Every Friday, we make pizza in my home. It's kind of like a tradition! Also because it's a lot cheaper than eating pizza out. Although, you can't beat a sourdough pizza from Franco Manca. So if you fancy staying in and making your own, here is my easy recipe with toppings suggestions!
Easy thin crust pizza recipe
Ingredients / for 2 pizzas
250g of type '00' flour or bread flour (waitrose)
7g yeast (1 sachet / teaspoon)
1 tsp sugar
a good sprinkle of salt
1 tbsp olive oil
Tomato sauce
1 clove of garlic
1 bunch of fresh basil
olive oil
1 tin of chopped tomatoes
salt & pepper
Toppings
1 ball mozzarella per pizza
Chorizo pizza - whole chorizo cut into slices, fresh red chilli cut into slices
Pancetta pizza - blue cheese (roquefort or gorgonzola), pancetta (tesco), fresh red chilli
Vegetarian pizza - whole asparagus, courgette ribbons, red pepper, mushrooms, egg
Other tasty toppings include capers, olives, anchovies...
Method
For the dough, mix the flour, salt yeast and sugar together.
To this, add 200ml lukewarm water, bit by bit using a fork. You want a nice, moist dough to start forming. You can use your hands to finish bringing the dough together.
Now you can start kneading. Tip your ball of dough onto a floured surface and start rolling it back and forth using your hands to push and pull the dough. Do this for 10 minutes until your dough is smooth, soft and elastic.
Cut your dough into 2 pieces and place each ball in a well floured / oiled bowl and cover it with a damp cloth. Leave them to rise in a warm place for at least 30 minutes. You want the dough to double in size!
For the sauce, blitz your ingredients in a food processor, Nutribullet or herb chopper until smooth. Strain it through a sieve to get rid of some of the liquid. Too thin and the sauce will wet the dough and inhibit it from cooking. You can keep the leftover tomato juice to drink!
Back to the pizzas
Heat your oven to 200C fan.
On a well floured surface using a rolling pin or your hands, roll out your dough into a 20-30cm circle ready to top. To hand roll, first stretch the ball over your knuckles pulling down the edges. Then place on the worktop and start to spin it stretching the dough evenly as you go.
Place your pizza base on a well-oiled and floured rack. If you are using a wire rack, then line it with baking paper.
Now you can start adding your toppings. Start with tomato, then mozzarella etc.
When you're ready to cook them, preheat the oven to 250°C/500°F/gas 9.
Cook for 10-15 minutes until the base is browned and crispy.
That's it, your delicious pizzas are ready to snip into slices and eat - Happy Friday!
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