Thursday, 18 April 2013

How To....lazy sundays (home made pizzas)

Sometimes after a big meal on a Saturday night or maybe someones too hungover to make a roast and the house is full, the perfect thing to do on a Sunday is DIY pizza. It's one of those things that no matter what your age putting whatever you want on a pizza is endlessly enjoyable. And will always taste good. Pretty much no matter what... This recipe made enough for 4 adults and one little person, each pizza was strangely sized and we mix and matched but were all full by the end! Little tip before you pile up the pizza, make sure the base is on the tray before you start as its really difficult to move it once its topped. 

Dough:
250g strong white flour
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp dried yeast 
125ml warm water
30ml olive oil 

Mix the flour, salt and yeast together in a large bowl. Combine the oil and the water and make a well in the flour then add the liquid and stir slightly to make a wet dough. I used my kenwood chef and used the dough hook attachment and mixed it for about 10 minutes on a slow speed. Then covered with cling film and left next to the Aga or in a warm place. This isn't essential but it gives time to prepare all the lovely toppings! 

First I made a tomato sauce to go on the base, use a handful of fresh tomatoes, 1 400g tin of chopped tomatoes, 2 gloves garlic, handful of fresh basil and a sprinkle of dried oregano. Chop the garlic roughly and fry in a generous amount of olive oil until you can really smell it, then add the fresh tomatoes and fry for about 1 minute then add the tinned toms. Using your hands rip up the basil and add to the pan and add the oregano. Cook this until it's boiling and add some salt and sugar (tomatoes have a very bitter taste when cooked without sugar. You should add a teaspoon per tin, even in Bolognese) Once the sauce has boiled use a bamix to blend it up so you can spread it easily. 

Now for the toppings!!! Me and my family really went to town on this. We had:
Figs
Goats cheese
Mozzarella 
Cheddar Cheese
Spinach 
Caramelised red onion (see goats cheese tart recipe for caramelised onion recipe)
Mushrooms 
Ham 
Chorizo 

We all went for something different of course, my favourite however was a little bit of sauce, then spinach, red onion sliced fig and goats cheese. This was so delicious. However my little brother just went for cheese and ham. One was made with chorizo, mushroom and mozzarella which was also a success.

As these pizza's are fresh they only take 5-10 minutes to cook, depending on how much you pile on. In the aga you can cook these on a tray or on the base of the top right oven. In a normal oven preheat to 200.c and cook on a tray until the cheese is bubbling and the crusts are crispy.













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