Pizza? Anyone?

12 months ago

God knows when was the last time I cooked or baked something. I can't even remember when it was or what it was. Most likely something at the beginning of the year. I've been traveling all spring, summer and autumn, so others have been cooking for me and now I have my personal chef, who's cooking for me, whatever I ask for. Yes, I'm privileged.

So today I thought it's time to create something in the kitchen and what better dish you can go for, than pizza! It's easy, ready in no time and delicious too. I didn't mention healthy as it's not, but once in a while I think it's ok, if you don't pig out.

This time I wanted something different, so this is why I changed the recipe and the baking tray too. This was pure gambling on my behalf as changing the recipe blindly may not always work out, but you don't know unless you try, right? So let's see what masterpiece I created today.

Ingredients for the dough:

750g all purpose flour,
25g fresh yeast,
400 - 450ml lukewarm water,
1tsp sugar,
2tsp salt,
3tbsp extra virgin olive oil.

Ingredients for the filling:

pizza sauce,
sweet corn,
olives,
oregano,
grated cheese,
ham.

Pizza Dough.jpg

Method:

Add 1tsp sugar to the lukewarm water, add the yeast and let it rise for a few minutes. Place the dry ingredients in a mixing bowl, add the oil, then the yeast and knead till you get a nice, non sticky dough. I was lazy to get my dough mixer out, so this time I did the kneading by hand.

After I got a not sticky dough, I cut the cross on top of it, covered the bowl with a plastic wrap and let it rest at room temperature for 35 - 40 minutes. The cross on the dough may seem strange, but it's not for religious purposes, as many may think. The cross is not art of my religion, but I still like to use it as it helps the dough rise. It gives room to rising.

After the resting time was up, this is what I got. The dough almost doubled, which was the target.

Now comes the trick. This is a fruit pie tray, it's definitely not for pizza, but served the purpose well.

Un filo d'olio, as the Italians say, which means I added a little olive oil to the tray and spread it, to avoid the dough sticking to the tray.

Dividing the dough was maybe the most difficult part. I knew the quantity of dough I got is more than just for this tray and that I can get another pizza, but how much is needed for the base layer and the top, well, that had to be experienced. So after 2 attempts, I got the base layer right. Well, kinda.

Does this look like a regular circle to you? If you say yes, please go have your eyes checked out by a specialist as it's not a regular circle, but it doesn't matter as the surplus can be adjusted.

After lining the tray with the dough, I used a fork to poke some holes in the dough. Don't ask me why, it just felt natural to do it.

I spread some pizza sauce on it, which may look awful, compared to what you buy at the grocery store, but this is my homemade pizza sauce, made with homegrown ingredients, tailored to my taste. So I don't care how it looks, as long as it's healthy and tastes as I like it. After that, I sprinkled it with oregano, although the sauce already had some spice.

I made it 50/50, with olives and sweet corn, which can't be missing from any pizza in my opinion.

Then came a layer of ham.

The other ingredient that can't be missing from any pizza is the cheeeeeese!

Spreading out the top was an easier job and even though it's not quite round, it looks similar to a circle.

Poking holes on the top layer is a must as the steam has to dome out somewhere.

As a finishing touch, I spread some pizza sauce on the top as well.

The next step was to bake for 30 minutes at 190°C in a preheated oven. After that, I took the tray out and spread some grated cheese on top. and baked for another 5 minutes, till the cheese melted.