Cheesy pizza with homemade base
Pizza - the word itself brings a smile to everyones face, no matter what the situations is, pizza is an instant mood lifter.
For someone born in India in the 1980s (oops i am giving my age away) the first date one has with pizza is from Nirulas(it was a very popular Indian fast food brand) and everybody loves it. Then slowly creeped in the multinational chains-Dominos and Pizza Hut and changed the game where having a good pizza meant ordering from these places. Slowly over a period of time the pizza evolved in India and entered the thin crust wood fired oven pizza and voila, it was love at first taste. Different people like their pizza in many different ways. The good part is it can be always customised to your taste specially when you making one at home. Me and my family love a lean and mean pizza (aka thin crust) made in a wood fired oven.
The quest to make something similar at home was haunting me, mainly because we have pizza almost every week, and buying a good pizza every time at a restaurant is a pain and expensive. I love experimenting and my experiments for the almost perfect pizza recipe started. After a lot of trials and errors I have come to the conclusion that the best way to make a good pizza is to roll the base first, cook it in the oven until light brown in colour and then along with the sauce and toppings in the convection mode of the microwave oven at 250 c, just enough to melt the ooey goey cheese. If you happen to have an OTG which can maintain heat as high as 250c then you can do second round of baking in it.
In a large mixing bowl, combine flour and salt.
In a small mixing bowl, stir together 200 grams lukewarm water, sugar, yeast and the olive oil, let it sit for ten minutes until the yeast foams up and then pour it into flour mixture. Knead with your hands until well combined, you may need to use a little more water as different flour behave differently, approximately 3 minutes, then let the mixture rest for 15 minutes.
Knead rested dough for 3 minutes. Cut into 2 equal pieces and shape each into a ball. Place in two separate oiled bowls , cover with dampened cloth, and let rest and rise for 3 to 4 hours at room temperature or for 8 to 24 hours in the refrigerator. (If you refrigerate the dough, remove it 30 to 45 minutes before you begin to shape it for pizza.)
To make pizza, place each dough ball on a heavily floured surface and use your fingers to stretch it, or a rolling pin to roll to the thickness you desire. Then your hands to shape it into rounds or squares. Bake at 250 degrees c in a ore heated oven.
Wash the tomatoes and boil them in water until the skin starts peeling off. At this point take it out of the water and let it cool.
(the tomatoes need to be completely immersed in water)
Once cooled remove the skin, deseed them and chop them.
Chop the onions roughly.
In a medium, heavy-bottomed saucepan, combine the chopped tomatoes (with their juices),canned tomato puree, chopped onions, garlic cloves, olive oil, oregano and red pepper flakes.
Bring the sauce to a simmer over medium-high heat, then lower the heat to keep the sauce at a slow, steady simmer for about 45 minutes, or until droplets of oil float free of the tomatoes. Stir occasionally.
Blend this sauce smooth with an immersion blender or mixer.
Add salt, to taste. This sauce keeps well, covered and refrigerated, for up to 4 days. Freeze it for up to 6 months.
Take the cooked pizza base, spread the marinara sauce over it, sprinkle with what ever toppings you may like, cover with a mix of mozzarella and cheddar cheese and bake until golden brown.
You ooey gooeyy cheesy homemade pizza is ready.
Ingredients
Directions
In a large mixing bowl, combine flour and salt.
In a small mixing bowl, stir together 200 grams lukewarm water, sugar, yeast and the olive oil, let it sit for ten minutes until the yeast foams up and then pour it into flour mixture. Knead with your hands until well combined, you may need to use a little more water as different flour behave differently, approximately 3 minutes, then let the mixture rest for 15 minutes.
Knead rested dough for 3 minutes. Cut into 2 equal pieces and shape each into a ball. Place in two separate oiled bowls , cover with dampened cloth, and let rest and rise for 3 to 4 hours at room temperature or for 8 to 24 hours in the refrigerator. (If you refrigerate the dough, remove it 30 to 45 minutes before you begin to shape it for pizza.)
To make pizza, place each dough ball on a heavily floured surface and use your fingers to stretch it, or a rolling pin to roll to the thickness you desire. Then your hands to shape it into rounds or squares. Bake at 250 degrees c in a ore heated oven.
Wash the tomatoes and boil them in water until the skin starts peeling off. At this point take it out of the water and let it cool.
(the tomatoes need to be completely immersed in water)
Once cooled remove the skin, deseed them and chop them.
Chop the onions roughly.
In a medium, heavy-bottomed saucepan, combine the chopped tomatoes (with their juices),canned tomato puree, chopped onions, garlic cloves, olive oil, oregano and red pepper flakes.
Bring the sauce to a simmer over medium-high heat, then lower the heat to keep the sauce at a slow, steady simmer for about 45 minutes, or until droplets of oil float free of the tomatoes. Stir occasionally.
Blend this sauce smooth with an immersion blender or mixer.
Add salt, to taste. This sauce keeps well, covered and refrigerated, for up to 4 days. Freeze it for up to 6 months.
Take the cooked pizza base, spread the marinara sauce over it, sprinkle with what ever toppings you may like, cover with a mix of mozzarella and cheddar cheese and bake until golden brown.
You ooey gooeyy cheesy homemade pizza is ready.