Come Over!

Tonight we have been invited to a friend’s house for takeaway dinner. This means that everyone brings their own takeaway food and just chills out together at someone’s house. There’s no stress about cooking or washing up. Also, the added benefit is that you still get to enjoy each other’s company without the pain of finding a recipe to cook and thereafter to clean up the kitchen.

When we have these evenings, people normally get a takeaway burger at one of the 2 major burger joints, or some chicken at the other fast food outlet specialised in that bird meat, or perhaps they might spend a bit more and get Mexican, Chinese, Indian or Thai food. Or Pizza.

So, as I was wondering about what takeaway restaurant to get food at, I obviously thought about a delicious, crispy crusted pizza.

Why, you might ask? Well, for the simple reason that I am genetically predisposed to like and eat anything that comes out of Italy and that’s edible. And in this category, Pizza reigns supreme for me.

The Dilemma

The problem is that, when I thought of where to get pizza from, I started thinking about the poor quality of the places around our home. While there’s no need to name names, pretty much any of the major chains are rubbish. Their pizza base is not crispy at all. And their dough recipe uses poor ingredients that leave us bloated, plus the meat used as toppings is foul.

There are two very good pizzerias near me, but they’re not near us at all. Think 15 kms, or almost 10 miles. At times we do travel to them when we really feel like authentic Italian pizza. But that’s not good if you want to take the food back home, as it would be cold by that time, and not as good as when the pizza is straight out of the oven.

The Solution

With this in mind, I thought about making pizza here at home! We make pizza once in a while, and we love the results. When we’ve had people over for a homemade pizza night we got lots of compliments and ravings about how good it was.

So, armed with the best ingredients I could find (ALWAYS buy the best ingredients you can afford, if you want great taste), our trusted Breville Bread Maker and Italian passion, I set out to cook up our takeaway dinner for tonight with our easy pizza dough recipe.

Ingredients

• 500 gr Molini Pizzuti Pizza Flour (or any other 00 – double zero Italian flour)
• 300 ml of water
• 5 gr dry yeast
• 15 ml extra-virgin olive oil
• 10 gr salt
• Pinch of sugar

• 4 Sachets of Pizza Sauce (we use Leggo’s)
• Grated mozzarella cheese (don’t use cheddar for authentic pizza)
• Choice of toppings

Method for Dough

• Mix all the ingredients into the bowl of the Breville bread maker and close lid. Choose dough cycle and press start.

• After 1 ½ hours the dough is ready. Make sure to use yeast that has not expired, or you will have to repeat the precedent step, like I did!

• At this point, use your hands and work the dough with some 00 flour to make it a bit drier.

• When that is achieved, divide the dough into the number of pizzas you will make. The ingredients here described make 3 medium pizzas.

• Shape the dough into a ball and start spreading it and making it circular using a rolling pin.

• When the dough has the right shape and size put it on the tray.

Method for Toppings

• Start with tomato. Always tomato first. We use the Leggo’s Pizza sauce concentrate. Pour some of the sauce in the middle and , using a spoon, spread it around but not on the very edge. That will be the crust, which I adore.

• Spread some grated mozzarella cheese.

• Add your toppings. For real Italian pizza limit the amount of toppings you use. We make Margherita (tomato, mozzarella and basil after the pizza is out of the oven), prosciutto e funghi or ham and mushrooms with a touch of rocket, and pepperoni.

• Optional: sprinkle some extra-virgin olive oil on top.

• Put into pre-heated oven at max temperature. Depending on your oven, cooking time may vary between 5-12 minutes. Keep an eye on the pizza and if you see all the cheese starting to turn darker yellow that’s time to take the pizza out. For extra crispy base use a pizza stone, making sure to put it in the oven before you turn it on.

• ENJOY! 🙂

This below is the Breville bread maker that I use, it's cheap and sturdy:

I hope you’ll try my easy pizza dough recipe and that it turns out as good as when we make it. I’m not an exceptional cook by any means, so I’m sure that you will succeed.

Please feel free to comment below if you have a favourite pizza recipe or if you have any questions about this recipe.