Pizza

A friend who did food tech for GCSE told me if someone did pizza for their final piece they would fail since it is so simple, so this seemed like a reasonable place to start. Turns out I would have failed.

The Recipe

750g all purpose flour

1 packet of yeast

2 tablespoons of sunflower oil

1 teaspoon of salt

1 teaspoon of sugar

1 cup of warm water

(Ingredients changed as I went along, should probably have taken the photo at the end once I knew what I was using...)

Method behind the madness

Mix the oil, salt, sugar, and two thirds of the flour in a bowl. Dissolve the yeast in the warm water, and then add to the mixture. Stir until it starts to come together. Add remaining flour. Continue to stir for a few more minutes. Take the dough out and place on a surface covered in flour. Knead the dough until it becomes elastic-like in consistency. Do not attempt to spin on finger or toss into air.

 Place into the bowl again and cover in cling film, and let it rest for 45-60 minutes.

 My Gran taught me well to clean up as you go along, so take this opportunity to tidy up. If you’re anything like me, there will be a trail of destruction that is in the form of a path of flour, so it’s probably a good idea to clean this up before you get the flour out again. If you want to make your own sauce you will need: tinned chopped tomatoes, half a chopped onion, Italian seasonings, garlic puree, salt and pepper. Unfortunately my local supermarket had sold out of tinned tomatoes and garlic puree, but right next to where they should be was ‘pizza topping sauce’, so thought this should make a reasonable substitute.

Once the dough has had time to rise, take it out of the bowl and separate it into three sections. Role of the first one into a circle, don’t worry about measurements, I didn’t (actually, the recipe said 13 inches, maybe that’s where I went wrong, perhaps you should try to follow instructions more than I did). Pinch the crusts all the way around the perimeter and stab thoroughly with a fork- this is surprisingly therapeutic- and place in the oven for 15 minutes at 220*C, take it out once it’s solid.

 Now, the recipe I followed failed to mention you’re suppose to coat the base with either egg or milk to make it go golden, so my bases looked uncooked, so this is something for anyone using this recipe to try. Once cooked, add sauce, cheese, and toppings of choice. Place back in the oven for another 20 minutes or until toppings appear cooked (or starting to burn in my case).

Once cooked, cut up and serve, enjoy if you can; if you did a better job than me this shouldn’t be hard, the knowledge that it is homemade is usually enough to make something taste good.

The verdict

Pizza bases are hard to make. Don’t let anyone say otherwise. I was making pizza for the family, and they seemed relatively pleased, but I think they were just surprised that I actually know how to use the kitchen. Mum’s pizza had: prawns, olives, jalapenos, fresh basil and oregano; Terry’s had: olives, fresh basil and oregano; mine had; olives, jalapenos, and one pretentiously placed bit of basil.

It was edible I suppose, but I think this is one of those practice makes perfect situations.

Total cost of ingredients: £11.89

Total cost of ingredients used: £6.75