Hello World!, how is June going
so far? Great I hope J. I am beginning to find some kind of rhythm
with the food posts, I have decided to make it a regular feature on a weekly
basis as much as I can. So I would do one food post every week, hopefully before Friday to give
our 9 to 5 audience some time to get their ingredients together so they can try it over
the weekend, how is that for some inspiration? J.
Today’s recipe is one of my favourite pizza recipe because it is so easy it's almost impossible to not get a decent pizza using this recipe, as well as being super tasty. The original recipe for the pizza
base I got off allrecipes.com.
The
recipe for the topping and tomato sauce I have adapted and perfected over
time. It’s a great recipe to make and share with family and friends over the
weekend. I usually make my base and tomato sauce during the week and freeze it,
( It keeps very well, just get it down
to room temp at least 2hrs before you intend to use it), and then on Friday evening, all I do is chop up and saute
my veggies and voila! Pizza is ready in no time.
Ingredients For the Base (Crust)
3 1/2 Cups Flour
2 tsp yeast
1 cup warm water
½ tsp salt
1 tbs Brown Sugar
Cornmeal or semolina
2 tbs Olive oil
Method
1. Add the yeast to your warm water and leave for about 5 mins, stir together if
yeast still remains undissolved after time elapse.
2. Add olive
oil, salt, sugar and flour to yeast mixture and stir. At first the dough might be a bit sticky,
knead for about 10min to get a firm but elastic dough. If after kneading it’s
still sticky sprinkle a little more flour, if too dry or hard add a little more
water. Using my measurement I didn't need to add any more water or flour. If using a mixer use a low to medium
setting to achieve this texture.
3. Place
ball of dough in a bowl that has been coated lightly with olive oil and turn
the dough around in the bowl so that it is coated with the oil. Cover bowl and
let it rest in a warm place for about 1 ½ hour ( If you can afford to leave for
longer please do because the flavor improves the longer you leave it). After
this stage you can store in the freezer for later use.
At this point you can make your
tomato sauce and topping
Ingredients
for Tomato sauce
Chopped fresh tomatoes
Chopped onion
Chopped garlic
Vegetable oil
1tsp red wine vinegar (optional)
Italian seasoning or any herbs you like in your
tomato sauce. I use Spice supreme's Italian seasoning because it has the kind of herby (Is this even a word? ) flavor I like in my
tomato sauce.
Chilli sauce or black pepper if you like a
little heat in your pizza (optional)
Tomato puree
BBQ Sauce or tomato ketchup, I prefer to use BBQ sauce
because I like its smoky flavor.
Method
1. Heat oil and add garlic, onion and chopped
tomatoes, allow to sauté for about 5 mins then add tomato paste allow to simmer or reduce until
most of the liquid evaporates, (the Italians do this for as much as two hours to intensify the flavors, I do not have
the luxury of time).
2. While tomato is reducing occasionally stir and
mash or press down with a ladle to turn the tomato sauce into a chunky pulp.
3. When sauce is reduced add chili sauce and BBQ sauce, cook for another 5 mins then add Italian seasoning and a pinch of salt. Finally add your red wine
Vinegar and a little water to loosen up the sauce, the right consistency should
be able to coat the back of a wooden spoon lightly, that’s all! J
Ingredient
for topping
Smoked Russian sausages ( You can use any
sausage of your choice).
Smoked Bacon
Smoked chicken
Green bell peppers (chopped)
Large red peppers (chopped)
Onion (chopped)
Black pepper
Cheddar cheese (grated)
Mozzarella cheese (grated)
For this you can you use any
two cheeses of your choice, I like to use a mix of Parmesan mozzarella , cheddar
or Ricotta but for this recipe I used a
mild German cheddar and some mozzarella
1. Add very little oil to a hot pan, had onion and
then bacon and sauté together.
2. Then add sausages, chicken and finally the
peppers and sauté all together for a
minute.
3.
Add a little salt and black pepper to season
Finally to Finish off your Pizza, Pheew!
Preheat oven to 250C for minimum of 30mins
before baking, ideally 1hr would be best.
4. Sprinkle baking tray with semolina or cornmeal,
this would prevent your pizza from sticking to the tray.
5. Punch down dough to deflate it, and allow to
rest for another 10mins.
6. Place dough on a lightly floured surface and flatten with your hands starting at the
center and working outwards until your dough is about 1/2in thick or you get to
your desired diameter. ( If dough stops stretching at any point, stop and allow
to rest for 5mins before continuing stretching).
7. Transfer flattened dough on to baking tray with the corn meal and brush with some olive oil to prevent it
getting soggy from the toppings, also
use finger tips to press down and make dents on dough surface to prevent
bubbling. (If dough looses shape during transfer, lightly reshape
back).
8. Spoon and spread tomato sauce generously on dough leaving a little off the edges, then add your sauteed veggie and sausages
mixture and finally top with grated cheese ( You can go crazy with your cheese here but I’m doing sanity at the
moment so I was a bit mindful of the quantity of cheese I added.
Do not load your pizza with too much topping
or your crust would not be crisp.
9. Finally place pizza in the lowest layer of your
preheated oven and bake for 10-15mins.
Voila! Pizza done!
See you at the gym :)
Tried it? let me know what you did differently and how it came out.
Have a fab weekend!
