One of my most favorite memories as a child is when we begged our mom to feed us real food. Being Mexican, you tend to eat a lot of beans, rice and tortillas. I’m not sure how it happened but we complained how we never got to eat real food. When she asked what we considered “real food” we replied with, “Pizza, hamburgers, hot dogs, etc..” A few months later and our dreams had come true. A family from church was moving and their daughter wanted to stay and finish her senior year of High School so she moved in with us. SHE. WORKED. FOR. PIZZA HUT!!

For 6 months, we legit ate pizza EVERY. SINGLE. DAY. She’d bring home leftovers from the buffet, wrong orders etc… Once she graduated and moved, we begged our mom for real food. You can guess what we then considered “real food”. 😂

More than 20 years have past since those nightly pizza nights but I can say without a doubt that Pizza remains my all time favorite Italian food.

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12. That’s the number of years I have been making weekly pizza by scratch. My MIL taught me back in December 2006 when we first met and I’ve been making it weekly since. Its so simple and fun, especially when you get the kids involved! Now that summer is approaching, we tend to skip the sauce and go light. Do you change your pizza toppings when the weather changes?? #pizza #homemadepizza #homecooking #lifeinitaly #lifewithkids

A post shared by Sonia| Life in Italy (@sonia.in.torino) on Apr 27, 2019 at 11:26am PDT

Lately I’ve added Focaccia to my weekly rotation and I can’t get enough! It’s the perfect summer treat. Pizza can be heavy depending on the toppings so a light focaccia is a good alternative. The best way to make a Pizza or Focaccia is to first find a recipe that you love. Once you have that, the rest is easy peasy! I recommend this one from TurinMamma. Her recipes for Stovetop pan-baked flatbreads is also what she uses as her basic pizza dough.

FOCACCIA TIPS

Once you have prepared your dough, cover and let rise until it double in size (about two hours). It’s best if you place your dough in a warm spot. I place mine in the oven .

After two hours, grease your pan with olive oil and stretch out your dough onto the pan. Make sure your hands are greased well with oil and DO NOT use a rolling pin. Your hands are the best tool. Once you’ve got your dough on the pan, cover the pan with plastic wrap and place back in the oven for another hour.

Preheat your oven at 220C. As you prepare for your Focaccia, lightly press your fingers into the dough to make those beautifully famous grooves. Drizzle with more Olive oil and add some sea salt before baking for 20 minutes or until golden brown.

*Before baking, you can add some sweet cherry tomatoes then bake. Before serving, top with Arugula and maybe even add some shaved Parmigiano cheese. I also like to some Prosciutto di Parma for an extra taste explosion!

PIZZA TIPS & LINKS

Using the same recipe as above, play with the different toppings and create your own unique Pizza! Summertime calls for fresh basil so there is generally a Pesto dish of some kind at least twice a month. I once saw Pizza with pesto and wanted to try it. So I made a delicious Pesto sauce using the basil we grow on our balcony. Instead of using tomato sauce, use pesto as the base, add cherry tomatoes and mozzarella. (If your kids are like mine, they prefer to eat their without tomatoes) The result is a delicious upscale Garlic bread.

Perhaps you Carb-on-Carb type of person. Then making a potato pizza with just potatoes and mozzarella could your jam. Wanna go Veg? Zucchini!! I love zucchini on pizza! Either with tomato sauce and no mozzarella for Vegans or no sauce and zucchini and mozzarella. Either way, you can’t go wrong!

I’ve written about pizza so many times that I am constantly changing and adding to my list. However at the beginning of this blogging journey, I used to write down all of the recipes that my MIL use to show me. You can find all food related post under the category labeled: THE KITCHEN!

So tell me…What’s your favorite Italian food?

Once again, Grazie mille to Kristie from MammaPrada, Kelly at Italian at Heart and Jasmine at Questa Dolce Vita for Hosting the #DolceVitaBloggers Link Up! Click here to read the other submissions for this month!