Ok another food post! So this a the recipe for home made pizza which we have recently been making alot. It is very good for a few simple reasons:
1. So making dough is a rather long and tedious process (you have to let it rise, etc...). But if you make enough dough for six pizzas you can freeze the rest and then thaw it in the fridge the night before you want to use it.
2. Also the pizza sauce recipe is pretty freaky naughty (i dont really know what that means either... but jenny and I say it a lot... maybe its from a movie, I dont know... if you know, let us know).
3. You can choose the toppings, and this is really what makes a good pizza into an excellent pizza.
4. Its cheap and once youve made the dough its quick and easy to make.
I think we have hundreds of pictures of pizzas we have made. Here are a select few.
Dough:
1kg strong white bread flour
1 tablespoon sea salt
2*7g sachets of yeast
1 tablespoon caster sugar
4 tablespoons extra virgin olivce oil
650ml lukewarm water
Sieve flour and salt onto a clean work surface or large bowl. Make a well in the flour. In a jug mix yeast sugar and olive oil into water and leave for a few mins. Pour this into the well. Using a fork bring flour into the well and mix around. Keep on doing that till all the flour is mixed. Then knead flour with your hands till you have a nice springy dough. Place the ball of dough in a large bowl and cover with a damp tea towel. Leave in a warm room for about an hour. Remove the dough and knead again to get rid of all the air bubbles. You can use it immediately or wrap it cling film and put it in the fridge or freezer.
Sauce:
olive oil
4 cloves of garlic (peeled and finely sliced)
a bunch of fresh basil (leaves torn and picked)
3 * 400g tins of whole plum tomatoes
sea salt and pepper
Add garlic and four glugs of olive oil to a non-stick frying pan. Once the garlic begins to colour add the basil and tomatoes. Mash the tomatoes up with a wooden spoon (we use a plastic potato masher). Season with salt and pepper. As soon as it starts boiling remove from heat. Strain sauce through a coarse sieve (we use a colander). Using the back of a spoon push tomatoes through the sieve. Discard whatever is left over (basil, garlic, but of tomato). Pour sauce back into the frying pan and simmer till to reduce to a nice consistency for pizza sauce (20 mins or so). You can also freeze this and use again.
The actual pizza (makes 2 pizzas):
2 * 1/6 of your dough (a third of your dough in total)
2 * 1/6 of your sauce (a third of your dough in total)
2 * 125g balls of mozzarella
whatever else you like to have on pizzas (we usually have fresh chilis, salami, artichoke hearts)
Pre-heat oven to basically as high as it goes. Put a baking tray there as well so it heats up. Role out the pizza dough out (it should be as thick as a pound coin or so... better to go on the thin side usually). Once oven has heated take out baking tray, add some olive oil so the dough doesnt stick. Place dough on the baking tray (have to work quickly bc dough will start to cook). Add the sauce. Then add the cheese. I really recommend trying fresh mozzarella although any cheese is fine. If you are using mozzarella balls (the best), then you can just peel them like onions and put the cheese on. Add your toppings. Chuck in the oven for 10-15 mins. Our oven isnt very good so it takes 15 mins. But if you have a decent oven it should take 10 mins or less. We also only have room for one pizza at a time. But theoretically you could make many simultaneously.
enjoy!
Taste: 10/10
Price: 2/10 (will depend on how nice your toppings are... nicer toppings=nicer pizza)
Difficulty: 5/10 (it takes some time to prepare, and it can be a bit tricky getting the dough on the baking tray etc... but its worth it!)
