Homemade Pizza - Take 2
 
I had a bit of a disaster the first time I tried to make a pizza base from scratch (see here) and it turned out more like a biscuit. This time, I took on board the ensuing advice (thanks Mrs P) and got some decent bread flour and some yeast. I was actually inspired to try again after noticing someone ask how to make a good tomato sauce for a pizza base on a BBC food discussion board. One of the replies included a recipe for the base, which I wrote down but now cannot find the link for. Oh well, I’ll just have to claim it for my own! Add the flour and yeast to a big mixing bowl with a pinch of salt, make a well, add the olive oil and tepid water. Mix until all the liquid’s been absorbed and then knead for about 5 minutes. Form the dough into a ball, cover the bowl with a damp tea towel and leave for 30 minutes. Whilst you are leaving the dough to rise, put the oven on at it’s highest temperature and leave to heat up. Pizza’s generally need ovens that get to a lot hotter temperature than most conventional ovens can get up to (around 400C), so if you have a dual oven, stick them both on and use the top one to cook the pizza. If you have a pizza stone you can use that, but a shallow baking tray worked well enough for me. It’s also useful to use the 30 min rising time to prepare your toppings and make the base tomato sauce. My cheat’s way of making the base tomato sauce is to just add a squeeze of ketchup, a squeeze of tomato paste, a sprinkling of dried oregano or basil and paprika/cayenne pepper/chilli powder, depending on your affinity for spice. The slightly longer way is to put some passata in a pan, add a crushed clove of garlic, plus the aforementioned herbs and spices, plus a spoonful of sugar and cook on a low heat for about 15 minutes. Flour a chopping board and your rolling pin and roll out the dough to a rough circle, about 5mm thick or less. Spread your base tomato sauce on, then your toppings. Stick on the top shelf of your oven for about 5 minutes on a baking tray, then remove the tray for 3-4 minutes to allow the base to crisp up a bit. I tried to recreate a pizza I’d had in cologne, with black pudding and red onion, but with an English twist by using Lancashire cheese which I crumbled over after cooking. Unfortunately, I’d not only cut the black pudding too thick for it to crisp up, but I’d left the skin on, which meant I had to pick it off each slice before I could eat my dinner. Not amusing, when you’re hungry. The Lancashire cheese bit didn’t work too well either, so I recommend the traditional mozzarella, plus whatever else you fancy on top. Recipe (for one medium to large pizza): For the base 115g bread flour 3g dried yeast pinch salt 10ml olive oil 60ml tepid water (I just used warm water from the hot tap) For the sauce 100 ml passata 1 clove crushed garlic 1 tsp of sugar Pinch oregano or basil (or both) Pinch cayenne pepper/paprika/chilli powderA9646845-5F3C-4906-9A5C-D887D765B1A9.htmlshapeimage_1_link_0
Homemade Pizza - Take 2
Friday, 22 February 2008