Wow, what a glorious weekend we have just had. Whilst the blazing march sunshine has had others revealing a little too much bare skin than is quite un - appropriate for this time of year and more suited to the summer months in my local town, I have only just managed to store away my long johns for another year ( or until at least late September ).
Saturday morning saw my favourite butchers rammed full of customers all managing to pack themselves in like little chipolata sausages, each one peering and extending their necks to see if there were enough minty lamb kebabs and juicy beef burgers to sustain the community’s sudden urge to use their dust covered and cobwebbed bbqs.
Being the dutiful wife that I am and knowing that as soon as the temperature made it past 13 degrees my husband would of sharpened his knifes, cleaned his griddle and polished his large handled ready to grab anything fleshy tongs, I hesitantly made the first move and suggested that with the weather being particularly nice that maybe we should have a bbq.
I genuinely meant it, yes I might have been stood there with three layers on my top half with my shoulders hunched and my fingers numbing in the mid-day sun, but I knew how much it meant to my other half.
Fortunately for me he historically declined, the fire loving, charred meat smoke inhaling, spatula wielding husband of mine actually said no to my proposal of his favourite way to eat, instead choosing to put my needs first insisting that it would be far too cold for me to stand there dithering, pretending that im enjoying the meat filled bap that has just been handed to me.
He has his moments, but that is why I married him.
With the choice of meals left to me I decided to hand it to my husband’s younger brother (who was staying with us for the weekend) to decide what we were to eat that night. Perhaps not my wisest suggestion given that he is soon to be five and his most prized meal is anything that can be coated in a thick and slimy layer of tomato sauce. Not so shockingly he pronounced that he wanted pizza and whilst he may have been thinking of the pizza hut variety, I had other ideas in mind!
Once you have got the basic recipe for the pizza dough mastered I doubt you will ever buy a bought one or a take away one again. Kneading can often be seen as laborious but once you have worked out a rhythm of stretching, teasing and rolling the dough the process becomes like personal therapy. Within about ten minutes of tenderly nurturing your tough and sometimes argumentative lump of flour you will be left with a silky sponge like dough that will be willing to succumb to your very needs. Unlike bread there are no hours on end long resting periods, in just 15 – 30 minutes you have got yourself a plump pillow like dough that is ready to be moulded to your specific liking. Thick or thin crust, round or ( like most of mine ) oddly shaped it’s up to you how you want it to come out out, the only warning I will add is to beware of adding too many toppings. If you fill your pizza with mountainous portions of your favourite toppings the base will simply not cook and you will just have a (tasty) soggy mess.
Home Made Pizza
Pizza dough –
500g strong white bread flour
1 teaspoon fine sea salt
1 x 7g sachet of dried yeast
1 teaspoon golden castor sugar
½ pint of luke warm water
Tomato sauce –
1 garlic clove peeled and thinly sliced
1 tablespoon tomato puree
2 x cans of tinned whole tomatoes
A small handful of fresh oregano leaves (basil would be fine)
Salt, pepper and sugar
Toppings –
Mozzarella
Basil
Ham
Mushrooms
Pineapple
It’s up to you!
For the pizza dough add the yeast and sugar to the water mix well and leave for around five minutes. Place your flour and the salt into a large bowl and make a well in the centre.
Pour the water and the yeast mixture into the well then with a fork use circular movements to bring the flour into the liquid mixture. Gradually bring in all of the flour with your fork then start to use your hands to form the dough together into a ball. Place a scattering of flour onto your work surface then turn the slightly sticky dough out on to it. Now it’s time to get kneading, use your left hand to stretch the dough towards you and at the same time use your right hand to push it away from you. Persevere for about ten minutes then you will end up with a silky smooth ball of dough.
Clean the bowl you mixed your dough in then give it a very thin coat of oil, place your kneaded dough inside, cover with Clingfilm and leave to rest for about 15 mins.
Whilst waiting for your dough, make your tomato sauce. Place a large saucepan with some olive oil in on a medium to low heat, add your garlic and allow it to favour the oil and soften slightly. Next add your tomato puree and stir well into the garlic for around 2 minutes. Empty your cans of tinned tomatoes into a sieve and slice through any larger ones, this just helps to get rid of any excess water that may cause your sauce to be too thin. Once most of the water and tomato juice has drained away add your tomatoes to the pan along with a pinch of salt, pepper and sugar. Bring to a gentle boil, the lower the temperature and add the oregano. Leave for at least 10 minutes – longer if you have time then smooth with a stick blender.
I’m sure a bottle of passata or tomato puree would be sufficient for the pizza base but making your own sauce really is worth the trouble.
Preheat your oven to 200oc remove your dough from the bowl and cut into as many pieces as you want pizzas (I have found that this quantity of dough will make 3 large pizzas or six small ones).
Begin rolling out your first pizza, to keep as round as possible give your dough a quarter of a turn after every roll and roll out to your desired thickness.
Place your rolled out pizza bases onto either a baking stone, round pizza tray or even some tin foil and crimp a little border all the way around the edge of your pizza. Add a couple of tablespoons of tomato sauce and gently spread around evenly with the back of your spoon. For here on in its up to you where you go but my favourite thing to do is to tear up a good ball of mozzarella and drape it all over my pizza and that s it!
Depending how thick your pizza is will determine how long it need in the oven. I like to make mine quite thin so they only take about 14 mins whereas thicker based ones could take anything up to 25 minutes, the best thing to do is to keep checking that the topping is not getting too browned and that your crust is nice and crispy!
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