By – Veena Sashikumar
The store bought pizza make me feel bloated but I like pizza. Thought I should make it at home from scratch. It is definitely healthier compared to the ones your buy and the choice of toppings are unlimited with no extra cost. I made it with wheat flour and it came out really great. You could have for lunch or dinner with soup or just a snack or entrée when you have friends over.
Makes about 6 – 7 medium sized pizza
INGREDIENTS
For Base:
- Wheat flour / wholemeal flour – 2 ½ cups
- Yeast – 1 packet (7 gms)
- Salt – 1 tsp
- olive oil – 2 tbsp.
- Water – to knead the dough
PS: you could avoid the yeast completely by using self-raising flour or adding a tsp of baking powder in the flour.
For Sauce:
- medium sized tomatoes – 5
- mixed Italian herbs – 1½ tsp
- salt – as per taste
- olive oil – 1 tbsp.
- Onion – 1 medium sized
- Tomato paste – 2 tbsp.
- Garlic – 1 or 2 cloves (optional)
- Green chilli – as per taste (optional)
Toppings (your choice… some of my favourite are listed under)
- Tomato, capsicum, onion, mushrooms, basil, paneer, sun dried tomato , jalapeño, pineapple, rocket, baby spinach, zucchini
- Cheese of your choice (optional)
METHOD
Dough
- Dissolve the yeast in a cup of warm water & leave for 20 mins
- Sift the flour and mix the oil, salt and yeast in it and knead it well. If need be add some more water or flour as required.
- Put the dough in a greased vessel & cover the vessel tightly with cling warp or leave it in an air tight container and leave for 45 – 50 mins… till the dough raises and becomes double in size.
Sauce
- Puree the tomato, garlic, green chilli and onion with a blender
- In a pan heat the oil and add half tsp herbs. Then add the puree and salt let it cook for a while.
- Once the raw taste of tomato disappears add the rest of the herbs and tomato paste and cook till the sauce thickens a little.
- Adjust salt and spice if required
Pizza
- Roll out the dough like chapatti but a little thick… dust the surface with flour before rolling the dough.
- Place the rolled dough in the pan which you are going to place inside the oven. Spread the sauce and the required toppings. If you are using cheese then use that as the last topping.
- Put this inside a pre-heated oven (180 – 2000C) for 15 – 20 mins or till you see the crust turning golden & cheese on top melts.
SHORT CUTS:
- You could use a pasta or pizza sauce instead of making the pizza sauce at home.
- Instead of the pizza base you could use Lebanese bread, store bought pizza bases or even bread slices.
VARIATIONS:
- You could sauté some veggies like brinjal, onions, pumpkin with some Italian herbs and spices and use that as a topping with a sprinkle of cheese.
- If you like the base to be more flavourful you could add some herbs, chilli flakes, cut up olives while kneading the dough.
About Veena:
I am a food and nutrition enthusiast. I love baking and experimenting with new recipes. Some of my cakes are displayed on my Facebook page – annibunnycakes. And my recipe blog is cookwithveena.blogspot.com. So post your thoughts & comments when you try a recipe.
