What's not to love about pizza; Bread - good, Cheese - gooood, pepperoni and other pizza meats - gooooood, all imaginable vegetable toppings - goooooooooooood. Okay, I actually borrowed that whole sentence from Friends' Joey except at the time he was talking about a dessert with meat in it *blergh, puke*. But that's totally my feeling, pizzas are so good because they have so many different things that come together to make this deliciously handy meal (or some would say snack, whatevs, food enough for me if I get enough).
They are also the most flexible thing you can put in an oven. The dough is a fairly precise science as bread usually is, yes; but after that's done you can pretty much put on anything you want on that baby. There's even dessert pizzas now with all sorts of chocolatey stuff on top of the dough. A very good idea, I say.
But anyway, no more dreaming about chocolate, trying to populate my savoury section here.
This is a pretty basic pizza, the classic pepperoni which I think is generally regarded as the pizza poster boy. Made this on my little sister's birthday so made sure I didn't make the stuff too outlandish for her to eat; this is basically the only time I've made a pizza that wasn't loaded with all sorts of randoms so thought it would be a good first post for this section. I use whole wheat flour here though so check out this more top heavy recipe for a white flour dough then you can mix and match as you like i.e. pepperoni pizza with white flour bread and so on.
Ingredients
For Pizza Dough
2 1/2 cups wheat flour
2 1/4 teaspoons active dry yeast
3/4 teaspoons salt
1 cup warm water (the water MUST be warm, definitely not cold or very hot)
1 tablespoon olive/coconut (or other vegetable) oil
1 tablespoon sugar
1/2 tablespoon honey
For Tomato Sauce
1 small onion
3 cloves garlic
1 hot pepper (or as many as you like depending on how much pepper you can handle)
4 tomatoes
1/2 tsp basil
1/2 tablespoon oil
1/4 cup beef broth (this should have some salt in it at least)
1/4 teaspoon oregano
1/4 teaspoon lemon juice
1/8 teaspoon thyme
Pizza toppings
200g/7 ounces Mozzarella cheese (more or less depending on how much you like cheese)
85g/3 ounces Pepperoni
3 hotdogs/franks (optional)
1 Green pepper
Oil for lightly brushing the crust
Italian seasoning
Ingredient Notes
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| Pizza prepped and ready for the oven |
Grating cheese is the standard way of getting cheese on pizzas and I think it works best. But as you can see here mine's not grated , I used what was on hand - cheese slices - so grating wasn't so easy though it's still possible. Cutting the cheese into bits works if you ensure that it get spread around well so that each mouthful must get at least one patch of cheese. Normal mouthfuls I mean, food nibblers are on their own.
Also you can use pretty much any cheese you've got available but mozzarella is usually the best kind. Parmesan and Cheddar work alright too.
The pepperoni usually needs to have the outer lining removed to prevent eating rubbery slices. Some do not include the lining though so just check to see if you can strip anything off before slicing.
Preparation
Pizza Dough -
Combine yeast, water and 1 teaspoon of the sugar and let it stand for about 10 minutes.
In a large bowl, mix 2 cups flour, salt and the remaining sugar.
Make a hole in the middle of the flour and add the yeast/sugar/water mixture, the oil and the honey.
Stir till the dough comes together then start kneading the dough while slowly adding the remaining 1/2 cup flour.
Keep kneading till the dough is no longer sticky and you can roll it into a ball.
Place the ball in a lightly greased bowl (make sure there is a lot of space left in the bowl).
Cover with lightly greased plastic wrap or just a clean towel.
Leave for about an hour, the dough will rise to about double its size.
Punch down the dough and knead, then shape into a ball and leave it to rest again for about 30 minutes in a covered bowl.
Roll out the dough with your rolling pin or even by just pressing it down and spreading out even if you don't have a rolling pin.
Pierce the dough with a fork all over the dough to make it easier for the dough to absorb the flavours.
Pinch the edges of the dough so it can be raised higher than the middle of the pizza and have that ruched look.
Brush the top of the dough lightly with oil using a brush or oil spray like Pam.
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| Of course, if you have a circle pan, that's traditional and all. But like my square pizza though |
Tomato Sauce -
Blend together the ingredients for the tomato sauce listed above, add water if you need to when blending, however you will need to cook the sauce or pop it in the microwave to get rid of the water and thicken. The sauce should be as thick as tomato stew usually gets when it's been dried properly (stereo-typically speaking - Yoruba style, not Igbo)
Topping the Pizza -
Preheat oven to 245 degrees celsius/475 degrees f
First, prep the pepperoni by slicing after removing the outer lining. Place slices on a paper towel or serviette and cover with another paper towel. Cook on high in the microwave for 45 seconds.
Voila, that was easy! But if you can't use a microwave then it may be a bit harder. Place the slices on a baking sheet and bake on 205 degrees celsius/400 degrees f for about 5 minutes. Just keep watching so it doesn't burn.
Cover the dough evenly with the tomato sauce.
Grate 1/2 of the cheese (or rip in pieces) and spread evenly all over.
Spread the pepperoni slices (hot dog slices if adding) and finely sliced green pepper strips.
Sprinkle on the rest of the cheese and then italian seasoning on top of everything.
Smile with anticipation as you look at what you'll be eating in less than 15 minutes, even less time than noodles (well, the way I make it).
Place pan in the oven for 10 - 15 minutes.
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| Going, going, very soon gone |
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