There is truly almost nothing better than Pizza, we have a tradition in our home that we make pizza every Friday night....It such an easy meal to make and everyone can take part, putting on their favourite toppings.
I have a bread maker that makes the dough for me, but sometime I'll go to the supermarket and buy some dough at the bakery, otherwise I'll make it myself.
I found this on the Internet, very interesting the history of pizza:
In 16th century Naples a Galette flat bread was referred to as a pizza. A dish of the poor people, it was sold in the street and was not considered a kitchen recipe for a long time. Before the 17th century, the pizza was covered with red sauce. This was later replaced by oil, tomatoes (after Europeans came into contact with the Americas) or fish. In 1843, Alexandre Dumas, père described the diversity of pizza toppings. In June 1889, to honor the Queen consort of Italy, Margherita of Savoy, the Neapolitan chef Raffaele Esposito created the "Pizza Margherita," a pizza garnished with tomatoes, mozzarella cheese, and basil, to represent the colors of the Italian flag. He was the first to add cheese.
How interesting, my dream is to go to Italy some day and eat real Italian pizza and pasta...love the culture, I must have been an Italian in one of my previous lives.
So here we go:
Make your own Pizza Dough
1 tablespoon active dry yeast,
1 1/2 cups (350 cc) warm water
3 1/2 cups (500 g) flour
1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil
pinch of salt
In a small bowl, sprinkle the yeast on the warm water and stir to dissolve it. Set aside until the yeast starts forming bubbles in about 5 minutes. Sift the flour. Pour the flour into a large bowl or on a work surface. Mold the flour in a mound shape with a hole in the center. Pour the yeast mix in the center & then the olive oil and a pinch of salt. Using a spatula, draw the ingredients together. Then mix with your hands to form a dough. Sprinkle some flour on the work surface. Place the dough on the floured surface. Knead the dough briefly with your hands pushing and folding. Knead just long enough for the dough to take in a little more flour, and until it no longer sticks to your hands.
Ingredients for the Pizza (Toppings)
Tomato Paste (The thickness of the tomato paste all depends on you)
Cheese
The rest is up to you.
1. Then to start on the Pizza itself, place the dough in/on your baking tin, I used a deep dish. Now "knead" the dough in the dish so that it spreads everywhere, this might take some doing, but take a sip of wine and then go on...
When you have the dough in all the corners and it's spread nice and evenly, then add your tomato paste, spread it nice and evenly.
2. Then you can start adding your toppings, I have used cheese grillers here:
3. A bit of bacon, or if that is not for you then any other meat topping or what ever you prefer:
4. I then topped it with cheese and then a bit of herbs sprinkled over it and then into the oven it went, 180 C for about 20 minutes, this heat is just enough for the cheese to melt gradually and the dough to cook. And then when it's ready take it out, let it cool a bit and cut it up.
And now for a movie and yummy pizza
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