Chef Amy Tornquist, owner of both the acclaimed restaurant Watts Grocery and Sage & Swift Gourmet Catering Company, invited us into her home to show us how to make a homemade pizza bursting with local flavors.

If you want to follow her from-scratch process to the letter, here are her recipes for a perfect homemade pizza crust and quick-and-delicious pizza sauce. Enjoy!

AMY'S HOMEMADE PIZZA CRUST
3 c. flour
1 ½ tsp. salt
1 package dry yeast
1 c. warm water
Olive oil

Put flour in a large bowl and mix in salt.Make a well in the center. Put yeast, then warm water, in the well. Let sit for five minutes or until it bubbles. Next, mix the dough with your hands, adding flour to the well in the center until everything is incorporated (to keep this neat, Tornquist says to use one hand so that you have one clean hand and one dirty hand). Place dough on a clean, lightly floured surface. Knead dough using the ball of your hand. The key to kneading correctly, says Tornquist, is to push the dough, then turn it, then push it on another section of the dough, repeating the process until it’s smooth. (It’s also fine to use a mixer with a dough hook, like a KitchenAid.) Place the dough in a bowl, lightly brush with olive oil, and cover the bowl with a wet cloth. Let rise for about two hours.


AMY'S QUICK-AND-DELICIOUS PIZZA SAUCE
1 28 oz. can chopped tomatoes (unless they’re in season, in which case, use fresh)
2 smashed or chopped cloves of garlic
½ yellow onion, chopped
Handful of fresh basil, chopped

Simmer all ingredients in a medium saucepan until thickened, about 20 minutes. If the sauce is too soupy, strain it over a bowl, adding small amounts of liquid back into the sauce until it reaches desired consistency.