time: 20 minutes

Dessert can be quickly and simply composed of cafe (I love to serve cafe bombon after dinner) and quadrattini, creamy, chocolate-packed Italian wafer cookies available at Whole Foods, Trader Joes, and many large supermarket chains.

  • mins 1-3: Heat the oven to 450, start the puttanesca sauce
  • mins 4-5: Prep the potatoes and pop in the oven
  • mins 6-7: Make pesto pizza and put in the oven
  • mins 8-9: Make primavera pizza, take out the potatoes, and replace with the pizza
  • mins 10-12: Add remaining ingredients to the puttanesca sauce
  • mins 13-16: Slice the brie and apples and make the potato pizza
  • min 17: Take out the pesto pizza, put into the potato pizza
  • min 18: Roll out the last pizza and top with puttanesca sauce
  • min 19: Switch out the primavera pizza for the putanesca
  • mins 20-27: Slice the pesto pizza into square pieces, then the primavera pizza. Let your guests start with the lighter pizzas and then bring out the other two once they have had time to cook a bit and be sliced
  • min 28: Take out the potato pizza
  • min 30: Take out the puttanesca pizza

Enjoy!


  1. Malika Duree

    25 May

    Love your content about gourmet pizza and the way that you write. Makes me drool for pizza ;~p