Pizza (serves 4)
A simple, homemade pizza - all made from scratch. Please use good toppings and you will have a pizza that is so much better than anything you can buy frozen!
Ingredients
Pizza Base
500 grams plain flour
1 ½ teaspoon sugar (8 grams)
2 teaspoons dried yeast (8 grams)
¾ teaspoons salt (4 grams)
300 mls water
1 ¼ tablespoons olive oil (20 mls)
Pizza Sauce
|
1 |
onion |
onion (medium size, 160g each) |
(160 grams) |
|
2 3/4 |
cloves |
fresh garlic (medium size, 3g each) |
(8 grams) |
|
1 1/2 |
teaspoon |
fresh basil |
(4 grams) |
|
3/4 |
teaspoons |
salt |
(4 grams) |
|
1 1/4 |
tablespoon |
dried oregano |
(4 grams) |
|
1/2 |
teaspoon |
ground black pepper |
(1 grams) |
|
1 can |
chopped tomatoes |
(400 mls) |
|
|
2 3/4 |
tablespoons |
olive oil |
(40 mls) |
You can then add any toppings you like: ham, cheese, pineapple, anchovies just don’t overdo it if you don’t want a soggy pizza.
Method
1. Sift the flour into a bowl.
2. Mix the yeast with the sugar and 50ml of your lukewarm water and stir, then let it sit for 10 to 20 minutes until it develops foam on top.
3. Add the olive oil and salt to the flour.
4. Now add the yeast to the flour, oil and salt and add the rest of the lukewarm water. Mix with your hands and knead until you have a smooth dough ... this will take a good 10 minutes hard work!
5. If you have any left-over dough, you can easily freeze it in a plastic freezer bag. To thaw it, just leave the bag outside the freezer for a couple of hours and use as normal.
6. Cover the dough with a clean, dry dish towel and let it prove for 2 hours.
7. Take a piece of dough and pat into a round shape.
8. You can either roll out the dough or pat it on to your pizza dish or baking tray. You can try flinging it into the air and turning it, good luck!
Make the pizza sauce
Chop the onions and garlic, fry in olive oil, and add the tomatoes and spices. Let simmer for half an hour to reduce the water content. Then take a blender to it and let it cool down.
Spread the pizza sauce on your base - best done by putting a blob into the middle and then moving the pan quickly back and forth. Or just use a tablespoon to spread it.
Put on your toppings. Don't overdo it - stick to 2 or three toppings and don't put too much on. An overloaded pizza will get soggy.
Put on your cheese. I love mozzarella, but it is entirely up to you what you want to use. Cheddar works quite well, too. Or mix some cheeses - e.g. mozzarella and stilton.
Put the pizza into your pre-heated oven (heat up to the maximum - whatever your oven is capable of doing!). After roughly 12 minutes, the pizza is done.
ENJOY!
