ONE OF THE MOST POPULAR flat breads around the world today, pizza is probably the original portable meal. In Italy, pizza was once considered a peasant food because vendors sold individual pizzas on the streets to poor people who had no ovens at home. In the late 1800s, Italian immigrants imported their cuisine, including pizza, to America. Around 1905, the first American pizzeria opened in New York City. After World War II, convenience and fast foods entered the culinary scene in a big way, and pizza parlors began appearing across the country.

For years pizza remained the same everywhere you went--wheat crust, tomato sauce, cheese, and a number of standard toppings. Today you can find a wide variety of pizzas and crust types with your choice of exotic toppings, virtually made to order. Pizza can be a greasy, heavy meal laden with animal products, or dairy-free and with healthy portions of vegetables on top. But pizza from a box or restaurant chain pales in comparison to your own unique pizza or calzone baked in your kitchen. Ask anyone who makes his or her own pizza and that person will admit that it is well worth the effort involved.

Many people are put off making their own, since they assume pizzas or calzones take too long because they are yeasted bread recipes. However, with pizza dough there is a much larger margin for error than with other yeasted breads. For example, if you accidentally add too much flour, you won't really notice that the crust is too dry because the toppings usually add moisture, and you normally eat the pizza while it's still warm. Also, except for focaccia, pizza only has one rise, and though that rise can be more than 6 hours in pizzerias in Naples, we aren't striving for the perfect crust, just something with a good flavor and texture that we can enjoy.

If you have no time, but still feel like making a pizza, you can always try an easy biscuit crust (see Quick Fruit Pizza on page 9) or use a store-bought crust. I found an excellent cornmeal pizza crust in the frozen prepared food section of my natural foods store. Also, if you happen to be near the end of the zucchini season, you can use one of the large zucchinis, slicing it into half-inch slices. Then use that as a base for your toppings. (Hint: you want to bake the zucchini pizzas until the zucchini is fork-tender--about 10 minutes at 350 degrees.)