In our house, we have lots of opinions on pizza—the crust, the type of cheese (or no cheese because of a dairy allergy), the size and spiciness of the pepperoni, how many vegetables, the sauce … there’s no limit to the opinions. There’s also seemingly no limit to how many nights a month my family would like to have pizza.
Every so often, we have “mommy pizza.” And look, I’d love to make the crust from scratch. The sauce too. But let’s be real; at this stage of life, that’s not very likely. But I still think there’s a real value of pulling my 5-year-old into the kitchen to help “make” the pizzas.
First of all, he gets a sense of the process—even if the crust is a purchased flatbread and the sauce is from a jar (for the record, I like Rao’s). It’s also an opportunity for him to see (and touch or even taste) the different toppings we all choose and consider trying something new on his own pizza. And it’s a quick and easy meal that we can do together any night of the week. (That’s the best part.)
My son loves tackling the following tasks:
Using a brush to paint olive oil onto the crusts
Spreading pizza sauce
Slicing (with kid-safe knives, of course) toppings
Taking orders restaurant-style
Putting toppings on the pizza
Someday we’ll make our own sauce or crust, but for now, this is just fine.