Home made pizza recipe

Many years ago we went to stay in Umbria and the people we stayed with had a wood burning pizza oven that they allowed the guests to use once a week.  All of the restaurants in that part of Italy had a wood burner and the pizzas there are the best I've every tasted.  Since then I've not been able to get a wood burning pizza oven at home (yet, I'm still working on that project!) but I have perfected a pizza recipe that is the closest I've managed to get to the Umbrian pizzas.  Ideally you'll need a few pizza stones or metal pizza pans (generally available and not expensive).  Here's my recipe, let me know how you get on or if you have alternatives that work.

Ingredients

For the pizza base:
400g plain white flour - use type OO if you can get it, otherwise strong white bread flour works
1 tablespoon of olive oil
A good pinch of salt
A good pinch of sugar
250ml lukewarm water plus extra when needed
Sachet of quick acting yeast

For the tomato sauce:
1x400g can Italian tomatoes - can be chopped or whole
1 small onion
2 cloves garlic
1 teaspoon dried oregano

For the toppings:
Your own choice of ingredients.  We particularly like:
Black Olives
Salami
Parma Ham
Artichoke - the bottled antipasti type
Sun dried tomatoes
Plenty of fresh basil
Plenty of Mozarella - use packs of grated mozzarella, mozarella balls make the pizzas soggy!

Method

First make the dough for the base.  I use my bread maker to do this using the dough setting, but it works equally well if done by hand.  If you're doing it by hand, tip the flour into a large bowl, add the salt, sugar and yeast and mix together well.  Make a well in the middle of the flour then add the olive oil and rub the oil into the flour to mix it evenly.  Next add the water gradually and mix it into the flour to make a dough.  250ml won't be enough so add more gradually until the dough is smooth and elastic and easy to handle.  You can tell when the mix is right as the dough should be pliable but not stick to your hands.  If you overdo the water and it's too sticky, add a little extra flour to bring it back.  Now for my favourite bit!  Knead the dough on a flat surface pushing your fists into the dough and folding it into itself until it's a lovely, smooth, elastic dough.  Put it back into your bowl, cover with a cloth and leave in a warm place to rise.

Meanwhile, put the pizza stones or pan into the oven then turn your oven to it highest setting, at least 220C, preferably higher!  Wood burners typically reach between 350-400C so your domestic oven won't be hot enough but we can work around this.  Do this at least 1 hour before cooking to allow the oven to heat up to maximum.  Use the heat from the oven to raise the dough on the top of the oven but make sure it doesn't get too hot or you can kill off the yeast.

While the oven's heating and the dough is rising, make the tomato base.  Finely chop the onion and garlic cloves, then heat a little olive oil in a pan.  Add the onion and oregano to the pan and sauté over a medium to low heat until the onion is transparent.  Add the garlic and sauté until the garlic is cooked but not coloured.  Now add the tinned tomatoes and use a hand blender to blend it to a smooth purée.  Reduce the mixture until you have a consistency that's a little thinner than a tomato purée.  Leave to cool.

Now prepare your toppings; slice any vegetables you want into the thinnest slices you can, shred the basil leaves and drain and slice the Mozarella into the thinnest slices you can manage.

Next, get rolling!  First, prepare your surface.  You'll need a clean, good sized, flat surface to work on.  I use one of the kitchen work surfaces for this and it's ideal.  You'll also need olive oil and a rolling pin that's at least 30cm wide.  Oil the surface and the rolling pin to make sure the dough doesn't stick, then add one of the dough portions and roll it out into a circle that's around 10cm wider than your pizza stone or pan - once you take it off the surface it will shrink.  Take the hot stone/pan from the oven and transfer your pizza base onto the stone/pan.  Leave it out of the oven while you prepare the next bases.  Repeat the above until you have all four bases prepared.

Pre-cook the pizza bases in the oven for 4 minutes, being careful to make sure they don't start browning.  Also be careful to rotate the bases as our oven is hotter at the top and back even though it's a fan oven.

Take the bases out of the oven and spread the tomato base sauce on each of them.  Now add the toppings of your choice.  For an authentic Italian pizza, the toppings should be sparing, but it's up to you.  Once you've added your toppings, scatter the basil evenly across each pizza, then top them all with sliced Mozarella.

Bake in the oven for 10-15 mins until the tops and sides are nicely browned, making sure you swap over the pizzas and turn them at least once to get them to cook evenly.

Serving
Serve them with a salad of your choice and watch them disappear at a great rate.   If you're lucky, you might have some left over for tomorrow's breakfast - a favourite with the girls.  Enjoy!