One of my Friday night favourites! It’s just such an easy and lovely way to start the weekend. The kids love to lend a helping hand.
What you need:
– mixing bowl
– rolling pin
– baking paper
– baking tray
– some musle grease
– medium frying pan
For the dough:
– 400 grams (organic) flour
– 100 grams semolina > is optional, it gives a bit more texture to the dough. If you don’t have it, no problem just use 500 grams of (organic) flour
– 1 sachet instant yeast (about 7 grams)
– 4 teaspoons (golden) sugar
– 2 teaspoons salt
– good few lugs of good quality olive oil
– luke warm water
For the base sauce:
– 1 can tomato chuncks (400 grams)
– 1 onion, finely chopped
– 1 garlic clove, finely chopped
– olive oil
– knob of butter
– balsamic vinegar
Favourite toppings:
Good old simple salami, add black olives if you like;
just basil and grated parmesan:
chestnut mushrooms;
SPRING Pizza: ready cooked white asperagus, black olives, add boiled egg afterwards 🙂
Toppings on these home made pizza’s should be kept simple, that way they’re the best!
Combine the flour, yeast, salt, sugar. Make a well in the middle of the bowl (or heap if you’re working on a flat surface). Add the water bit by bit, add a dash of olive oil. Work the flour and the water from inside out, eventually combining all the ingredients to a ball. Knead it well for about 5 – 10 minutes. It should feel as soft as a babies bottom 🙂
Set aside in the bowl, cover with a clean tea-towel, make sure the dough stays warm (above room temp). The dough should take about 45 mins to double in size.
In the mean time, start making your tomato sauce:
Finely chop the onion.
Heat a frying pan, add some olive oil, and add the chopped onion. Once the onions appear almost see-through lower the heat, you can add some crushed garlic, give it a quick stir and add the tomatoes. Leave it to simmer until the sauce has reduced. Turn off the heat, add a know of butter and stir it through, the sauce should still be warm enough to melt the butter, give it a quick stir. At the end, add the balsamic, stir it though and have a taste. Add salt and pepper to taste. Don’t make it too salty as the pizza toppings often are salty already.
Preheat the oven to 200- 220dergrees Celsius.
Divide the dough into two equal balls, put one aside. Knead the dough once more, flatten it into the size you want with a rolling pin. Place the bakingpaper on the tray and lay the rolled out dough on the baking tray. Add some spoonfulls of the tomato sauce and spread with the back of a spoon. Sprinkle with some dried oregano. Add your toppings and cheese.
Bake for about 10 minutes, but keep an eye on it!
Enjoy with a good glass of dry white or an ice cold (well deserved TGIF) beer!