I like to make pizza at home, but it’s almost always a ton of work. I haven’t made it in probably 18 months. Mostly, in the last year, I’ve been afraid. I have a small, electric oven. My pizza stone, upon moving in, took a spot next to the cleaning supplies under the sink–it doesn’t fit by a good four inches.

But, tonight, I stomached it. I made it. I did it. I went back to my favorite recipe for pizza dough, followed it to a T, produced a tender and silky pizza dough, made the mistake of using fragrant chestnut honey (go with the stuff in the bear container), and then ate it up with sardines and basil. You can do that too.

Let’s not reinvent the wheel. And by wheel, we mean the pizza.

Use Wolfgang Puck’s recipe as linked above for your dough. I don’t use a mixer, I do it by hand, and it comes out just fine. And probably with less dishes.

I like my pizzas lumpy sized. I don’t pride myself on the perfect circularity of my skins. It’s not important. Let’s talk about something more interesting…like salt. That sauce you’re putting on there? Why don’t you taste it and make sure you’d want to dip some boring bread in it before you put it on your pizza skin. And then add some salt until you think it is actually salty.

I used some Pomi strained tomatoes and let them simmer a few minutes. Minimal work. This was a weeknight dinner. Press dry some fresh mozarella in paper towels, slice it up, get some fresh basil, some anchovies in oil. I think you can probably figure this out. Don’t overload it.

Two main notations: Put your oven as hot as it will go. You will thank me later for the ensuing sauna of your studio apartment. And, use a pizza stone if you can. I tried to even cook mine crooked on it, but it would not fit. Too much slant, so I used my silpat. It was soggy in the middle, a problem I’ve never had before. So trust me, that $20 for a stone? Well spent. You can make scones, cookies, breads and more on it, too. And if all else fails, it makes most (uneven) ovens more evenly heated, just by leaving it in all the time. Souffle is happier.