Pizza recipes to try at home

by Mike Horne

To my mind pizza is the perfect food for a family meal because each person can have their favourite toping. I do not know why it is regarded as unhealthy fast food – to me it is slow food made with healthy ingredients.

In an Italian restaurant the pizzas are cooked in a hot oven heated from beneath. We cannot achieve this at home in a normal oven – so we have to try not to let the topping be too wet so that the base is soggy and uncooked in the middle of the pizza. I would warn against putting all you favourite topping on, they may be nice on their own but could be too much and too rich all together. Experiment; have fun. Remember it will be different every time.

Here are my recipe for the base and suggestions for toppings for two to four people-

Open one tin of chopped tomatoes and drain them in a sieve over a basin

If you are using wet Mozzarella (packed in brine) open the pack and drain it/them in a sieve over a basin (one cheese for two people)

Start to make the base – it will be different every time!

Ingredients –

·        Warm water (not too hot, you should be able to dip your finger in it) – one fluid ounce plus 3 fluid ounces per person

·        Salt (half a level teaspoon per person)

·        Dried or fresh yeast

·        Splash of olive oil

·        Flour – I like to use a mix of roughly in equal proportions of French Flour, Strong Bread Flour, and Italian OO flour (or half Strong flour and one of the others, or Strong Bread Flour and plain flour). If you use wholemeal flour or add bran to your flour you will need to add about 1 fluid ounce of extra water per person.

Mix the ingredients in the bowl, adding extra flour as required and kneading the dough. You will know when to stop adding the flour when the dough no longer sticks to your fingers and does not absorb any more flour. The either roll the dough in a small amount of olive oil or cover the bowl of dough with a damp cloth. Leave it to rise. If your kitchen is cool then place the bowl in your microwave and give it a 20 second burst at a low setting whenever you walk past.

Prepare any ingredients that need pre-cooking – e.g. Funghi Italian, spicy pork, caramelised onions (see below), fry English bacon and/or sausages and cook fresh tuna or salmon.

Leave to rise for 1 to 3 hours

When you are ready – start to preheat your oven – gas mark 6

Chop and slice any ingredients that require preparation – chopped garlic, sliced mushrooms, sliced fresh peppers

Get your metal pizza trays ready by coating them with some olive oil or plain flour.

Divide your dough into portions and stretch it out on the pizza trays (patching any holes).

Basic pizza topping –spread the following ingredients on your pizza, unless you want a white pizza:

·        Tomato puree

·        Drained chopped tomatoes

·        Chopped or crushed garlic, or garlic puree.

Add other toppings of your choice.

Toppings (note – items marked with “W” are “wet” and can make your pizza base soggy and items marked “R” are “rich” so I recommend you do not mix too many)

Cheeses –

·        Drained wet Mozzarella or grated mozzarella (note the “pizza cheese” you see in some supermarkets is usually a mix of grated cheddar and mozzarella). Do not use low fat or “light” Mozzarella on pizzas.

·        if you cannot get Mozzarella you could use a white cheese like Cheshire, Lancashire, white Stilton or Wensleydale, or a melting cheese like Cheddar.

Other cheeses you could add –

·        Mascarpone (note this can “cool” some “rich” ingredients)

·        A melting hard cheese such as Cheddar

·        Goats cheese (R) – creamy not the Camembert type

·        Soft blue cheese (R) – such as Roquefort.

·        Hard blue cheese (R)  such as Blue Stilton

Meats –

·        Sliced English style ham

·        Sliced salami

·        Sliced chicken or turkey

·        Thickly sliced Chorizo (R)

·        Spicy minced pork (see below for recipe)

·        Cooked English bacon

·        Slices of cooked English sausage (do not use Polish style sausage, liver sausage or garlic sausage)

·        Sliced peperoni (R)

Fish –

·        Tinned anchovies (R)

·        Fresh anchovies

·        Sliced or chunks of cooked salmon

·        Sliced or chunks of cooked tuna

·        Smoked salmon (R)

·        Prawns or shrimps (W)

Vegetables

·        Fresh Tomatoes (W)

·        Sliced onions

·        Caramelised onions

·        Chapped spring onion

·        Onion marmalade (R)

·        Olives (stoned and drained)

·        Pickled capers (drained)

·        Sliced mushrooms (W) – hint: try using frozen mushrooms

·        Strips of fresh green, yellow or red pepper

·        Rockett leaves

·        Drained tinned spinach

·        Sliced Artichoke heart (drained)

·        Slices of roast aubergine

·        Slices of boiled potato

·        Sun dried tomatoes (R)

·        chives

·        Pine kernels

·        Sliced chili (R)

·        Drained pickled jalapeno peppers

Other toppings –

·        Egg (may not work so well in an home oven – maybe add it half way through cooking the pizza?)

