Pizza Margherita

I love baking pizza with Nabila. The first time we baked it together she was so excited that she can actually make pizza in her own kitchen. The idea of the dough doubling in size is enough for any child to believe that they can do anything. It is also a great way to show her that there are different living organisms in this world - the ones that make good food for you. And you can actually *see* them work!
We use different toppings but the favourite is a simple Margherita with tomato sauce, basil and mozzarella. I usually get the fresh buffalo mozzarella from the Italian deli and basil is from the kitchen garden. It is really pointless to use dry basil and if you can't get it fresh, just use fresh parsley or skip it altogether.
The tomato sauce is developed from different recipes and there is always enough leftover to store for use later. The Silver Spoon uses fresh tomatoes for their Margherita but I usually do this only when summer is in the height and fresh tomatoes are at their best. For the rest of the year, I use my trusted tomato sauce. If you don't like the taste of anchovies, you can skip it. anchovies usually melt into the sauce and lending a taste of umami which really make a difference.
I use the basic pizza dough from the Silver Spoon with slight alteration. I added a further 30ml of water because the dough felt too dry that day and rounded the salt to a teaspoon. If you're using dry /instant yeast, be sure to add a pinch of sugar it will help the yeast work faster and better since yeast really feeds on sugar. There are so many pizza dough recipe out there but I find this one, the simplest I have followed so far works best.
The Silver Spoon says pizza need to be eaten with fizzy drinks to stimulate digestion. Beer is fine but use sparkling wine preferably light, young and fruity.

Pizza Margherita

Ingredients:

1 basic pizza dough

tomato sauce

fresh basil leaves

150g mozarella cheese - sliced

olive oil for drizzling

flour for dusting

salt and pepper

Method:

1. Preheat the oven to 220C/425F/Gas mark 7

2. Spoon and spread the tomato sauce onto the pizza dough leaving 2cm margin to the edge. Drizzle with olive oil. Bake for 15-20minutes.

3. Take the pizza out of the oven, brush another layer of tomato sauce. Drizzle with olive oil.

4. Add mozarella and fresh basil, season with salt and pepper and drizzle with more olive oil.

5. Bake for a further 7-8 minutes.

Basic Pizza Dough

(adapted from The Silver Spoon)

Ingredients:

250g plain flour - I used Italian type 00 - plus extra for dusting

1 tsp salt

15g fresh yeast

150ml lukewarm water

Olive oil for brushing

Method:

1. Sift flour and salt into a mound on the work surface. Make a well in the centre.

2. Mash the yeast in the lukewarm water until very smooth.

3. Pour the yeast mixture into the well.

4. Incorporate the yeast into the flour. Mix it well.

5. Knead the dough for a while - pulling and stretching and working it out until it became smooth and elastic.

6. Shape into a ball and put in a bowl, covered with a tea towel.

7. Leave to rise somewhere warm for at least 3 hours. It will double in size by then.

8. Punch the dough down and flatten on a floured surface.

9. Roll the dough to a round disk (I never manage to do this!) about 5mm thickness.

10. Line a baking tin with parchment paper.

11. Place the dough onto the baking tin.

12. Make sure the rim of the dough is slightly thicker than the center.

Tomato Sauce

Ingredients:

400g canned tomato

2TBSP tomato puree - you can use the smallest can

1 TBSP tomato ketchup

3 big fat garlic - crushed

half an onion - there is no need to chop this unless you want to use it later

a handful of oregano, parsley and thyme

2 anchovies

Olive Oil

black pepper and salt

Method

Combine all ingredients in a pot and leave to simmer in a pot for about 45 minutes. Season and leave to cool until ready to use.