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02-08-2009: 2nd August 2009 10:40
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#1
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Junior Member
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Join Date: Jul 2009
Posts: 29
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How to make pizza - from scratch!
Here’s a recipe for pizza that never fails me. It seems like a lot to do, but trust me, you can get it done in about 1 hour, 45 minutes – and the result is well worth it, in my opinion!
First of all, you need to make the sauce:
Ingredients:
Garlic cloves X 4
Bunch fresh basil X1
Tinned peeled plum tomatoes X 3
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
Method:
1. Heat some olive oil in a non-stick (or well-weathered steel) pan over a medium-high heat
2. Pull the leaves from the basil (do this in advance, because once the garlic goes in you need to act fast)
3. Finely slice the garlic and add it to the pan
4. Fry the garlic until very lightly golden (about 30 seconds)
5. Add the basil leaves and toss in the pan for about five to ten seconds (be careful not to cook the leaves, as this will impair their flavour)
6. Add the three tins of peeled plum tomatoes and break them up slightly with a spoon
7. Season with salt and pepper to taste and bring to the boil
8. As soon as this has come to the boil, remove from the heat
9. Pass the contents of the pan through a course sieve, using a spoon to push as much of the pulp through as possible (this will thicken the sauce and add flavour) - note that the basil leaves, garlic and courser parts of the tomatoes should not go through, just bin them, they've done their job (some of the garlic might go through, but don't worry about that, it's all good for the flavour!
10. Return the sieved sauce to the pan and simmer for a wee while until slightly thicker and it tastes good! Remember you don’t want the sauce to be too thin, as this will make your pizza soggy.
There you have it. You could, of course, add chilli (like I do) or anything else that takes your fancy, but the recipe above is the basic - and most common - Italian pizza sauce.
Then, the dough:
Ingredients:
Strong white bread flour X 1kg (this will make around three very large pizzas, to make less, simply use less)
Salt X 20g (or to taste)
Sugar (preferably unrefined, fair-trade) X 20g
Yeast: 2 X 7g pouches
Olive oil X 40ml
Tepid water X 1 pint
Method:
1. Mix all the ingredients together in a mixing bowl or on a work surface.
2. Form into a dough and knead (on a dusted work surface) for around 10 minutes, until the dough is smooth and elastic.
3. Place the dough into a large mixing bowl and cover with cling film.
4. Leave to prove in a warm place for around half an hour – you should see the dough double in size. Don’t worry if it grows huge – this is a good thing!
5. Once the dough has proved sufficiently, you must now punch it with your hands to knock out all the air that has accumulated inside.
6. Cut pieces of dough, however large you want, off and, on a dusted work surface, roll them into whatever shape you want your pizza to be. The dough should be as thin as a pancake, though not so thin that it breaks.
You are now ready to finish your pizza off:
Preheat an oven to 250 degrees centigrade (higher if you can). You want your oven to be as hot as humanly possible. In Italy, the stone ovens they use to cook pizzas run at an amazing 500 degrees centigrade, allowing the pizzas to cook in around 90 seconds! Although you’ll never be able to reproduce this at home, your pizza will still be great – just make sure your oven is hot before it goes in!
Ingredients:
Fresh Mozzarella
Cherry tomatoes (halved)
Fresh Basil (green and purple if you can get it – the colours make it look great)
Note: You can use whatever toppings you like – that’s the fun of it! Here, I’ve simply listed the toppings for the classic margherita.
Method:
1. Place the pizza base onto whatever it is you’re going to cook it on. Personally, I take the shelf out of the oven and put the dough directly onto the bars – this allows the heat to penetrate the bottom properly, giving a nice, crisp base.
2. Spread a good helping of your pizza sauce over the base. Be careful not to use too much – you don’t want your pizza to be soggy.
3. Scatter the rest of the ingredients over as you like, ripping the mozzarella into nice, small pieces.
4. Place the pizza into the hot oven for around 7 – 10 minutes. The cooking time will vary dramatically from pizza to pizza and oven to oven, so keep an eye on it and use your common sense.
And, finally:
Remove from the oven and ENJOY!
I’d really recommend trying this; it’s a lot of fun, and people will be dead impressed when you feed them your very own, made from scratch pizza!
Last edited by Moosehead : 02-08-2009 at 14:53.
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