Pizza

18Nov08

As there is little going down on the island, here’s another food related post.

All of these are coming in at under a tenner to make, making enough for two with enough left over for lunch or supper fridge raids the next night. (Apart from the cheesecake which, four days later, is down to the last two slices).

So tonight it’s pizza. This is another Jamie O recipe which, despite him being a fat tongued mockney, he got me cooking in my early twenties (1999?!), his take on Italian and cooking in general suits me and 9 times outta 10 it never goes wrong.

The dough is dead simple…

 

• 1kg strong white bread flour or Tipo ‘00’ flour or 800g strong white bread flour or Tipo ‘00’ flour, plus 200g finely ground semolina flour

• 1 level tablespoon fine sea salt

• 2 x 7g sachets of dried yeast

• 1 tablespoon golden caster sugar

• 4 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

• 650ml lukewarm water 

 

Sieve the flour(s) and salt on to a clean work surface and make a well in the middle. In a jug, mix the yeast, sugar and olive oil into the water and leave for a few minutes, then pour into the well. Using a fork, bring the flour in gradually from the sides and swirl it into the liquid. Keep mixing, drawing larger amounts of flour in, and when it all starts to come together, work the rest of the flour in with your clean, flour-dusted hands. Knead until you have a smooth, springy dough.

I happen to be blessed with baker’s genes (thanks Grandpa K) and two summers in a supermarket bakery so kneading is a piece of p1ss to me. If you’ve never kneaded then check out this YouTube…

 

 

Place the ball of dough in a large flour-dusted bowl and flour the top of it. Cover the bowl with a damp cloth and place in a warm room for about an hour until the dough has doubled in size. 

Now remove the dough to a flour-dusted surface and knead it around a bit to push the air out with your hands – this is called knocking back the dough. You can either use it immediately, or keep it, wrapped in clingfilm, in the fridge (or freezer) until required. If using straight away, divide the dough up into as many little balls as you want to make pizzas – this amount of dough is enough to make about six to eight medium pizzas.

The pizza sauce is even simpler…

 

• Extra Virgin olive oil
• 1 clove garlic, peeled and finely sliced
• Small bunch fresh basil
• 1 x 400g tin good quality plum tomatoes
• sea salt and freshly ground black pepper

(double up if making a few pizzas)

 

Heat a slug of oil in saucepan, add garlic and cook gently till golden.

Add basil, tomatoes and season with salt n pepper.

Cook for 20 minutes, mashing tomatoes till smooth as you go.

Taste, season again if needed and set aside till you need it.

…

Good to go? Got your balls of dough cut? then just roll out the dough into rough circles about half a centimeter thick.

Get your oven as hot as it will go (250C / 500F / gas9 usually) and lay on your toppings. Tonight’s lot is as follows…

Pizza 1: mozzarella, anchovies, capers + egg (cracked in the center)

Pizza 2: prosciutto, artichokes, olives, mozzarella + basil

Pizza 3: spicy salami, courgette, mozzarella + basil basil

 

You know the drill, smear tomato sauce on base, add ingredients and either…

• slap pizza on oiled foil
• slap pizza on a ceramic pizza stone (this is the way to go!)

Then just cook till crisp and golden…

 

 

Serve with a cold beer or, in tonight’s case a bottle of Epicuro Beneventano, an Aglianico, an underated grape from Italy.

 

 

Beats Dominoes, hands down, any day.

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Tags: anchovies, aubergine, budget, cookery, dinner, etc, italy, olive oil, pizza, prosciutto, salami, Wine, winter