Pizza!

Everyone loves a good pizza. But how about making your own?

For the dough....
450g strong white flour
1tsp salt
1tsp sugar
2x7g sachets of fast action yeast, OR dry active yeast (read directions for use)
300ml pint of warm water
2 tbsp olive oil


Sift the flour and salt into a large bowl. Add the sugar, water, oil and yeast. *(NOTE: if you are using dry active yeast granules, pre-mix the sugar, water and yeast and leave to activate for 10 minutes before adding to the dough mixture.)
Work this into a nice soft dough. Roll the dough onto a flat surface, and knead for ten minutes. Roll the dough into a ball, and put into a bowl. Cover the bowl with a tea towel, and leave in a nice warm place for an hour. When you come back, the dough should have doubled in size!

Knead the dough for a couple of minutes, and then roll out into a pizza shape! Put this onto a lightly oiled tray.
What I do here, personally, is put the pizza in the oven for a few minutes- no more than 5 - to harden up, since I have a fan oven. (apparently fan ovens are no good for pizza dough - in a regular oven the heat comes from below, and cooks the dough first, then the cheese. In a fan oven the heat comes from all around and I often find that whilst my topping is almost burnt, the dough is still slightly soggy.)

Making pizza sauce is simple - I usually just mix 1-2 large chopped tomato (or a tin of chopped tomatoes), 2-4tbsp tomato puree, crushed garlic and herbs and slop onto the pizza. But of course you can use ready mixed pizza sauce, or try your own recipe.

Then, it's topping time! For this particular pizza I used cheddar cheese, mozzarella cheese, peppers, mushrooms, and some yummy chorizo sausage - but of course you can put anything you like on there!

Place into an oven pre-heted to 180C for about 15-20 minutes. Take out and slice!