" Homemade Pizza - from base to sauce"

Yummm!!!

Italians brought revolution in food practice of whole world. Their pizza is a habit now across the globe. Everyone loves pizza whether kids, youngsters or oldies. Guess there are very few people who don’t like this cheesy, gooey and mushy italian dish topped with different kind of veggies, jalapenos, chicken, olives and many more things. Actually one can put anything and everything and the main thing which makes it tasty is yum Mozzarella cheese! I just love pizza but here in joshimath it’s impossible to get a good pizza. So whenever we go to Delhi I just hog on :) . So this time I’ve decided to try my hands in baking this Italian dish with limited choice of toppings :). I’ve made it from scratch. For base I’ve used the recipe of chefinyou.com.

Ingredients

For base

Yield: 4 to 5 nos 6” pizza base

All purpose flour – 2 cups

Yeast – 1 tsp

Salt – 1 tsp

Sugar – ½ tsp

Warm water – ¼ cup

Olive oil for drizzle – 2-4 tbsp

Toppings 1

Sauce

Red big tomatoes – 3to4

Garlic cloves – 8 to 10

Few basil leaves - chopped

Salt as per taste

Red chilli powder - as per requirement

Sugar – ¼ tsp

Topping 2

Onion rings of 2 onions

Capsicum slices of 2 capsicums

Mozzarella cheese shredded – around 180 gms

Jamaican seasoning

Chilli flakes

Olive oil to drizzle

Method

For pizza base

I made a day before 

1. In the warm water dissolve sugar and the put the dry yeast. After few minutes mix well and then add to the all purpose flour.

2. Further put sugar, salt and make dough. Drizzle with olive oil and knead until smooth dough is formed.

3. Now put it into a bowl, cover it with cling film and let it rest in a warm corner of your kitchen.

For sauce

1. Blanch tomatoes in water or you can oven roast them also. 

2. Discard their peel and chop them or one can blend them in processor. ( You can remove the seeds if required)

3. Now in a heavy bottomed pan heat the olive oil and put chopped garlic (don’t let them brown). Now add tomatoes and let them turned into gravy like consistency. Then add sugar, salt and red chilli powder according to your taste. Now add chopped basil leaves. Cook for another few minutes and then turn off the heat.

Just before going into oven

Now Assemble pizza

1. Take a small ball of dough and roll into 6” pizza (use dry flour to help in rolling). Keep the base a little less than ½ inch thick. Then prick the base with a fork.

2. Now spread the tomato sauce. Add vegetables of your choice like I added onions and capsicum (So missed jalapenos) on top. Handling would be much easier if the dressing id done while keeping the base in baking tray.

3. After that cover it with mozzarella cheese (the more the better. Yumm!). Sprinkle seasoning and chilli flakes. Now drizzle few drops olive oil over it.

4. Now it’s ready to go into oven. Bake it around 15 – 20 minutes at 180 – 200 degrees Celsius or until crust is light to golden brown or as liked by you (these specifications are as per my oven settings please adjust according to your oven).

Crispy and crunchy pizza is ready at your disposal with your choice of toppings and that too without making a hole in your pocket ;).


                 
Enjoy!