Pizza

In a half-arsed attempt to eat more healthily, I made pizza from scratch instead of getting it from Domino’s. Hmm.

For the base:
2 cups plain white bread flour (or ’00’ extra fine Italian flour if you’re feeling fancy)
2 tablespoons olive oil
Pinch sugar
Pinch salt
Yeast
Warm water

For the sauce:
2 cloves garlic
Olive oil
Passata
Red wine
Tomato puree
Oregano
Basil

For the topping:
Anything you like. I used mushrooms, red pepper, sweetcorn, and olives for me and jalapenos for him.
Mozzarella

Heat oven to 180 degrees/gas mark 5.

Mix yeast, flour, sugar and salt, then add about two tablespoons of olive oil and enough warm water to make a smooth, elastic, non-sticky dough. Knead it briefly and leave it to sit for 5mins or so. Divide into two, and squash each piece flat between your hands. Press it onto a lightly greased baking tray (or pizza stone/tray if you have one) and spread it out until it’s very thin. Try and get the same thickness all over.

Mince the garlic and cook it very gently in a tiny bit of oil for about 3mins. Add about four tablespoons of passata, splash of red wine and squeeze of tomato puree. Turn the heat up high and reduce until you have a thick, rich sauce. Stir in oregano and basil to taste.

Spread the sauce over the base. Chop the vegetables (or whether else you’re using) to roughly the same size and sprinkle over the sauce. Leave a bit of space round the edge.

Drain the mozzarella and squeeze it dry. Tear or roughly chop, and scatter over the pizza.

Cook for about 20mins until the base is crisp and the cheese is bubbling and starting to brown. You might need two spatulas/a friend to get it off the baking tray in one piece…