Bellissima

I hesitate to write this post, about the most-cooked dish in my kitchen - pizza.  Why do I hesitate?  Well, shortly I'm off to Italy for a few weeks.  Whilst there I'm spending a week at an Italian cooking school south of Rome, learning how to make pizza, pasta and other amazing Italian food properly.  I'm thinking it's probably good to document my pizza-making tips and recipe now, then see what changes in 8 weeks time!

Making your own pizza base is not difficult.  The only thing it requires is time - at least an hour.  If you don't have an hour then don't bother, just have something else for dinner and try again tomorrow. You don't have to work on it for an hour, you have to leave it alone for an hour, so the yeast can work it's magic. Whilst it is doing it's thing, why not have a glass of wine and decide what your toppings will be!  Let your creativity shine through in your toppings and whatever you dream up to add to your base.  Make it pretty or just make it tasty.  Once you've made your own dough, you'll never use store-bought bases again.

Pizza Dough
300g (2 cups) Bread/Pizza Flour (I use this one)
7g sachet dry active yeast
1 teaspoon caster sugar
1 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon olive oil
200mL warm water (not hot)
extra flour

1. Sift flour into a large bowl.
2. Stir in yeast, sugar and salt.
3. Make a well in the centre, add warm water and oil.  
4. Bring together using a wooden spoon or your hands.  Turn onto a floured surface.
5. Knead for 5 minutes, until the dough is smooth.  Add flour as necessary.
6. Wash out and dry your original bowl, then lightly oil it.  
7. Place the ball of dough into the oiled bowl and cover with glad wrap or a tea towel, and set aside in a warm place to prove for 1 hour (or until doubled in size).
8. On a floured surface, knock back the dough and knead again until smooth.
9. Divide the dough into two and roll out to form two thin bases.
10. Add sauce, cheese and toppings.  Bake at 240C for 8 - 10 minutes.

Activate yeast; mix dough; let it prove.

Other ideas:

• Make sure you have some flour on your hands before working the dough.
• If it's a cool day, then mix the warm water with the yeast before adding to dry ingredients.
• Some say you can use normal plain flour instead of bread/pizza flour.
• Dough can be wrapped in gladwrap, then a snaplock bag and frozen for another time. Just thaw it in the fridge, then allow it to come to room temperature before kneading and rolling out.
• Add fresh or dried herbs, such as oregano, thyme, basil, rosemary etc, to the dry ingredients.
• Add a few tablespoons of dried turmeric and finely diced red chilli (or chilli flakes) to the dry ingredients. The pic on the bottom left is an 'indian dough', which I topped with tandoori chicken, coriander and some mango chutney to finish
• Try not to have more than 3 - 4 other toppings, as well as cheese and sauce.

 

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