Homemade Pizza

Homemade pizzas make a semi-regular appearance in our house. They are delicious, healthy, easy and everyone can get involved. Best of all you can make them with whatever you have leftover in the fridge.

Once you have made the last minute decision to make pizza for dinner, the first thing you need to do is make your dough. Combine 1 x 7g sachet of dried yeast with 2 ½ cups of warm water and a pinch of caster sugar.

Set this aside while you raid the fridge and pull out everything you would like to put on your pizza. We like to roast a few vegies so while you are waiting for your yeast to activate chop up your pumpkin, eggplant, red onion or whatever else you have, throw in a few whole garlic cloves and pop these in the oven.

Meanwhile your yeast mix should be starting to get frothy on top, this means it is ready. Measure out 600g of plain flour, a generous pinch of salt and pour your yeast mix into a well in the centre. Slice the mixture to mix it together then knead into a dough. This is a good workout for your arms. Keep kneading until the dough is glossy and delicious looking. Once you are happy with your dough cover it in a thin layer of olive oil and sit it in a plastic covered bowl to rise.

While you are waiting for your dough to rise, chop up everything else you want on your pizza. We often have capsicum, pineapple, fresh tomatoes, olives, rocket or some herbs like flat leaf parsley. There is always at least one type of cheese. Meats are usually whatever we have left over and is often just ham, chorizo, chicken, or bacon. Sometimes, who am I kidding, usually it is a couple of these together. By now your veggies should be finished in the oven. Take them out but leave your oven on. If you have a pizza stone be sure to have it in the oven already heating up.

Your dough should have rested for around 30 minutes and should be almost doubled in size. Now it’s time to get everyone in the kitchen to make their own pizzas.

Tear off small portions of the dough and flatten to make your base. We like to smash and bash ours with our hands and then finish off with a rolling pin - mostly because it’s fun this way. We aren’t fussed on what shape they are so don’t spend time trying to get them perfectly round. I even quite like rectangle ones too.

Spread some tomato paste over the base and make sure you go all the way to the edges so that every bite is delicious. I like to get the whole roasted garlic cloves and squeeze these onto the pizza now too. Then a little bit of grated cheese goes on - just enough to help the ingredients grip on. Then go crazy – put whatever you like on your pizza. The kids, and adults, love this part and it is always fun to watch how people design their pizza. Some toss ingredients on from a height and don’t care where it lands, while others are meticulous in the placement and spread of everything. And Miss 3 likes to sing as she makes hers and makes up great songs about people all over the world enjoying pizzas in their homes. Anyway, on top of everything goes the cheese – as much or as little as you like.

Unfortunately we don’t have a pizza oven and only one pizza stone so we have to take turns to cook the pizzas. Though if you make one at a time the first one is usually finished as you are ready to put the second one in. And don’t worry if you don’t have a stone, just pop them on an oven tray. But be sure to make it on your tray as they are difficult to move once you have all your toppings on.

Enjoy!

What’s your favourite pizza combination?