Making your own pizzas at home is a fun family activity and a far healthier option than ordering home-delivery pizzas. One can get pizza bases at all supermarkets though making the dough from scratch is great fun where the kids can join in.
One can top a pizza with virtually anything as long as the sauce is right. It is advisable to buy pizza sauce (sold in Italian stores as passatta) or just plain tomato puree will do.
Simple pizza dough:
Ingredients
3 ½ cups of flour
1 cup warm (but not boiling water)
2 tbsp olive oil
2 tsp honey
1 tsp salt
1 tsp yeast
Method
Put the warm water in a bowl, add the salt and honey and mix. Add yeast and leave covered for 10 minutes.
Rub the olive oil into the flour with your fingers and gradually add the flour to the yeast mixture. Start kneading with your hands till the dough resembles that of rotis. It shouldn’t be too wet or dry. Coat the dough with a bit of olive oil and cover with a cloth and let it sit at room temperature for an hour. Lightly knead the dough once more and let it sit for another hour.
Your dough is ready. If using later, the dough can be refrigerated.
Classic Margarita
This is the real thing; the precursor of all pizzas. The Margarita is a simple cheese pizza and all you need is some good cheese (mozzarella is good but you can use normal Amul pizza cheese available in the market), tomatoes, basil leaves and olive oil.
Ingredients
Pizza dough (recipe above) or store-bought pizza base
Tomato puree or store-bought pizza sauce
3 tomatoes, thinly sliced
1 cup grated mozzarella (or any pizza cheese)
12 basil leaves
Olive oil
Flour for dusting
Method
Preheat the oven to 225°C. Dust a surface with flour and roll out the pizza dough to roughly 8-10 cm diameter and 1/2 cm thickness. Place the base on a lightly floured baking tray and slightly push the dough away from the centre so the edges pile up a bit higher than the rest of the base.
Spread the tomato puree evenly on the pizza base and sprinkle the grated cheese liberally on top. Scatter the basil leaves and sprinkle some olive oil.
Place the pizza in the middle of the oven and bake for 20-25 minutes. The pizza is done when the edges turn brown and blistered.
Other toppings
One can use any number of vegetarian and non-vegetarian toppings in addition to the Margarita toppings. From pineapples to squids, everything is compatible.