Friday 29 April 2011

Homemade Pizza!

Pizza is something I usually reserve for the weekends - it takes a little while to prepare so it's best made with plenty of time to hand - but it can be enjoyable to make too. I put the radio or tv on while I knead the dough, grill the peppers and prepare the mozzarella.. This recipe serves four - but I quite like splitting it between three people as it allows each person a very generous slab. Perfect eaten outside on a summery day, with drinks to hand.

Ingredients:

1 400g packet of Ciabatta mix: follow instructions on pack
3 mixed peppers (the red, orange and yellow ones if possible)
1 tin of good chopped tomatoes
1 small red onion
a generous hunk of mozzarella - I use two of the smallish packets or one large bag
a handful of olives (as always I use the kalamata variety)
Olive oil - a swig used to grill the peppers and a couple of swigs to line the pizza tray with
Salt, pepper and dried oregano
Fresh basil to garnish



This is so easy to make that it hardly merits explaining. A pack of ciabatta mix works really well and should have basic, easy-to-follow instructions on the back: in this case, I simply add 350ml of warm water to the mix, knead for about ten minutes before leaving to rise in a warm place, with a tea towel lain over the bowl. Put your peppers, halved, onto a tray, rub some oil over them and grill them until the skins are completely charred and can be easily removed.

Chop all of your ingredients accordingly while the dough is rising; generously coat your chosen tray in olive oil. When it has risen, simply spread it out onto and up the sides of the tray (to form a crust); I use a very large tray so that I can spread the dough as thinly as possible. When it cooks it will practically double in size, so allow for some room. Season your dough with pepper, salt and a shake of dried oregano, before adding your chopped tomatoes (I run the tomatoes through a sieve beforehand to get most of the juices out). Throw on your grilled peppers (sliced however you like), mozzarella, olives and onion and put in the oven (pre-heated at about 200c) for fifteen minutes or until golden brown. Toss on some basil leaves and serve with a big crunchy salad and cold beers!

4 comments:

  1. competition runs rampant everywhere, Ihope this inititaive keeps growing.
    restaurant telephone

    ReplyDelete
  2. Looks totally delicious!

    ReplyDelete
  3. MMMM, this looks wonderful. xxxx

    ReplyDelete

Thank you for visiting, we love reading your comments and very much appriciate feedback. Please follow us if you like what we're doing ♥