Easy pizza recipe
Pizza with a ten-minute rise for the dough sounds dubious, but this honestly works. The trick is using fast-acting easy-blend (or instant) dried yeast.
Add toppings of your choice like sliced chorizo or pepperoni and pickled chilli peppers; goats’ cheese with walnuts; artichokes (from a jar) with capers.
Ingredients
For the pizza dough- 250 g plain flour, plus extra for dusting
- 250 g ‘00’/pasta flour
- 2 tsp fast-acting easy-blend dried yeast
- 1 tsp caster sugar
- 1 tsp salt
- 250 ml lukewarm water
- 1.5 tbsp olive oil
- 175 ml passata
- 1 clove of garlic, crushed
- 2 tsp olive oil
- 1 pinch salt
- 1 pinch dried oregano
- 2 balls of mozzarella, drained and sliced or torn into small chunks
- 2 portions of toppings of your choice
- 1 handful polenta/cornmeal, for dusting
- 1 glug of extra-virgin olive oil, to serve
Details
- Cuisine: Italian
- Recipe Type: Pizza
- Difficulty: Easy
- Preparation Time: 20 mins
- Cooking Time: 30 mins
- Serves: 2
Step-by-step
- As early as possible, heat the oven to its highest setting and place a pizza stone or a couple of upturned baking trays in to heat up.
- Mix together the dough ingredients with a spoon in a large bowl. Then knead with your hands for 5 minutes, into a smooth, elastic dough. Place back in the bowl and set aside somewhere warm for 10 minutes. It should feel slightly puffy when ready.
- Make the sauce by mixing together the passata, garlic, olive oil, salt and oregano. Prepare any toppings.
- When ready, divide the dough into two equal balls, then either stretch one out, using your knuckles under the dough to gently shape and thin the dough. Or roll out into a 30cm/12inch disc (rolling means less-to-no crust, so stretching is better, but requires practice).
- Remove the hot stone or one of the baking trays from the oven and dust it with polenta/cornmeal. Slide the dough base onto the stone using your hands and a large spatula.
- Working fast, use the back of a spoon to smear 3–4 tablespoons of sauce very thinly over the base (too thick and the base will be soggy). Dot the cheese sparingly over the sauce and add any remaining toppings over the top. Cook for 10–14 minutes.
- Remove from the oven and check the base is firm and pale gold. Transfer the pizza to a board, before repeating with the remaining dough and toppings. The crust may be crunchy, so you could brush it with a little extra-virgin olive oil before serving.
This recipe is from LEON Happy Fast Food by Rebecca Seal, Jack Burke and John Vincent. Published by Conran Octopus, £16.99. Photography by Steven Joyce.
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