pizza recipe, pizza guide,

1. The Easy Guide to Making Pizza
Learn to Make Authentic Pizza at Home!
The Easy Guide to Making Pizza

2. Making your own pizza is faster, easier and far
more straight forward than you first thought.
Making pizza at home is the fun alternative to ordering, going out for, or cooking a frozen pizza. It’s
surprisingly easy to make your own pizza base at home and it ensures what you’re eating is fresh, full of
nutrients and cooked to your exacting tastes.
You can break down this pizza recipe into four easy stages:
 The dough
 The sauce
 The toppings
 The cooking
It’s looking far less daunting now isn’t it? This guide will walk you through the process of making a great
pizza at home, and provide some resources for when you feel like pizza, but don’t have the time or effort
to make your own.
How long’s it going to take?
Preparation time: 40 mins
Cooking time: 15 mins
This is what you’d wait for a delivery, or just a little longer than it takes to heat up the oven to put
something frozen in. It really is that easy. So let’s get started by preheating the oven to gas mark 8/250
degrees or however hot your oven can go as a hot oven will help crisp up the base.
The Easy Guide to Making Pizza

3. The recipe
Chorizo, red pepper and chili pizza, finished with parmesan cheese and fresh basil.
Of course you can modify the toppings to your own taste, but I find the combination of meaty chorizo,
sweet red peppers and spicy chilies the perfect comfort food. You can’t get anything as good as this from
your local store. Trust me, this will taste better than anything you’ve had before.
You’ll need the following ingredients for this recipe. They’re all easy to find and they’re cheap too! These
ingredients are enough for 1 really large pizza, or two individual sized ones.
The base
300g of strong bread flour
1tsp of instant dried yeast
1tsp of salt
1tsp of olive oil (plus a little extra for drizzling)
The sauce
125ml of passata (tomato sauce)
Some chopped up basil
1 crushed garlic clove
The toppings
125g of fresh mozzarella
Some parmesan shavings
Slices of chorizo (to your taste)
Half a red pepper
1 small chili
A sprinkle of fresh basil leaves
The Easy Guide to Making Pizza

4. Making the dough
Making the dough is great fun. It’s an excuse to get messy and take your stress out when kneading it. The
process doesn’t take long, but it’s important to keep the surface dry and floured so it doesn’t stick,
otherwise there could be a pizza dough related disaster!
1.
First start by mixing the 300g of strong bread flour
with the 1tsp of salt and 1tsp of dried yeast. Use a
wooden spoon to just lightly stir this dry mix to
ensure the yeast and salt is spread evenly.
2.
Now create a small well in the mix and add in the 200ml
of warm water. Use the wooden spoon to incorporate the
water slowly until the dough forms a sticky ball. If you can
immediately tell it is too dry or wet, add more flour or
water as appropriate.
The Easy Guide to Making Pizza

5. 3.
Take the dough out of the bowl and put it onto a
floured surface and start kneading. There’s no real
skill to this, so just get stuck in and put some effort
into manipulating the dough. After 4 or 5 minutes it
will be smooth and stretchy, and ready to roll out.
Here you can leave it for 20 minutes to ‘proof’ if you
want the base to bake a little fluffier. There is no
need to wait if you prefer a thinner and crispier base.
4.
The mix is enough to make 2 fair sized pizzas, so split the
ball into two parts and using a rolling pin, roll out the
first ball into a pizza shaped base, making it as thin as
possible. Keep adding flour too, as it will easily stick to
the surface when being rolled.
5. Trim the base down to the size and shape you desire for baking, dependant on the baking tray you
want to use. From here you can start adding the toppings.
The Easy Guide to Making Pizza

6. Making the sauce
Making this simple pizza base sauce literally takes a
minute and it’s packed with flavor.
1.
This part is easy. Simply mix the 125ml of passata with
some finely chopped basil and some crushed garlic. Mix
this up well and then liberally spoon it onto the base,
smoothing it with the back of a spoon until the base is
completely covered.
Adding the toppings
This recipe centres around chorizo, red peppers and
chilies, but you can use anything you fancy.
1.
Tear the mozzarella ball into small strips or chunks and
start positioning these over the base with the sauce.
Remember the cheese will melt out so do not cluster
these too closely together.
2.
Add the chorizo, red peppers, chilies and some
parmesan shavings to complete the pizza. You can
drizzle a small amount of olive oil over this now before
it goes in the oven. It looks like it is taking shape now,
and trust me, you’ll be enjoying this pizza in just a few
moments!
The Easy Guide to Making Pizza

7. Cooking the pizza
1.
A hot oven cooks pizza dough well, so ensure your
oven is as hot as it will go. Put the pizza in the oven
and leave it for around 10 minutes. The cooking time
is surprisingly fast when your oven is hot, and because
everything is fresh it cooks a lot quicker. Keep an eye
on the pizza in the oven and take it out when the crust
starts to brown.
All done! Just leave the pizza for a couple of minutes
to settle and then tuck in to this crisp, healthy, fresh
and tasty pizza that you can take all the credit for.
Don’t forget that there’s some left over ingredients for
the second base so you have a go at another selection
of toppings or chill the dough to use another day.
Resources
I hope this guide has shown how easy it is to make your own pizza, and you’ve been inspired to give it a
go. If you’re still not convinced then there are a number of other options. You can order pizza delivery
online or just suppress your hunger. Here are some great resources for learning more about pizza, or
getting an online order in:
The History of Pizza
Read about the history of pizza on Wikipedia.
Just-Eat Pizza Delivery
Order pizza delivery online from a huge choice of places near you. Just search your postcode
to view all the menus in your area.
London’s Best Pizza Restaurants
Time Out Magazine look at some of the best restaurants serving pizza in London.
Happy pizza making!
The Easy Guide to Making Pizza