Pizza 3, Mamta's Easy Pizza On Home Made Base
Pizza 3, Mamta's Easy Pizza
Mamta Gupta
Pizza on ready-made base is not too great, though it is okay for emergency. It is so easy to make your own base at home, definitely worth a try.
With toppings of your choice, freshly cooked pizza is a delicious complete meal and it is miles cheaper than the one from Pizza houses. Try not to crowd your pizza with too many toppings at once.Pizza tastes nicer when you can taste each topping separately. Don't be over generous with the pizza sauce either. Overloaded Pizzas miss the point of a good Pizza meal!
You do not need any special equipment, except an oven that heats up to 275/300C and ordinary baking trays. Makes two tray Pizzas, enough to feed 6-8 people, provided you serve it with a generous side salad. Also see Pizza 1 and Pizza 2.
Edited July 2023
Ingredients
For the Dough
500 gm. strong white bread flour, plus a little extra flour for finishing. You can use plain white flour/maida
30 ml. olive oil plus a little extra for rolling out dough and greasing the tray
10 gm. instant yeast
1 1/2 tsp salt
2 tsp. fine sugar
310 ml. water at room temperature
1 tsp. dry oregano
For the Pizza Sauce (you can use a jar of ready-made red pesto sauce, if in a hurry)
2 tbsp. olive oil
1-2 garlic cloves, crushed (optional)
1 large onion, thinly sliced
400 gm. tin of tomatoes, juice drained off or 500gm. fresh tomatoes, chopped
1 tsp. dry oregano leaves (you can use fresh, if you have access to them)
Salt to taste
For Pizza Toppings
1 red pepper, de-seeded and sliced thinly
1 green pepper, de-seeded and sliced thinly
150-200 gm. mushrooms, thinly sliced
1-2 green chillies, thinly sliced
Other toppings can be; a few tinned anchovies, a handful of salami/pepperoni slices/ham cut or torn into strips, pieces of cooked chicken etc.
Coarse chillies/chilli flakes to taste (adjust amount if using green chillies as well)
100 gm Mozzarella cheese, chopped or broken up into pieces or grated
100 gm. cheddar cheese, grated (or use any other cheese you have lying around.
You can also have a few halved cherry tomatoes/tomato slices.
2 trays of 33X25 cm. (or use any pizza tray/plate/stone that you have)
Instructions
The dough: Place flour, yeast, salt, sugar, oregano, olive oil in a bowl. Add water slowly and make soft dough. Knead until it is smooth on a greased surface by stretching it with the heel of your hand and folding it repeatedly, rotating the dough by 45 degree between each 'stretch and fold'. You can make the dough in a dough maker or a bread maker, if you have one.
Cover and leave to double in size. It takes a couple of hours in my kitchen. It can be left overnight in a fridge.
Pizza sauce:
Heat the olive oil. Fry onion and garlic on moderate heat until softened, about 4-5 minutes.
Add tomatoes and cook until smooth and thick. It should be like a paste, you don't want the dough getting soggy. These days, you ca get quite reasonable ready made jars of pizza base.
Add salt, oregano, stir to mix and let cool.
Making Pizza. I usually prepare pizza in advance, up to the point of cooking and then leave it to rise a little for an hour or so before cooking. You can also leave it in the fridge for longer. Cover it with a cling film to avoid aromas transferring to other things.
You can make individual, round pizzas or make a couple of tray pizzas, as shown here.
Cut the dough into half for two tray pizzas, or make balls for traditional, round pizzas..
Knock the dough down a little and roll out into a rectangle on a floured surface.
Grease the trays with a little oil, sprinkle some flour on top. You can bake a pizza on a silicon baking sheet too, which will mean that it will never get stuck to your baking tray!
Pre-heat oven to 275-300C
Now lift the rolled out pizza base by rolling it onto a rolling pin, and then unrolling it onto the tray. Press and stretch until it fill the tray fully.
Spread half of the tomato paste on each pizza base. You can add a couple of torn up sun-dried tomatoes, is you have any.
Spread out evenly onions, green peppers, red peppers, mushrooms, basil leaves, oregano, and any other topping you like.
Sprinkle the cheese mix on top evenly and then sprinkle coarse chillies. Leave to rest for 15-30 minutes, if you have time. You can cover it with a cling film at this stage and leave in the fridge until you are ready to cook.
Cook in the centre of the oven for 8-10 minutes, less in fan oven. Keep an eye on your pizza, don't let it burn. minutes.
Take out onto a wooden board, slice with a pizza cutter and serve immediately.Serve hot.
Other Pizza topping, although I prefer a simple one myself:s bacon, roast chicken, Pepperoni, pineapple, sliced sausages, artichoke hearts, cherry tomatoes, eggplant, olives, roasted garlic, courgettes, cress/mustard leaves, rocket salad leaves, basil leaves, mint leaves, jalapeno peppers, prawns, pieces of fish, other cheese like blue cheese, sliced meat balls etc. etc.