Home Made Pizza

Ingredients 

Home Made Pizza

Pizza Dough 

2 cups flour

1 teaspoon salt

2 teaspoons sugar

1 tablespoon active dry yeast (Shimrit)

¾ cup very warm water

2 tablespoons olive oil

Pizza Sauce

200 g (7 oz) tomato paste

Water

Garlic (fresh or powder) to taste

Salt and black pepper

Dried basil and oregano

1 teaspoon olive oil

1 teaspoon sugar

Cheeses

About 250 g of grated Kashkaval and Mozzarella cheese (or any combination you’d prefer – Mozzarella recommended for the stretch factor)

and…cornmeal

How to do it

1. In your mixer’s mixing bowl, add the flour, salt, 2 teaspoons of sugar and yeast.

Pizza ready to go into the oven

2. Add the warm water and 2 tablespoons of olive oil and start mixing on low speed with your dough hook until the dough forms a ball (you can also do this by hand if you wish, but it’s far easier with the mixer). If it’s very sticky, you can add a little more flour until it’s a manageable ball of dough (not too much)

3. Remove from the bowl, knead the dough for no more than a minute and place in a bowl you’ve lightly greased with olive oil. Turn it over so both sides of the dough are oiled. Cover with a tea towel and let rise until the dough doubles in size (about 1-1¼hours)

4. Pre-heat your oven to 200°C (400°F)

5. Remove the dough from the bowl, punch it down and roll it out onto baking trays covered with baking paper onto which you spread olive oil and some cornmeal (if you don’t have, then you can just use flour instead, but the cornmeal gives it an authentic feel). Cover and let rise for about 15 minutes.

6. Mix together all the ingredients for the tomato sauce – add water just to get a spreading consistency. Spread over the pizza.

7. Sprinkle the cheeses generously over the pizza and any other toppings you’d like.

8. Bake for about 15 minutes or until the top starts getting bubbly and brown (you know what to look for!)

This recipe makes about 2 medium sized thinly rolled pizzas. We always double it!

Note: You can use this recipe to make focaccia bread. Omit the sauce and cheese and add instead some olive oil, slices of garlic and a few sprigs of rosemary. It’s a great starter to any meal.