You’ll need –
For the dough:
- 1 cup plain flour
- 1/3 tsp salt
- 1tbs baking powder
- 2ts olive oil
- 1/3 cup warm water
Or
- 2 cups plain flour
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 2/3 cup water
For the sauce:
- 1 small onion
- 1 clove of garlic
- 1 pepper
- 800g of chopped tomatoes
- 3tbs of tomato puree
- 2tbs of sugar (preferably brown sugar)
- 1tbs of oregano
To begin, the sauce
While heating a pan on a low heat with a splash of oil, finely chop an onion, dice your pepper and mince a garlic clove. Add your onion to the pan and, once softened add the garlic and peppers and fry for another minute or so.
Add the chopped tomatoes, tomato puree, your spices and sugar before mixing all together and let simmer for 30 – 35 minutes or until thickened.
Once the sauce is made, it lasts for 1 week in the fridge or longer in the freezer and once you have that, we can go onto our dough!
For both pizza options we begin by preheating the oven to 180c.
Pizza One
For a thick and risen dough, follow our first recipe measurements and begin by sifting your flour, salt and baking powder into a bowl then pour in your water and olive oil before mixing together until a stiff dough forms.
Turn it out onto a floured counter top and begin to shape your pizzas!
You can choose to cut the dough into 4 small balls and roll out into your pizzas – just keep the dough you’re not working with in a sandwich bag while you’re rolling out the pizzas – or you can use the whole dough and make one.
Either way, roll it out as thin or as thickly as you like your pizza, add your tomato sauce, cheese and toppings of choice before placing on a baking tray and cooking for 10 minutes.
Pizza Two
Our second recipe gives a softer, thinner base and it starts by adding 2 cups of flour, salt, and water in a large mixing bowl – you don’t have to sift this as sifting adds more air into the dough. Mix with a wooden spoon until it turns into a lump then knead it by hand for a few minutes until the dough gets a little softer.
Put it in a plastic bag to keep it from the air and let it sit for 10 to 30 minutes on the kitchen counter. Once you’ve taken the dough out of the bag it’ll be a little softer and moist and easier to handle. On a lightly oiled counter top knead it for another 5 minutes, until it’s smooth and elastic.
Place the dough on a cutting board dusted with a bit of flour and roll to size however you want to roll this on the thinner side. As with the first recipe this can produce about 8 small pizzas or one large pizza – larger than the first recipe – and again when you’re making individual pizzas you want to pop your remaining dough into a bag to stop it getting dry as you work on the other half.
Both of these dough recipes can be frozen to use later. Simply shape your bases, pop them on a freezable plate or tray with cling film between the layers. When you’re ready to use them simply bring out however many you want to use, let them defrost at room temperature for 10 to 20 minutes before adding your sauce, cheese and toppings.
Tips and tricks
The first and most important tip I can give you is you don’t have to make your own sauce! More often than not, when I make pizzas when it’s just for me I just use tomato puree, just BBQ sauce or, if I’m feeling extra fancy, salsa. While the homemade sauce is extra special and you can customise it to your taste and your toppings, it’s not a necessity.
When using pre-cooked meats (for example, ham or chicken) I recommend frying them in a dry pan before adding to your pizza – most pre-packaged meats have extra water in them to keep them from getting gross too quickly and when they’re put straight on the pizza can make the toppings seem almost slimy but if you like slimy pizza, go for it!
You can also make a flavoured pizza base! For more, click here for my pan bread recipe which uses the same ingredients as above.
First Published on: https://offtherecordblog.org/
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