This may not be a great discovery, but it worked for me. I haven't had good results with making my own pizza on a pre-made pizza shell. The topping usually doesn't taste right. I don't like frozen pizza because they use a lot some synthetic flavourings including a garlic oil on the crust, but I keep a few in the freezer for those days when I am too tired to cook anything else.
Last week I tried to make a pizza from scratch using a frozen shell, plain canned tomato sauce, and tuna, black olives, capers and grated parmesan cheese. I spread the sauce on the pizza shell and then sprinkled marjoram, oregan, and dried powdered garlic on the sauce. Then I put the flaked tuna on. Then I took a fork and stirred the topping before adding the other ingredients. It turned out much better than my past efforts. I think in my past efforts, I just sprinkled the herbs onto the sauce, and they dried out. Stirring the herbs into the sauce makes a difference. I am not sure, but other times I have used Italian seasoning which is a blend including marjoram, basil, thyme, savory, sage, oregano and other spices. I think basil tends to be overdone in many factory sauces and it may be overdone, at least for my tastes, in Italian seasoning. This pizza came out very nicely.
Karen used to make the best pizza, using a cast iron skillet, putting olive oil on bottom of the pan, and making her own crust from scratch. Italian sausage, finely puree'd canned tomatos, some tomato paste, maybe, and lots of mazorella cheese(sp). There were some herbs but i can't think what they were other than the obvious ones like oregeno, garlic etc. I haven't had anything that good in over 15 years. i just loved that crispy but soft crust. I can't see the tuna though but that's me.
I agree with Garth, the tuna seems a little fishy for my taste. I wish I'd had one of Karen's pizza's. It sounds fabulous.
Karen's pan pizza sounds great. I haven't figured out how to make and use dough properly. Sausage is a great ingredient for pizza topping and pasta sauce. A local independent grocer has a nice raw Italian sausage - hot or mild - that cooks nicely.
The tuna, olives and capers idea came from a real Italian restaurant - it may have been the old Sorrento's on Portage near the CBC. The capers are important, they add flavour, balance the tuna. I have had California fusion pizzas with tuna, chicken, feta cheese and other odd ingredients in some of the trendier places on Corydon, and it isn't that good. Jan used to make a tuna with artichoke pizza. I thought she liked it because it was a magazine recipe. "Interesting" was one her big reasons for things - it meant ifashionable and current. It was ok, not great.