Pizza. Unless you’re some kind of hater, it’s almost always a legitimate answer. Especially if you make it at home.

Between running a guest house, hosting gatherings and feeding folks at Rod’s House, we’ve been honing our pizza skills for some time. Below are our favorite recipes for crust and sauce. Whether you’re feeding your family or hosting friends, it’s a flexible, crowd pleasing option. And if you keep the crusts and sauce in your freezer, you might just find people stopping by more often!

Crust (makes 4)
No need to knead. Just stir it together, cover, and let it rest for 1.5 hours.
2 2/3 cup flour (“Tipo 00” is ideal but regular will do.)
1/3 cup semolina flour (You can replace this with more baking flour but the addition of semolina gives a better texture.)
1 tbsp extra virgin oilve oil
2 tsp kosher salt
1 tsp yeast
2 cups warm water
1 tsp molasses (Omit if you don’t have it.)

Stir all ingredients together in a large bowl until the dry ingredients are completely incorporated. Cover with plastic wrap or the like and let it sit for 1.5 hours. While it’s resting, make the sauce. (Recipe below.) After it’s rested, divide dough evenly into 4 portions. Dust each piece with enough flour to make it workable with a rolling pin without sticking. Roll or otherwise manipulate to 8-9 inch circles. Transfer to a pizza pan and top as desired.

Extra dough can be frozen for future use. Just pull the dough out and thaw it to use, adding some extra flour to absorb any extra moisture.

OR, make parbaked crusts and sauce to pull out of the freezer whenever you need to feed folks on the fly. To do this, roll out and bake at 500 degrees F for 3 mins. Remove and brush top lightly with olive oil. Cool and freeze. To use, remove from freezer, top as desired, and bake an additional 10-11 minutes at 500 degrees.

Sauce (makes 4-5 pizzas)
12 oz tomatoes (canned, frozen or fresh)
1/2 tsp ground fennel
1 tbsp dried basil
2 cloves finely chopped garlic
2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
1 tsp brown sugar, optional
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp pepper

Blend all ingredients together with a hand blender or food processor and simmer over low heat for 20 minutes to blend flavors. If you’re unhappy with the consistency, thicken the sauce by simmering a little longer or thin it by adding a splash of water.

*** After assembling your pizzas on the baking sheet, bake for 10-11 minutes at 500 degrees Fahrenheit.