Mermaid Kitchen: Pizza!

Pizza is a staple in my household. Between my partner's Italian heritage and the fact that pizza ticks all my boxes (cheese, carbs and tomato), it's a miracle we don't have it every night! As with most of our food, we try not to get the shop made stuff. Sometimes it's unavoidable, feeling poorly or lazy or pressed for time. But most of the time we make our own. Dough and everything. And if you follow my personal instagram account, you'll see we make it rather regularly!

We like to use Jamie Oliver's dough recipe, with a couple tweaks and a variant my own salsa recipe for the sauce. My favourite thing about home made pizza is overloading on the toppings. Yeah, shop bought and takeout pizzas have structural integrity but they never have enough toppings. I have been overloading pizzas since university.

Sometimes they don't always come out circular.

DOUGH

INGREDIENTS

• 500g plain flour or OO flour. (The OO is finer, but Morrisons have stopped selling it!)
• 1/2tbsp fine sea salt. (I tend to guestimate this one.)
• 1 7g sachet of yeast.
• 1/2tbsp golden caster sugar
• 325ml lukewarm water.

Jamie's recipe is actually double this but that would make eight pizzas. We halve the quantities and then halve the dough after it has risen and freeze it. Means we have quick and easy pizza saved for a later date! And also that we don't eat four pizza's worth in one sitting. While that is the dream, my waistline doesn't agree with my desire for pizza.

 

Mixing it up.

 

METHOD

1. Sift the flour into a bowl, add the salt, and create a well.
2. Measure 325ml of luke warm water, add the yeast, oil, and sugar. Mix lightly and leave it for a couple minutes to activate.
3. Pour into the flour and mix well. You can do it by hand or with an electric whisk with a dough hook attachment. 
4. Once combined, finish kneading on a floured surface by hand until the dough is smooth.
5. Spread some oil around the bowl and on the dough. Leave to rise for at least an hour. We often do the dough in the morning and make the pizza in the evening. But it can be used after an hour.
6. Once you're ready to make the pizza, divide the dough into four. We roll two, freeze two; but if need more make more!
7. Roll your dough into vaguely circular shapes. Once satisfied with the shape (or they fit on your trays), leave them to prove in the oven for five minutes on a low heat.
8. During this time, make your sauce. To make it more suitable for a sauce rather than a salsa, I tend to only add the onions and cut them much smaller. Any other veg, I tend to use as toppings. I also let the sauce cook for a little longer, so it's thicker. Obviously, the sauce takes longer than five minutes. I tend to make the sauce while my partner sorts the dough out.
9. Prepare your toppings, grate your cheese.
10. Once the dough has proved, grab them out of the oven and turn the heat up to 200C.
11. Spread the sauce on the base, top as liberally as you like, cover with cheese.
12. Cook for about twenty minutes, the cheese should be nice and melted and crisping up.
13. Serve! We often have to put them on a chopping board as they are too big for the plate!

Chris kneading the dough

We love this recipe. The dough makes a crispy base which I am sure would keep its integrity if not over loaded with toppings. We roll ours thin (the bigger the pizza, the better!) but it is feasible to roll it thicker. And I guess using self raising flour could make a thicker base too. Maybe I'll experiment one of these times. That or forget to buy more plain flour!

I like to top my pizzas with peppers, tomato, onion, spring onion, chorizo, and of course cheese. What toppings do you like on your pizzas? Lemme know below.

These ones actually fit on the plates!