15/03/2011

I'd swap my eye for a pizza pie (well i'd get greasy cheese in it)

Goats cheese, basil pesto and sweet roasted pepper pizza (makes 2 pizzas)

Auk for crying out loud, the joys of electricity and an oven have only gone made pizza perfection. The light, crispy base is the source of the woops and yeahs and oos and ahhs - extra fine candian strong flour - you cheeky find - binds to make the softest dough making a truely bouncy bite possible. Basil pesto made with pecoroni rather than pine nuts and parmesan, maintains a nuttiness that sprawls itself snugly over the sweet charcol pangs of roasted pepper and creamy deapths of goats cheese.





Bouncy thin base
180g extra fine canadian bread flour
140ml warm water
7g dry yeast
1tbl sp olive oil

Tomato Sauze ( put all ingredients in a blender and whizz)
1/2 tin baby cherry tomatoes
handful basil
3 gloves garlic
salt / pepper
1 tblsp olive oil

Basil pesto (put ingredients in a blender and whizz)
handful of basil
30g pecoroni cheese
1 tblsp olive oil
1 clove garlic

Topping
100g buffalo mozzeralla
100g goats cheese
1 sweet red pepper (cook in the oven for 20mins gas mark 6)

Okay. It seems like there are lots of things here to refer back to with that never-ending ingredient list. Basically, everything rests on the base. If the base is soggy and without bite it doesn’t matter how delicious your toppings are - chaos will ensue. In a cup add warm water to yeast and salt (Fizz). Empty flour onto work surface and make a well in the middle. Fill the well with yeasty water and 1tblsp of olive oil. Gradually pull flour from the sides into the well and the quickquick keep doing this until the floury water mix comes together. Then knead it for 5-10mins. If its too wet spinkle more flour. If its feels like leather add a little water. If its very liney (with breaks in the dough) a little oil and a little water. Roll into a ball and break in two. Put in slightly oiled bowl and place a damp tea towel over the top and leave somewhere warm for 45mins.

Whiz the tomato sauz ingredients. Then whiz the basil pesto ingredients. Then 45 mins later roll out the dough and assemble your pizza. Place in an over turned floured baking tray (allows heat to cook it from beneath as well as above like a pizza oven). Cook 12-14mins in hot oven.