Basic Pizza Base
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Ingredients
| Ingredients | Quantity |
|---|---|
| For the dough | |
| Maida (use half maida and half whole wheat flour) | 400g |
| semolina/ rava | A fistful |
| Sea salt | ½ tbsp- |
| Dried yeast | 7g- |
| Caster sugar (normal granulated sugar works fine) | ½ tbsp |
| Lukewarm water | 325ml |
| If you’re using tomato sauce | |
| Olive oil | 1 tsp |
| Ajwain | ¼ tsp |
| Crushed garlic | 2 cloves |
| Basil leaves | 4 to 5 |
| Chilli flakes | ½ tsp |
| Chopped tomatoes | 2 |
| Salt | to taste |
| If you’re using pesto sauce | |
| Basil leaves | 1 bundle |
| Walnuts | A handful |
| Garlic | 2 cloves |
| Grated parmesan cheese | 1/8 cup |
| Olive oil | 1 glug |
| Salt | to taste |
| Pepper | to taste |
| For the toppings | |
| Mozzarella cheese | get one that you can tear into hunks |
| olive oil | A drizzle |
| Sea salt | to taste |
| basil leaves | A few |
Servings
| Serving | |
|---|---|
| Preparation Time | Mins |
| Cooking Time | Mins |
Method
- You can warm the water in the microwave or stove for 10 seconds. It needs to be lukewarm, not hot.
- Add yeast and sugar and mix vigorously with a fork. Leave it aside for a few minutes. Listen to the yeast – if it makes a humming sound, you know it’s active.
- Mix flour and salt and make a well in the centre. Add the yeast water mixture and use a fork to mix it into the flour.
- Grease a bowl with olive oil and put the dough inside it. Drizzle some olive oil on top as well. Cover with a kitchen towel and let it sit for 45 minutes. The dough should double in size.
- Divide into eight balls, dust them and cover them in plastic and let them sit for 15 minutes.
- Roll out some of the dough until it’s 0.5cm thick. You can do it on your kitchen platform, or if you’re making mini pizzas then on your rolling board.
- Dust parchment paper with rava, and put the rolled pizza dough on it. Brush it with olive oil.
- When it comes to toppings, tomato sauce ,Heat 1 tsp olive oil in a pan, add ajwain, crushed garlic, basil leaves, chilli flakes, salt and chopped tomatoes and sauté. I use the paav bhaji crushing tool to mash this into a sauce. I am not a big fan of dried oregano, so I add caraway seeds or ajwain instead – they taste quite similar.
- For Pesto sauce, In a blender, blitz basil leaves, walnuts, salt, pepper, and garlic cloves. Add parmesan and olive oil and mix.
- Once your dough is rolled out and ready, spread the tomato sauce on top or pesto, right until the edges. If you’re using pesto, then sauté some 3-4 cloves of garlic in oil, cut them into small pieces and stud the pizza base with the garlic pieces.
- If you’re using tomato sauce, add slices of mozzarella cheese and basil leaves. Drizzle with some olive oil and salt.
- Place in the oven to bake. These pizzas cook in a hot oven – 250 degrees C/ 500 degrees F in seven to 10
Recipe Tips
- Usually substitute most of the maida for whole wheat flour, and so far, no one has been the wiser.
- Most active dry yeasts in India that you find in retail stores aren’t that effective. Look for the ones with small granules or get fresh yeast, which you can then store in the freezer.
- Once it starts to come together, tip the batter onto a floured surface and start kneading the dough.
- There’s a trick to pizza dough – you need to push the dough away from you with one one hand, and at the same time, stretch it towards you with the other hand. Keep doing this for 10 minutes – I set a timer – until you get a smooth dough. It looks messy but don’t be tempted to add too much flour to the dough.
- To make the pizza pies,cut the dough in half and wrap half of it in cling wrap and stick it in the freezer to use for another day.
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