Homemade Pizza

I unashamedly admit that I am a massive pizza fiend. If I had to choose one thing to eat for the rest of my life it would be pizza. If it wasn’t horrendously overpriced I would eat Dominoes every single day. Luckily for me, making your own pizza is a lot cheaper and muchhhh healthier than takeaway pizza. This is a basic pizza recipe and then you just add whatever toppings you want. We went for leftover spicy chicken, Parma ham and rocket. NOM.

Ingredients (for the dough)

500g strong white bread flour

1 teaspoon seat salt flakes

1 x 7g sachet fast-action yeast

300ml lukewarm water

1 tablespoon olive oil

Mix the flour, salt and yeast into a large mixing bowl.

Make a well in the centre and pour in the water and olive oil.

Use your hands to gradually drag the flour into the liquid in a sort of hooking motion until all the ingredients are combined into a soft dough.

Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured work surface and knead thoroughly for ten minutes until the dough is very stretchy and elastic.

Return the ball to the bowl and cover with a damp tea cloth. Leave in a warm place to rise for about an hour.

While that’s going on make the tomato topping!

Ingredients (tomato topping)

1 tablespoon olive oil

3 garlic cloves, finely chopped

½ red onion, finely chopped

1 x 400g tin chopped tomatoes

Pinch of sugar

12 fresh basil leaves (or a pinch of dried)

Heat the oil and cook the garlic and onion over a low heat for a couple of minutes.

Add the tomatoes, sugar and basil. Bring to the boil then simmer on a low heat for about forty minutes until reduced and nicely thick. Stir every now and again so it doesn’t burn on the bottom. Taste the sauce and season with a little salt and pepper, then leave to cool. Because my mother is fussy I then blended the sauce so it was super smooth but I like mine thick normally.

When the dough has risen, punch the air out.

Turn it out onto your lightly floured work surface and divide into three balls.

The recipe I used said to lightly oil your hands and press, pat and pull the dough into shape. I’m not going to lie, that didn’t work out so well. One meltdown later my mum comes home and saves the day by suggesting I use a rolling pin…That worked about a thousand times better than my method so listen to her!

Transfer each pizza onto a piece of baking parchment and pinch the edges to make a lip to keep the filling in.

Heat the oven as hot as it will go, leave the bases in a warm place to rise a bit more and prepare your topping.

I used about three big spoonfuls of tomato sauce with sliced mozzarella, parma ham, oregano and a sprinkling of pepper. I popped on some rocket leaves drizzled with olive oil a few minutes before the end of cooking time and it was delllish.

The recipe says cook for 10 minutes but it took more like 15-20 in our oven. We like our pizzas crispy though so it’s up to you.

Serve with salad and a large dollop of HP sauce!