Herbs and seasonings –

·        Dried oregano

·        Dried basil

·        Coarse ground black pepper

·        Fresh basil leaves

Garnishes to add after the pizza is cooked

·        Finely ground black pepper

·        Grated Parmesan cheese

·        Fresh basil leaves

·        Rocket leaves

·        Fresh spinach leaves

·        Fresh chives

·        Thinly sliced air-cured ham – like Parma Ham

·        Thinly sliced salami

·        pesto

Some combinations to try on the basic tomato, garlic and mozzarella topping–

·        Margarita – just tomato, herbs and cheese

·        Mushroom – as above with mushrooms under the cheese. Note – try freezing the mushrooms before you slice them

·        Mushroom and ham – as above with some ham

·        Napolitano * – tinned anchovies, olives, capers, dried oregano

·        Vegetarian ‘Napolitano’ – sliced red or green pepper, olives, capers, dried oregano – garnish with fresh basil leaves

·        Trevisana * – spicy pork (see below for recipe) and salami (or chorizo)

·        Funghi Italian * – mushrooms cooked in wine and herbs (see below for recipe)

·        Four seasons *– in quarters of the pizza: sliced artichoke hearts; basil and cheese; mushrooms; ham and olives.

·        Seafood – prawns, smoked salmon, fresh tuna, sliced fresh tomato, mascarpone

·        Venetian **** –pine kernels, onion, olives and sultanas (no garlic) garnish with fresh basil

·        Florentine **** - spinach, olives and egg

·        Chicken and Chorizo – thickly sliced chicken and thickly sliced chorizo

·        All Day Breakfast **– English bacon, sliced English sausage, egg

·        The Alfred Gelder ** – English bacon, Blue Stilton Cheese, drizzled with runny honey

·        Meat Feast – all sorts of sliced meat and salami

·        Adagio *** - Goats cheese and sun dried tomato with spring onion

Inspired by –

·        Ristorante Pier Luigi, Princes Avenue, Hull (now closed)*

·        Kardomah 94 , Alfred Gelder Street, Hull (now closed)**

·        Acapella, Wells Road, Bristol ***

·        Pizza Express, Leicester ****

Calzone – the folded pizza. I have found that you cannot reproduce the perfect restaurant calzone in the home oven because it needs to be cooked fast in a very hot oven or else the bottom will get very soggy. My solution is to avoid adding “wet ingredients” such as mushrooms and cottage cheese and to put the toppings in upside down. This will also make a good “pasty” to eat cold the next day at a picnic. This is how you do it – flatten out the dough on pizza tray, then add the following ingredients to half the pizza leaving an edge in this order – thin layer of olive oil, cheddar cheese, salami or chorizo, ham, spring onion and garlic, other (not too wet vegetables) tomato puree, mozzarella, dried oregano and black pepper. Leave out any ingredients you do not like. Fold the other half of the base over and seal the edge. If you like, sprinkle some grated cheddar cheese and black pepper on the top before cooking. Cook as normal pizza rotating the tray occasionally in the oven.

Spicy pork – in a saucepan fry some raw minced pork, olive oil, lots of chopped (or crushed) garlic, with some chopped chilies, crushed black pepper, caraway seeds and fenugreek. When cooked taste it and add some hot chili sauce to suit your taste. Put one helping on you pizza and bag up other portions to be frozen for future use.

Funghi Italian – fry some mushrooms (you will need more than you think) in a pan with lots of chopped (or crushed) garlic; when the mushrooms start to brown slightly add some red wine,  crushed black pepper, dried oregano and a little lemon (or lime juice). When the juice has reduced and thickened, turn off the heat and the mushrooms are ready to use.

Caramelised onions – fry some onions in a pan with a little olive oil until they brown.

Cook the pizzas in the oven at gas mark 6 or 7 for about 15 to 20 minutes, swapping them around on the shelves so that they will be ready to serve at the same time. Keep checking them to ensure they are not overcooked.

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