I was inspired to make my own pizza yesterday after a recipe was published in a little section in the Mind You Body newspaper supplement. I had all the ingredients at home, so I decided to take a break from studying Business, Government and Society (which is my last exam paper, and after tomorrow, the holidays would be here!) and attempt to make my first pizza (make that six in all to feed the family of six including my domestic helper; I have two teenage brothers so you understand why I have to make so many) ever!
It was a surprisingly easy to make the pizza. The only difficult part was when I had to exert a lot of strength in rolling out the dough. What’s more, you can use whatever you fancy for the toppings! I made 3 vegetarian pizzas and the other three had sausages and crabstick meat on them.
I used bread flour, that’s why the base was very soft and chewy!
After mixing and kneading the base ingredients together, I left the dough to ferment for an hour. It grew twice the size! But it was really elastic and soft! Enough of being nice, show who’s the boss and give it a punch down!
Now, this was the tiring part! Every time I tried to flatten the dough with the rolling pin, it wouldn’t stretch out as far as I would like it to be, so I had to keep rollin, rollin’ rollin’…
Once it was all flat (I like my pizza crusts thin than thick), I placed it into an olive-oil greased pan. Actually I had to use the pan to cut out the perfect circular shape of the base. When I rolled it out with the rolling pin, the dough looked anything but circle! It even looked like the continent of Australia at one point!
Spread the tomato paste on the base like you would with red paint on a canvas…
And if you like, spread a bit of pesto on the base as well. I tried spreading it on the base but realised the basil taste wasn’t as distinctive if I brushed the pesto after I have sprinkled the toppings. Problem with the latter if that their was a tendency for the toppings to keep moving if you tried to spread the pesto evenly, but the taste was there.
So it’s up to you… convenience or taste?
For my vegetarian pizza, I used tomatoes, Portobello mushrooms, spinach leaves, red pepper, broccoli, cauliflower, French beans and my favourite… garlic! This is an easy way of getting all your daily servings of 5 (don’t aim for two, that’s too little!) vegetables in!
I only bothered making the toppings really neat for the first pizza, subsequently, the rest had toppings placed in a haphazard manner! :p
All the toppings on the vegetarian pizza, with shredded cheese (chedder, because I didn’t have mozzarella).
The one with sausages and crabstick meat on it…
I added some herbs in the form of oregano, pepper and Italian seasoning. Oh an a pinch of salt too.
Then into the oven it goes!
After a mere 13 minutes…
TA-DA!
It smelt soooo good! It tasted even better!
Yummy! 
My family raved about it, but I guess anything is much better if it is handmade with love! Reminds me of my friend, Dawn’s website name… Hi Dawn, if you ever get to read this!
Here is a basic recipe for pizza dough (enough to make a 10-12 inch pizza:
-175g or 1 1/2 cups of bread flour
- 1 tbsp of olive oil
- 1tsp of salt
- 1 tbsp of yeast
- 1 1/2 cups of lukewarm water
1) Sieve the flour and mix it together with the salt and yeast.
2) Create a ‘well’ in the centre and add the olive oil and lukewarm water.
3) Knead the ingredients for 10 minutes on a lightly-floured surface until dough is soft and elastic.
4) Place the dough in a lightly-greased bowl covered with cling-wrap. Leave it to ferment for an hour. The dough will grow twice in size.
5) Knead it again for 2 minutes before using.
6) After adding the toppings, bake in the oven at 230 degrees Celsius for 12-14 minutes, or until the cheese has melted.
*
There you go! Wasn’t that simple? So simple that I recalled the base recipe from memory! Go me.
As for the toppings, it’s really up to you! Try using eggplant, tuna, onions, chicken etc… the list is endless! I am tempted to try it with sliced bananas and Nutella! Mmmm…!
