During lockdown to cheer my family up and make special our weekend at home, I started to prepare the pizza every Saturday (actually, I still do it… it is not Saturday without pizza!), not to say pizza is always present for birthday parties at home.
As you may know there are different styles and procedures to make pizza at home: thin or thick, with crispy or fluffy crust, on a plate or in a tray (in Italian “in teglia” o “al taglio”), with different types of flour, no-knead dough or kneaded by hand or by machine, with or without starch autolyse, with sourdough or fresh/dried yeast, baked in a normal oven or in a proper pizza oven…
Well, my version, suitable to make by a beginner too is with fresh (or dried yeast), with bread/strong flour, to knead for 10 minutes, to bake in tray in a normal oven, not very high with a crispy crust.
I let the kids help me in weighing the ingredients, kneading and rolling the dough, preparing the toppings and putting them on the pizza. We have so much fun!
You can choose your favourite toppings, here are the ingredients for our most-loved pizzas: Margherita, Black olives, Wurstel (frankfurter), Quattro formaggi, Potatoes and Pancetta, and Spicy cherry tomatoes.
Pizza from scratch
The most loved party food: pizza!
Ingredients
- 750 g strong flour
- 20 g fresh yeast (or 3 level tsp dried yeast)
- 3 tsp sugar
- 2 tsp salt
- 5 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
- 400 ml water (200 ml used for yeast activation)
- 400g tomato passata with 1 tbsp oil, half tps salt and half tsp sugar
- 3×125 g mozzarella cheese, cubed
- 2 little Frankfurters, sliced
- 20 black olives, sliced
- 75 g Gorgonzola/Dolcelatte/blue cheese
- 2 Gouda/Cheddar/Edam slices
- half smoked mozzarella, sliced
- 2 baking potatoes, sliced
- 6 smocked pancetta slices
- 200 g cherry tomatoes
- rosemary
- 2 garlic cloves
- chilli flakes
Tools
- large bowl
- rolling pin
- wooden board
- cling film
- 4 trays
- non-stick baking paper
- potato slicer
- pizza cutter
Directions
Yeast activation
Dissolve the sugar in 200 ml of warm water (1 part boiling, 2 parts cold). Add the yeast and whisk thoroughly. Leave in warm place until the surface is covered with froth (it takes approx. 15 minutes). Whisk again and use immediately.
Pizza dough
Put 2/3 of the flour in a bowl, 1/3 on a board. Add the activated yeast to the flour in the bowl, start mixing with a spoon, add the remaining part of water (200 ml). Keep mixing. Add oil.
Transfer this wet dough to the board and incorporate the remaining flour. Add the salt.
Keep kneading for 10 minutes until smooth and elastic. Put the dough in a clean high bowl and cover with cling film. Let it rise for at least two hours. In summer you can keep the pizza dough at room temperature, otherwise put it in the oven with the light on.
After two hours, the dough is ready to roll.
Prepare your trays putting a layer of non-stick baking paper on them. Divide the dough into 4 balls and roll each out onto a lightly floured surface until the size of your trays. Let them rise for 20-30 minutes.
Toppings
Prepare the toppings: add sugar oil and salt to the tomato sauce and stir; slice the frankfurters, olives, mozzarella and cheese; slice the potatoes and pan fry them with little oil, water and salt for 5 minutes; divide the tomatoes in half and the garlic cloves in small pieces and cook them with little oil, adding rosemary and crushed chillies until soft. Pan fry the pancetta rashers (but add them only when the pizza is cooked!).
Add the topping.
Margherita/Olives/Wurstel: spread a little tomato passata over the pizza base, add olives and frankfurters.
Quattro formaggi: top with cubed cheese (not yet mozzarella).
Potatoes and pancetta: top with sliced potatoes (previously slightly cooked in a pan with little oil and water). Once cooked, add pan-fried pancetta rashers over the potatoes.
Spicy cherry tomatoes: spread a little passata and add cherry tomatoes previolusly halved and cooked with garlic, rosemary and crushed chillies.
BAKING
Preheat the oven at 240°C (fan). Bake two trays of pizza at time, for 8 minutes.
Add the mozzarella cubes and bake for other 4-5 minutes until the bases are crisp and golden-brown and any cheese topping has melted. Slice your pizza and… yum, enjoy it!!!
CraftyMessyMom’s Maths Cookies
KIRFs: additions, unit conversion, fractions
- Add all the dried ingredients (flour, sugar, yeast, salt). How many grams in total?
- Add all the liquid (oil, water). How many ml in total?
- 1kg flour=… g?
- 400 ml water=… l?
- 2/3 of 750g? 1/3 of 750?
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