Pizza Recipes

Pizza Recipes

The subject of home made pizza came up at during #HomeEdHour last night and my responses exceed 140 characters so here they are. Cooking a huge percentage of our food from scratch is one of the main ways we save money as a homeed family. 

We love pizza - A meal that all 5 of us enjoy is cause for celebration!

E enjoys pesto, salami and bacon on his, I go for pear and dolcelatte or egg, mushroom and sun dried tomato, S has hers as garlic bread or dough balls and O likes a plain cheese and olive. TD likes combinations of all of the above plus capers minus egg :)

The more often you make pizza the better it gets as you have left over toppings in the fridge so it gets quicker.

I use the Jamie Oliver dough recipe but I don't let it rise - I find it much easier to roll it out super thin when it is warm - this will make you a Pizza Express style thin base - If you are after a Pizza Hut stuffed crust or Dominoes thick pizza this probably isn't the right dough recipe for you.

A 1kg bag of Tipo makes about 12 pizzas so half the bag makes us a pizza each  - I use Waitrose own - At £1.10 it is more expensive than other kinds of flour but at 10p ish a pizza base (inc sugar, oil, yeast etc) I am not quibbling over pence when I'm saving pounds.

Our faithful 16 year old Kitchen Aid makes the dough with its hook attachment

Onto the tomato layer we use sieved tomatoes as the seeds and skins don't make a great base in our experience - For some of the year we make our own passata using tomatoes from our greenhouse at the allotment and this machine which we'd had for several years now and probably should have bought sooner  - TD grows San Marzano from Franchi seeds as they make the best. Otherwise Pizza Express passata when it's on special offer and Waitrose own brand are both good.

I cook our pizzas on screens for thin crispy bases - I used to have big 12'' ones which were excellent but when we switched to a dual fuel range style cooker some years ago they didn't fit so I switched out to these 10'' ones which make individual pizzas rather than large ones to share - I brush the back of the dough with olive oil to ensure they don't stick. There is a photo of them in action with a double yolker here.

To replicate the cheese of shop bought pizzas I cube Provolone and mix with pre grated mozeralla - I do use other cheese combinations but Provolone seems to be the closest to commercial pizzas. Again it is not cheap but then Dominoes for 5 is often £50!

My daughter really likes pizza Express dough balls - they are £3 bought from the supermarket whereas I can make them at home for around a 10th of that - The key to replicating their butter is to very finely chop or press the garlic with salt to soften it then press it into a dish and refrigerate before serving.

If I've forgotten anything feel free to ask.