Despite growing up in a country that didn’t celebrate Halloween, my Japanese mom fully embraced the holiday.

She sewed many of my costumes from scratch. I’ve been a Cabbage Patch Kid, a bunny, a ghost bride and plenty more. Even after I left home, she still enjoyed dressing up and going all out with treats for the neighborhood kids.

I hardly noticed her dedication at the time. When I had my own kids I recognized how much work it is to costume multiple children even with store-bought costumes, take them to all their activities, prepare goody bags for their classes and meet all the expectations of a holiday that culminates in a sugar trade.

My children will never have the dedication of a Halloween mother like mine, but she did pass on an affection for the holiday. Everyone is merry on Halloween, and your main expectations are a few pieces of candy and fun with friends.

I may not be great at making costumes, but I can make a ghoulish dinner. The preparation of this pull-apart pizza takes some explaining, but it’s really simple and the artistry very forgiving. You’ll be forming sections of puff pastry into guts and arranging them into a cross-section of an abdomen — yum. If it looks like a mess, well, it’s supposed to.

GRUESOME HALLOWEEN PIZZA

3 sheets prepared puff pastry, thawed (or use a double batch of your own pizza dough)

Flour for rolling

1 cup marinara sauce, plus more for serving

2 cups grated mozzarella or mixed cheese

3 tablespoons butter, melted

20-25 drops red food coloring

Heat oven to 400 degrees. Cover a baking sheet with parchment.

Sprinkle work surface with flour and lay out a sheet of pastry. Dust top with flour and roll it out to a thickness of about 1/8 to 1/4 inch.

Cut sheet lengthwise into 3 strips. Take a heaping tablespoon of marinara and place dots of sauce down the middle of each strip. Top each strip with 1/4 cup of cheese. Apply a little water to the edge of each strip, then fold each one over lengthwise, pinching edges together. These 3 pieces will become your “large intestine” — the border of your pizza.

Repeat the process with the 2 remaining sheets of puff pastry, sauce and cheese, but this time cut each sheet into 4 lengthwise strips, to make 8 segments of “small intestine.”

Using the photo as a guide, arrange large intestine pieces into an outer crust, pinching ends together where they join. They don’t need to meet at the bottom. Arrange small intestine pieces within the border in a zigzag pattern, allowing space between pieces; they’ll puff out as the pizza bakes. Pinch ends of pieces together.

Mix food coloring into butter (it will be very dark; it lightens when baked). Use a small brush to make bloody lines where the pieces touch. When the dough rises and comes together, the lines will create an outline of red, accentuating the shapes. I add extra lines to emphasize curves and draw more stripes on large intestines. Bake 25 to 28 minutes.

Serve with extra marinara sauce, for dipping. Serves 3 to 5.

Nutritional information unavailable.

Mariko Jackson blogs about family and food at thelittlefoodie.com. Her column runs on the last Wednesday of the month.