Recipe for a Saucy Night In

Are you looking for an inexpensive way to show off your gourmet taste and talents? Consider staying in and making pizza the next time you want to have a romantic evening with someone special. It involves experimentation, lots of hands-on interaction, and then you can eat it without silverware so there's less to worry about the morning after. Drink lots of inexpensive wine with it. Few things break the ice easier than making pizza and drinking wine.

Start by preparing a dough. See this for general strategy. Add some olive oil to the basic formula to make it more tender, flexible and tastier to eat. Let the dough do all its rising before your guest arrives. Get lots of inexpensive ingredients ready as well. Get a mix of vegetables and aromatic items like onions and garlic. Get something salty, something else tangy. As we say in a kitchen, mise en place everything ahead of time, which is to say put all the ingredients in separate bowls.

When your guest arrives, turn up your oven as high as it will go. If you have a pizza stone or unglazed tiles, put those in the oven to heat up as well.

Use whatever means necessary to transform a ball of dough out into a thin disc. Roll it with a pin, stretch it with your fingers, toss it in the air. Be liberal with the flour.

As you garnish your dough with the toppings of your choice, be theatrical and enjoy yourself. A rustic pizza that shows someone made it by hand is always preferable to one that might as well be made by machine.

When your pizza looks done, take it out of the oven but don't eat it right away. Allow its aromas to fill the room. Give it a minute to settle. Then eat it slowly. Savor each bite. When the first one is all gone, rest for a few minutes, but then consider making another one all over again, but this time with different ingredients. Making pizza with someone else is all about give and take.