During our recent few holidays in Europe, we’d eaten plenty of pizzas. All varying a little by taste but they all had one thing in common – loaded with fresh flavours and that rustic look of the pizzas. Something that is so hard to find from takeaway pizza places in the UK. For us, the best kind of souvenir is food related. From our holiday to the French Riviera – and visiting local markets, we had so much fun buying all sorts of dried herbs and foods. Now each time we use them, we reminisce on our wonderful trip. Armed with a large bag of lavender and herbs de Provence, I wanted to recreate the same style of pizza back home.
PIZZA FOR WEEKEND AND MIDWEEK DINNER
We love to make pizza over the weekend, so everyone at home can enjoy hot pizza and each others company, also a little help comes around for me when I start assembling the pizza. A nice way to bring the family together in the kitchen. The dough can be frozen to use at a later date, so a pizza for you for a midweek dinner too. Just don’t forget to bring out the dough from the freezer in the morning!
BUDGET AND STUDENT FRIENDLY
All you young people at uni, no need to call to your local pizza joints as this easy, delicious and budget-friendly pizza is so much healthier and fun for you too make. Prepare it over the weekend, make some extra dough and sauce for a midweek meal.
INGREDIENTS
The base is made from a mix of wholemeal bread flour and white bread flour, dried active yeast, sugar and salt. ( One can use plain flour and chapatti flour if bread flour is not available) The sauce is passata with added herbs de Provence, lavender, garlic powder, red chilli flakes, salt and sugar You can use whichever veggies you have lying around. We used red and yellow capsicum, courgette, artichokes, black and green olives, sundried tomatoes, red onion. You could also use aubergine, mushrooms, capers. The best pizza will have vegetables that have been freshly bought and used the same day or just a day after. Oil to drizzle – extra virgin olive oil infused with garlic, red chilli, black pepper, rosemary, dried herbs
HOW TO MAKE PIZZA FROM SCRATCH
Making your own pizza at home is the ultimate cooking experience. Although it is a slightly lengthy process, it is the most rewarding one. First procedure for this recipe is to make a dough and to prepare a perfect pizza dough you will need yeast. In warm water add yeast, sugar and leave it for five to ten minutes. In a big bowl, place flour and salt add frothy yeast mixture little by little until a sticky dough is formed. Not too worry if the dough is very sticky this time. Knead the dough for another ten minutes then transfer to an oiled bowl, cover the dough with the cling film and let it sit in a warmer place in the house. It will take around 45 to 60 minutes to prove the dough. Meanwhile, prepare the pizza sauce. We have played it safe here. We just bought good quality passata from the supermarket and added our own touch by adding garlic powder, herbs de Provence, lavender, red chilli flakes, salt and sugar. Just mix it all together – you don’t need to cook. Now prepare the chargrilled vegetables, cut all the veggies and chargrilled them on high heat on a griddle pan with little olive oil. Once the dough is ready to use, preheat the oven to the highest setting. Divide the dough into equal (approximately 200g) portions and shape it into a ball. Cover with the damp cloth and let it rise again for 15 minutes. Roll out the dough on a dusted (with semolina) worktop in the shape you want. Place the base onto a baking tray that has been dusted with a little fine semolina. Spread on the pizza sauce and cook for around 5 minutes. Remove the base from the heat and layer on the toppings. Drizzle on the prepared oil. Cook for 8-10 minutes or until the base is turning golden brown and cheese bubbling. Serve with plenty of rocket salad either on top or on the side. Do you like to read our blog? Then don’t forget to sign up for email updates to get new recipes delivered right to your inbox. You can find us on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest and Google+. So follow us if you can. We would love to keep in touch with you all:) If you make this recipe, please don’t forget to click a picture and hashtag it #jcookingodyssey. We really want to see 🙂
