Memoirs of an Amateur Cook

I was fortunate enough that Kelly from Grow and Cook recently shared with me her basic pizza dough recipe.

As you will see from my ‘To Do List’, I have wanted to make my own pizza for some time.  Unfortunately for our waistlines, both Mr MAC and I love pizza.  When contemplating a takeaway, pizza will normally be our first choice.  We both prefer thin crust pizzas and I have wanted to try to recreate something at home which is a little bit more healthy so I couldn’t resist Kelly’s recipe after she introduced me to it!

A few facts about pizza:

• Pizza was first made popuar in the USA after soldiers brought the idea back from Italy at the end of World War 2.
• Pizza is thought to have originated from early Egyptian flatbread.
• Literally translated, the word ‘pizza’ means ‘pie’

(Taken from ‘The Deluxe Food Lovers Companion’ by Sharon Tyler Herbst and Ron Herbst)

Last night when I got in from work, I got to work making the dough.  It is really very simple and did not require much work at all which my hands were very grateful for!  I was also baking a cake for a colleague at the same time so I left it to rest for a little more than an hour but no harm done!

We are obviously not yet experts at rolling out the dough as our pizzas were a little misshapen!  We are thinking about using a pizza stone in future though so this should make things a little easier.

Pizza base after browning

I decided to devised my own flavour combinations for the tomato sauce and toppings.

Memoirs of an Amateur Cook’s Perfect Pizza Sauce

One red onion, finely diced

One clove of garlic, crushed

One carton of passata

1 tbsp tomato puree

Glug of red wine

Salt and pepper

half tsp of sweetener

Several leaves of freshly torn basil

1. Spray a small pan with frylight and heat.  When hot, add the onion and garlic and cook for 5 minutes or so on a low heat until soft but not browned.
2. Add the passata, tomato puree, glug of red wine and sweetener.  Stir and allow to simmer for 15 minutes until reduced and thick.
3. Season to taste and stir in the basil.

Before baking

For the topping, I opted for a cheese combination of light cheddar, parmesan, low-fat mozzarella and a tiny bit of blue cheese.  I then scattered on a few halved cherry tomatoes on the vine and basil leaves before sprinkling generously with black pepper.

My boyfriend used a double layer of pepperoni on his pizza (one under the cheese and one over!!) and also used parmesan, low-fat cheddar and light mozzarella.

We were both really pleased with how our Pizza’s turned out.  They were a bit misshapen but this only added to their charm.  My pizza tasted absolutely fantastic and was, without a doubt, the best pizza I have had in a while (even if I do say so myself!).  The base was just perfect and the combination of flavours from the cheese and the slight sweetness of the tomato sauce complimented it perfectly.  My other half was equally as impressed with his pizza although he commented that it was slightly greasey….no doubt because of the amount of pepperoni he had piled on!

Thanks for the recipe Kelly, we will definitely be making it again!