Home made pizza base ideas wanted (and toppings).

[Electric_Andy]

If you wanted a change, you could look into a scone based pizza (bear with me). We made them in cooking class at school, if you roll it thin and even it's really nice.

Toppings, I like anything. Treat yourself to some anchovies if you like. I love the texture of mushrooms, peppers, onions on top with a good bit of meat, and a side order of mayonnaise to dip the bare crusts in.

 

[Blue Hills]

mayonnaise

 

[Reynard]

I do somewhere have a recipe (very involved) for a pizza base from an italian who makes very good ones but have never got around to using it. In truth, i think it is very hard to produce a pizza as good as the ones from a decent italian pizzeria. For it's the base which is of course the difficult bit.

The real trick is a proper wood fired oven... A lot of domestic cookers just can't get to those temperatures...

 

[Blue Hills]

They've started doing scheduled flights from Stansted to Cagliari....

Easyjet has been doing that for donkeys years on that route.

 

[srw]

was taught by a sicilian chap at uni.

We had several pretty ropey pizzas in Sicily, at several different places.

Unless you've got a good Italian deli nearby, it's a devil to get your mitts o

Or a supermarket.... ItsI a Waitrose staple.

 

[Blue Hills]

The real trick is a proper wood fired oven... A lot of domestic cookers just can't get to those temperatures...

Very true. Clearly you know your pizzas
And could teach my ignorant ex acquaintance a thing or two.

 

[Blue Hills]

We had several pretty ropey pizzas in Sicily, at several different places.


le.

I've had a fair bit of ropey Sicilian wine as well, so didn't really get the post above about it being specced to drink with the pizza. Well that and the fact that most would prefer beer with pizza.

 

[theclaud]

I use Alastair Little's dough recipe:

250ml warm water
1/4 sachet of dried yeast
1/2 tsp caster sugar
450g strong white flour, plus extra for dusting
2 tsp extra virgin olive oil
1 tsp salt

10-minute knead. Form into balls. Two-hour rise.

Ignore anyone who tells you to cook the sauce. You just want good quality chopped tomatoes, loads of seasoning, a slug of good olive oil, and perhaps some oregano or basil. Less is more when it comes to toppings, and always leave a good margin so that the edges rise and bubble. Don't use oil as a surface lubricant - the flavour of almost-burnt dry flour on the base is what you want, so roll out your pizza on a well-floured surface. It's nice to have a wood-fired oven but it's not crucial. What is crucial is to get the assembled pizza onto a very hot surface into a very hot oven. The trick to this if you don't have a pizza shovel is something thin, smooth and flexible, like the base of a pie or quiche dish (not a springform tin cos they have a ridge round the edge). Slide it under your assembled pizza and slide it off onto the hot stone or tray in the oven.

 

[Reynard]

We had several pretty ropey pizzas in Sicily, at several different places.

I meant the tomato sauce, not pizza

Or a supermarket.... ItsI a Waitrose staple.

Unless you're talking about the bog standard 00 pasta flour, which is nothing more than ordinary flour mixed with 10% semolina - as opposed to the genuine Italian 100% durum flour, which you can get (not easily though), but is typically around £5 a bag...

If it's the former, it's much cheaper to get a bag of bread flour and a bag of semolina and mix it up yourself.

 

[Reynard]

Very true. Clearly you know your pizzas
And could teach my ignorant ex acquaintance a thing or two.

Not so much. But some of the bods on the bread forum I frequent are very into their pizzas and WFO, and so you can't help but learn.

My oven only turns out acceptable pizza (still much nicer than anything bought though) because I simply can't get it hot enough. I do use a baking stone however, which does help.

 

[Ciar]

If i fancy a healtheir pizza i normally do the following.

take a tortilla and some pesto, smear the pesto on and use low fat chedder or cheese of your choice, along with chopped up mushrooms, sun dried tomatoes, asparagus and whatever else you fancy, normally include some sort of meat and oven it for 10 mins. bloody tasty!

 

[Spartak]

Enjoyed an Aldi thin crust American Hot last night....

 

[keithmac]

I get a large hand made Pizza from Tesco Pizza counter (made to order).

Spicy chicken, jalapenos, pepperoni and peppers on a barbeque sauce base. Does 2 meals and a.bargain at £3.80.

Only just fits in the oven!.

 

[Reynard]

Granoro Farina '00' (no semolina) is £1.89 a kilo and stocked in quite a few supermarkets/shops. Morrisons do their own brand '00' flour (with no semolina) for £1.26 a kilo.

If you're paying £5 a bag you're overpaying...

Erm... You live in civilization. I live out in the boonies where people's food tastes are ultra conservative.

And that's precisely the point - I *wouldn't* pony up £5 for a small bag of flour. I'm not quite that stupid.

 

[User10119]

Granoro Farina '00' (no semolina) is £1.89 a kilo and stocked in quite a few supermarkets/shops. Morrisons do their own brand '00' flour (with no semolina) for £1.26 a kilo.

If you're paying £5 a bag you're overpaying...

https://www.amazon.co.uk/FWP-Matthews-Italian-Tipo-Flour/dp/B01GPZ0H60 £1.76/kilo from amazon too.

I really like good pizza. I also acknowledge the undeniable pleasure of Dirty Pizza (accompanied by chips with chip spice and deep fried breaded 'mozzerella' and brake bros onion rings etc) once in a while