Sunday 31 January 2010

Cheaper Pizza

Thanks for this recipe must go to the lovely Thelma, at the Wellspring Healthy Living Centre, who has been teaching me to cook proper food.

Anyway, the point about this recipe is that it is incredibly cheap, compared to take-away or home-delivered varieties of pizza. What's more, given this basic recipe, you can experiment to your heart's content with different cheeses, different flours in the base, and, of course, different toppings. Results are limited only by your own creativity!

So, here's the deal, for one adult serving:

Pizza Base

Equipment
Kitchen scales
Large mixing bowl
Working surface
Rolling Pin

Ingredients
100g Plain Flour, plus extra for dusting
Warm water
Pinch of salt
1 tsp sugar
1 tbs olive oil
2 tsp dried yeast

Method

Preheat the oven to 200C

Mix the dry ingredients in your bowl, and add the oil. Then, make a well in the centre and add warm water, trickle by trickle, mixing the ingredients thoroughly with a knife or spatula. The temperature of the water is important - too cold or too hot and the yeast won't happen for you. Once the ingredients are combined, start to work the dough with your fingers, and then knead until all the dough is taken up into a soft, elastic, round ball. At this point, you can relax for a bit, and let the dough rise for 15mins.

The dough should have doubled in size by this time, and the next task is to dust your work surface with the extra flour, and roll out the dough into a flat disc about 1/4 of an inch thick. Prick all over with a fork, so it doesn't puff up in the oven, and then slam it in to pre-bake for 5 mins.

Pizza topping.

Equipment
Medium Saucepan
1 Cooker ring
Hand blender
Can opener
Garlic Press
Cheese grater

Ingredients
1 400g tin chopped tomatoes
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 finely chopped medium onion
1 clove of garlic
1 tsp mixed herbs
80g grated cheddar cheese

Method.

Fry the onions and garlic gently. When soft, add the tomatoes and herbs. Simmer till reduced. Blitz with a hand blender until you have a texture that pleases you, and simmer some more if it's still too liquid.

Then spoon onto your pizza base, cover with grated cheese, and bake for 20 mins at the top of the oven.

Now, go and spend the money you saved on a bottle of Italian wine, and enjoy...

Best wishes, 2ndRateMind.

The Wellspring: http://www.wellspringhlc.org/

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