Pi Day Italian style! What says Pi better than a nice, warm, cheesy, vegetable laden pizza Pi?...one with crusty knots circling around telling the tale of Pi!

Step 1: Ingredients

Mangiar bene a te!
(Good eating to you!)
The ingredients make the Pi a Pi
You may use what you wish - we like ours with an Italian flair and so our list of ingredients is:
mushrooms
pepperoni
red and green peppers
olives (pitted are best)
basil for a last minute flourish
mozzarella cheese
onion
red sauce
dough - homemade or store bought

Step 2: Dough

Preheat oven to 425' and spray the pan with cooking spray or line with parchment paper to avoid sticking
Find a compadre and stretch your dough out to fit the pan. We like our Pi to be round -
Precook the dough for 4 minutes at 425
Take out of the oven

Step 3: Toppings Prep

While your Pi bakes, start assembling the ingredients
While everyone has favorite toppings, we like ours with an Italian flair
For an Italian Pi:
chop one onion
wash and slice mushrooms
pour two tablespoons of olive oil in a small frying pan, add onion and mushroom, saute together, with a pinch of cracked black pepper, until onion is golden and mushrooms are starting to brown
wash and thinly slice peppers
slice pepperoni
grate the mozzarella

Step 4: Toppings

Once your Pi has prebaked, remove from oven and spoon on the desired amount of sauce
Now - throw on the amount of cheese that makes you say "Buono!"
Slather on the sauce to amount desired and then comes the Pi fun!
We made our numbers out of the veggies and meat -
We began with a "3" made out of the peppers - they slice into a "3" so naturally
next comes a "." out of a mushroom, "1" another pepper slice
"4" out of olives - they hold their shape so well
"1" out of mushroom
"5" out of pepperoni
"9" out of mozzarella and so on...until you have a full Pi
Don't forget the olive Pi symbol in the middle that lets everyone know you've made an Italian Pi!

Place finished Pi in preheated 425' oven for 10- 15 minutes, depending on your oven.
Check after the first 10 minutes -

Step 5: Knots!

Next comes the finishing touch - the pretzel knots that spell out in clear letters what your Italian pie is all about - Pi!
You will need dough - homemade or store bought
Form the dough into a ball
Roll into a log and use a knife to cut into equally segmented sections
The size will depend on how big you would like your numbers to be
We made about 10 cuts in our roll
To make Pi:
make 3 slightly larger cuts and then further subdivide each of those three balls into 3 smaller balls
Roll each ball into a log
For each Pi: lay one log horizontally, then attach the remaining two logs lengthwise
For the numbers: take each remaining log from the roll and form into the numbers comprising Pi
Lay the finished numbers on a sheet covered in parchment or a silpat baking sheet

Step 6:

For Italian flavor -
Brush each Pi with olive oil and then drizzle with garlic salt or cheese
then bake in 425' oven for 5 - 10 minutes
Ovens will vary so check in after the first 5 minutes