Pizza - Home-made Dough & Sauce

I cant believe I haven't added this recipe yet to the recipe blog and leading a class on Friday with 33 cooks who were so creative with their pizzas - in terms of flavour/decoration/shapes/crusts- it was a reminder how much fun pizza is to make and how creative you can be with it.

As I say to our cooks does pizza have to be circular ?

You don't have to kneed the dough with your hands - mix the dough for 5-10 minutes with a wooden spoon doing deep big stirs and it will save you getting the dough all on little fingers and your kitchen!

The garlic and basil stalks add great flavour to the sauce. In England we have been afraid to use the stalks of herbs but other cultures do - and thats where the flavour is often stored so use the basil stalks....coriander stalks...

Pizza Base

Makes 4 Pizzas (size 15-20cm)

·         250g plain flour

·         250g strong white flour

·         1 x 7g sachet of quick dissolving yeast

·         4 tbsp olive oil

·         1/2 tbsp caster sugar

·         1/2 tbsp sea salt

Pizza base

1.       Sieve both lots of flour and mix with salt – make a well

2.      Dissolve yeast in 400ml warm water (not hot) with the sugar

3.      Add the olive oil to the yeast and mix together – leave for a few minutes.

4. Add the yeast mixture to the flour and salt and mix well.

5.      If its too dry add a bit more water until you have a moist ball of dough. Knead for 10 minutes

6.      Put into an oiled bowl – cover and leave in a warm place for 1 hour

7.      After 1 hour - put flour on a board and divide into four.

8. Using the bottom of your hand stretch the dough into the shape you wish and with a crust (or not)

9.      Top with the tomato sauce (as outlined below)

10.    Add any of the toppings with generous pieces of mozzarella and sprinklings of parmesan

11.     Put into an oven at 220c fan for 8-12 minutes

Pizza sauce

·         1 tin of chopped tomatoes

·         4 garlic cloves (crushed)

·         1 basil plant

·         1 tsp olive oil

Pizza sauce

1.       Peel and mince the garlic cloves and put with the olive oil on a gentle heat

2.      Add tinned tomatoes

3.      Add chopped and washed stalks of the basil plant

4.      Leave to simmer for 10 minutes

5.      Add the basil leaves at the end

Suggested pizza toppings

·         Mushroom & Mozzarella

·         Red Pepper & Pepperoni & Mozzarella

·         Ham & Pineapple(!) & Mozzarella

·         Tomato & Olive & Basil leaves & Mozzarella

·         Salami, Tomato & Yellow Peppers & Mozzarella

·         Chicken strips & Sweetcorn & Mozzarella

Paul Hollywood says the stickier the dough the better - and we find that to be the case!