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With National Pizza Day and Valentine’s Day just around the corner I thought I’d share with you our fabulous Friday evening tradition! I’m not sure when it started but every Friday evening, pretty much without fail Stu makes homemade pizzas. I don’t know how he does it, after a week working and ferrying children around etc… I’m done in, ready for a G&T, my squishy sofa and a good movie. Stu will come in from a week of distilling, emails and ferrying children around and will start making pizzas. Made from scratch to the sound of Chris Isaacs and with a little bit of dancing and air guitar thrown in they are fantastic.
We have never been fortunate enough to visit Italy, although it is on our wish list. According to the ‘Italy Magazine’ The Origins of Pizza | Italy Magazine the word pizza was first recorded in 997 and meant a stuffed bread folded on itself and cooked in an oven. Typical toppings back then included garlic, salt, olive oil and cheese. However it was not until 1889 that pizza became as we know it today, with the margherita pizza being created especially for Queen Margherita of Savoy tomato, basil and mozzarella. The closest we have ever come to authentic pizza would be from Delisio in Subiaco, Western Australia Delisio Pizza Romana Subiaco | Perth’s Most Talked About Pizza. The pizzas here are rectangular and bought as a slice and truly delicious. We still make a garlic oil, potato and fresh rosemary one to this day, after eating theirs so many years ago.
Unlike me who weighs everything and follows a recipe to the ‘t’, Stu is much more relaxed about cooking and so if you’re fancying making you own pizza this Friday night how about this recipe? You could even make a heart shaped one!
Ingredients (makes 5 dinner plate sized pizzas):
- 600g strong flour (white or wholemeal, or plain if you have no strong, basically don’t stress!)
- 2 pinches of salt
- 450ml warm water
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- 1 sachet (7g) dried yeast
Method:
- Mix the flour and salt together in a large mixing bowl.
- In a separate jug stir together the water, oil and yeast and leave for a few minutes.
- Make a well in the flour and slowly add the liquid, mixing at the same time.
- Knead the mixture in the bowl and leave to rise until it has doubled in size.
- Knead again and stretch it out and leave again until it has doubled in size again.
- Divide the dough into five equal parts on a floured surface and roll each one out.
Preheat your oven to 180 degrees and enjoy putting your toppings on before popping in the oven for about 10 minutes. (For the tomato base we usually use a pasta sauce, easy and tasty)
Some of our families’ favourite toppings:
- Meat feast: tomato, onions, mushrooms, smoked sausage, chorizo, salami, chilli flakes and grated cheddar cheese
- Tropical: tomato, onion, mushroom, bacon, pineapple, mixed herbs and mozzarella
- Satay: Mix peanut butter and milk together in a mug until it’s sauce consistency. Use as the base sauce. Top with cooked chicken breast, onions, mushrooms, red peppers, mozzarella, and grated cheddar cheese
We will often have a gorgeous Gin &Tonic to accompany our pizzas, a fresh Sea Glass G & T Sea Glass Gin – Deerness Distillery is perfect with the classic margherita pizza. Or we find a Scuttled G&T Scuttled Gin – Deerness Distillery is great to match those spicy pizzas. Remember you can always use your left over herbs as your G&T garnish!
Do let us know if you get a chance to try out Stu’s recipe 😊
