Pizza is undoubtedly one of the filthiest takeaways.
Of course, you can get a pretty nice Pizza delivered from a restaurant, or a gourmet take-away service such as Raw, but they can be expensive and feel like a bit of an extravagant cop-out for when you simply can’t be arsed with cooking. If you’re going to spend that much on food, it seems like you should at least make it worth the money and drag your lazy-arse to a nice restaurant.
Given the relative ease, and definite cheapness of making your own pizza, it is wholly worth foregoing the deep-pan, fat-soak, devoid of any nutrition varieties whose menus undoubtedly clog up your letter-box, and do just that.
A recipe that might seem like a lot of effort, is really little more than mixing flour and water, slathering the dough with a can of tomatoes you have boiled, and then piling it with whatever variety of fresh vegetables, meat and cheese you fancy. The result will be far more delicious than anything you’ll get delivered to your door, cost you a fraction of the price and really won’t involve as much effort as you might think.
The below recipe is for simple cheese and tomato pizzas, but you can really go wild with what you put on them. Some finely sliced peppers, onions, sweetcorn, cooked ham or chorizo, anything. The pizza is your oyster, quite literally so, if you are that way inclined!
Ingredients (makes 2 medium, pizzas)
500g white bread flour
7g dried yeast
320mls water (warmish to wake up the yeast)
3 tablespoons of olive oil
1 can of chopped tomatoes
2 cloves of garlic, crushed
1 ball of mozzarella
1 small handful of basil leaves
Directions
Preheat the oven to 220C/Gas Mark 6.
Mix the water, yeast and two tablespoons of the oil together in a jug or cup. Sieve the flour into a bowl and make a well.
Pour the liquid onto the flour, and combine to make an elastic-like dough. Cover the bowl with cling-film or a tea-towel and set aside in a warm place (near the cooker will do).
Meanwhile, heat the remaining 1 tablespoon of olive oil in a frying pan. Add the garlic and fry for 1min. Add the can of tomatoes and bring to the boil. Once it has reached boiling reduce the heat right down low and allow to simmer gently for 10-15mins until the tomatoes have thickened and become more saucey. Stir in basil leaves and remove from heat.
Remove the dough from the bowl and cut in half. Sprinkle some flour on the surface, and on your rolling pin, and roll out the dough into a thin base. You are aiming for a base around the size of a vinyl album. Carefully place bases on an oiled baking tray.
Spread bases with tomato mixture and tear cheese into chunks. Evenly sprinkle cheese chunks over both pizzas and stick in the hot oven for 15mins or until cheese is melted and edges are looking golden-brown and crispy.
Image Via I'm Hungry