It’s ALWAYS Pizza Time with Jus-Rol!

Dan and I have lived in McDowell County, West Virginia for 20 years, but I am from NYC, and lived in Italy, and so I kinda love good pizza… to the point where I sometimes literally dream about Pintaille’s, a long-gone pizzeria in Manhattan, near where I used to live on the UES (Upper East Side), that made a super-thin-and-charred crust pizza with tomato slices, capicola ham, and Parm, that was “to-die-for”… Years ago, for a brief and shining moment, we had an Excellent pizzeria here in McDowell County, WV, with a real wood-fired oven- but people complained it was “more expensive than Pizza Hut”, and it closed. Then, for another brief and shining moment, we had a Wonderful pizzeria an hour away in Bluefield, WV that was worth the drive, run by a couple from NJ who truly knew what they were doing and got The Best ingredients, but it, too, closed… and so we were left with only a truly mediocre Pizza Hut, whose pizzas run the gamut from “okay” to soggy/nasty and abysmal. Chef Dan can make a wonderful pizza from scratch, & I bought him pizza cookbooks and sought to encourage him, but it’s a laborious and time-consuming 2-day Project to make a pizza from scratch, and so it doesn’t happen very often. And my attempts at making pizza dough were not a great success… And so we were basically pizza-less… until, one glorious day, Dan came home from Goodson’s Supermarket with Jus-Rol Round & Thin Refrigerated Pizza Dough… and our lives were never the same! Jus-Rol rocked my foodie world, and I do not say that lightly! It literally takes 20 minutes flat to make a wonderful, hot, bubbly, fresh pizza with Jus-Rol, the toppings are whatever you desire, and they always come out perfect! They are not huge- one Jus-Rol Round & Thin Pizza is basically dinner for 2. Although you don’t even have to pre-bake it, I do, as I like the way the crust turns out when I do that. I simply preheat the oven & pizza pan or stone to 425 F, roll out the dough on its baking paper, prick it and pop it in the oven for 5 minutes (see below for a photo of a pizza on it’s paper before going in the oven), brush it with olive oil, add the toppings, and bake it at 425 F for 14 minutes- that’s it! We have made New Haven-style Clam Pizzas (Google- there are many recipes), pizzas topped with my delicious oven-dried tomatoes from Andrew Zimmern’s easy-peasy recipe: https://andrewzimmern.com/recipes/oven-dried-tomatoes, and ones with with tons of other things, including fresh tomato slices, tomato sauce, basil pesto, Greek olives, roasted red peppers, hot peppers, capers, prosciutto and capicola ham, Italian sausages and truffle cheese, pepperoni, mushrooms, seafood, basil and other herbs, garlic-sauteed spinach, Parm, Mozzarella… the world of pizza is your oyster! I even made an Israeli Pizza with Za’atar-spiced chicken, Amba sauce, Moroccan Preserved Lemons, oven-dried tomatoes, & hot pepper bits that was Fabulous! It’s not easy to get a lot of things here in rural southern West Virginia, and so I order many shelf-stable products online, such as condiments, spices, and “gourmet”, “foodie” things (like the Za’atar spice mix, and Amba Sauce from Avi Glatt: https://www.aviglatt.com/ and Italian sausages and truffle cheese from Bottega della Nonna: https://bottegadellanonna.com/ ) There have also been dramatic shortages and the rationing of basic foods and supplies for the last 2 years… but, thank G-d, Goodson’s never runs out of Jus-Rol, and they’ve saved us from Pizza Hut for life!

If you haven’t tried Jus-Rol Pizza Dough I urge you to do so, as it will literally make you capable of creating restaurant-worthy pizzas in 20 minutes! Trust me: you won’t go near a cruddy chain pizza joint after you make a Jus-Rol pizza! They apparently make lots of different kinds of dough, including puff pastry and phyllo, and I am SO hoping we can find them, too!

Comment below if you’ve used Jus-Roll, and what kinds of toppings you like to put on your pizzas- I’m always up for a new idea!