Homemade Pizza

We love pizza in this house, we like lovely fat, unhealthy take away pizza, we like crispy, slightly healthier oven pizza and we adore the pizza from the kebab shop in the village.  We have never made pizza at home however... till this weekend.  

Pizza base, with home made tomato sauce, mozzarella,cheddar cheese, green olives, Parma ham and sun dried tomatoes.  Brian added some Franks Hot Sauce because he's a spice monkey. The bases are an odd shape, but we tried!

Pizza Base:

This mix makes 6 bases of this size (and is freeze-able) and it has many other uses.  It is Hugh Fearnely-Whittingstall's Magic Bread Dough.  Once you have made the dough as in the link above and it has been knocked back  flour your surface, hands and rolling pin and take a sixth of the dough and roll it into a... erm... a shape.    Brian's one, above, was 'inspired' buy the Millennium Falcon.  Let it rest while you do the rest of the preparation so it has time to form into a stable structure and doesn't behave like a jellyfish.

Pizza Sauce:

This is an improvised 'what do we have in the fridge, Babe' recipe.  Take a big-ish handful of tomoatos (I had cherry ones needing used so that's what went in) and put them in a pan with a chopped onion and some chopped celery.  Add a little oil and let the tomatoes pop.  I imagine if you were using salad tomatoes chopping them might be an idea.  Once the tomatoes were soft and happy add a tin of tomatoes and let this simmer.  Season it with salt, pepper and mixed herbs, or some oregano.  Once it has all come to the bubble and reduced transfer it to a blender and whizz till smooth.  The put it back in the pan and let reduce till it's a spreadable consistency.  This made far too much sauce for just two pizzas so we had the remainders on pasta for dinner the next night.

Toppings:

This bit is easy!  Grab what you want and throw it on but don't over do it, or your base won't cook in the middle.  When I was a student I worked in a kitchen making pizzas and I learned that less is for sure more when it comes to all toppings (except cheese, in my book).  Throw on what you want and enjoy!  It would suggest making the pizza up on the pizza tray, Brian topped his first and then the pizza tray went in the oven so I thought I'd try and make mine on the board and transfer it... fail.  I had a calzone.

The final stage, the bake:

Now that you have your sauce, your base, and your toppings you need to preheat your oven to 200 degrees Celcuis.  If you are using a pizza stone then make sure you heat this in the oven and if not then make sure your tray is hot to start. This means you need to work quickly, but that's part of the fun... Put on the sauce, the cheese, and the toppings and get it in the oven quickly!  Ours took eight minutes to cook, but keep an eye on them and do not let your toppings catch, if the base does it will be fine (or better).

When you're happy with the bake take it out of the oven and let it rest.  For goodness sake let it rest for a couple of minutes and it will cut much better and be easier to eat.  And now the wait will be worth it, enjoy!