Tastiest 'from Scratch' Pizza

Hi all,

This is my first instructable, so please go easy on me.

I'm going to go through my process of what I believe to be one of the best homemade pizza's, short of having access to a pizza oven.

When I say from scratch, I make everything! (well, not the cheese) but everything else.

So let's get started!

I've studied recipes for years on Pizza sauce. It's probably one of the most influential elements in a Pizza, and it's taken me a long time to get 'just right'. When I play with recipes, I use a chalk board in the kitchen to write up what I'm doing, take away changes, add in ingredients to hopefully build a top notch flavour.

My handwriting is awful, so let me tidy up those ingredients for you. This makes enough to freeze for later too. It'll cover 6-8 12 inch pizza's

EDIT: this is a lot of sauce, but you can refridgerate it for a long time, or freeze it tightly wrapped in cling film or a zip lock bag. Thanks to vkingns for the reminder in the comments:

Imperial

1. 2 (and a tiny bit) cups basic passata or chopped tomatoes (either will work)
2. 3 tbl olive oil
3. 2 tbl butter
4. 2 2/3 cups finely diced onion (I used a mini chopper)
5. 1tsp celery salt
6. 2 garlic cloves crushed
7. 3 tbl grated Parmesan (don't worry too much if you haven't got it, a strong cheddar would work too)
8. 1 tbl brown sugar/molasses
9. 1/2 a tube tomato puree
10. 1tsp oregano
11. 1/4 - 1/2 tsp smoked paprika to taste
12. dash red wine
13. pinch chili flakes/cayenne pepper
14. small bay leaf

Metric

1. 500g basic pasatta or chopped tomatoes (either will work)
2. 45ml olive oil
3. 30ml butter
4. 250g finely diced onion (I used a mini chopper)
5. 5ml celery salt
6. 2 garlic cloves crushed
7. 45g grated parmasan (don't worry too much if you haven't got it, a strong cheddar would work too)
8. 15g brown sugar/molassis
9. 100g tomato puree
10. 5g oregano
11. 3-5g smoked paprika to taste
12. dash red wine
13. pinch chili flakes/cayenne pepper
14. small bay leaf

Method

1. Ok, so take the chopped onion and garlic and gently fry in the butter and oil until light brown/translucent.
2. Chuck in the celery salt, brown sugar, and continue to cook for a minute or so.
3. Pop in the tomato puree, give it a stir to catch all the ingredients. Then add the chopped tomatoes/pasatta.
4. Simmer for a further 5 mins or so before adding the rest of the ingredients.
5. Give it a good stir, pop a lid on & set the temp to low so it's gently bubbling. Continue to cook for further 25 minutes to let the flavours infuse.

After 25 minutes, remove the bay leaf & check for consistency. If it's still a little runny, you may want to continue to let it simmer down to a thicker base sauce consistency.

Top tip! Refrigerate the sauce overnight and the flavour continues to develop.

Before I even begin this section, let me make it clear patience is a must with any bread making. Again, feel free to make it the night before and leave it in the fridge. I must apologise as I've no pics of my dough before I began to roll it out.

I use my basic white bread recipe for a lot of things, but it lends itself especially well to pizza dough. With this recipe you can use a mixer, or by hand. My instructions will be for mixer though. Again, this is another 'recipe from the board' ;)

Makes 2 12" pizza bases

Ingredients

500g/2 cups plain flour (I prefer strong bread flour which I grab from a local mill)

3 heaped table spoons dried milk powder

1 1/2 tsp salt

2 tsp sugar

2 tsp yeast

250ml warm water

Method

1. Firstly, drop your yeast (I use dried active yeast for breadmaking) into the 250ml water. I usually add in a quick sprinkle of salt too. Give it a gentle stir & cover with a cloth. Leave it on the side for around 10 mins or more - until the top looks like the frothy head of a pint of beer.
2. .Fit the dough hook to your mixer and drop the rest of the ingredients (excluding the yeast/water) into the mixer bowl. Give it a quick stir on a low setting (kitchenaid level 1) to move the ingredients around.
3. Go make a cuppa, you've been working far too hard.
4. It should be 10+ minutes now, so grab your yeast mix, turn you mixer onto the lowest turn speed and start gently pouring the liquid in until it's all gone. The way this recipe works is you'll need to likely add a tiny bit more warm water. Let it mix up first though. All the flour from the bottom should be gone. If it's not, add a splash of water (probably a teaspoon at a time) until all that flour has gone, but the dough isn't sticking to the sides. If it does start sticking, you've popped in too much water, so stop the mixer, sprinkle in some flour and bring it back until it's not sticking.
5. Once you've got it, continue to mix on low for around 7 or 8 minutes until the dough mix has become quite elastic. You may have to scrape it off the dough hook and back into the bowl as it has a tendency to creep up.
6. Once done, remove from the bowl, give it a quick knead by hand for 30 seconds or so, and then place in a lightly greased mixing bowl + cover (tea towel or cling film is fine).
7. Pop it somewhere warm but not hot. Walk away and leave for at least an hour or until roughly doubled in size.
8. When it's doubled, knock it back (gently push your fist into the middle to remove the air) remove it from the bowl, & place on a lightly floured surface. Give it a 30 second knead again, then chop it into 2 (should make around 2 12 inch pizza bases)
9. Now at this point, I like to pop in the fridge covered for a few more hours, but you can carry on to the next step if you're a little impatient ;)

Woohoo, you've got this far and now I've got some pics for you!

1. Grab your dough and start pushing it out into an even circle (I use a fist to do this). Once it's kind of round ish, grab a rolling pin, and continue to roll out the circle.
2. Keep turning the dough as you do and flouring the rolling pin/surface otherwise it will stick. If you like a not too thick/not too thin base but good crust, aim for around 3mm thick. I aim to make it a bit bigger than my pizza tray and you'll see why in the pics.
3. Roll across the top of my pizza tray (see the pics), and then start rolling/crimping the dough to get a nice clean circular finish (you can also create yourself a stuffed crust doing it this way if you like. I like to crimp mine loosely how I crimp a pasty (see attached).
4. You're now ready for the next step!

1. Preheat your oven to around 150c (fan oven) 302f
2. Take that lovely sauce you made in step 1 and generously spread it over the base. I flick it on with a spoon, then use the bottom of the spoon to spread it so I don't damage the dough.
3. Add some mozzarella, and then where you go from here is completely up to you. For this one, I'm making a half and half (my lady doesn't like olives). Just be creative and try whatever you fancy. I usually use it as an excuse to clear out the odds and end in the fridge.
4. Don't forget to add a pinch of oregano though. It is the pizza herb! :)

When you're ready, pop it in the preheated oven. Go for around 25 minutes to start.

After 25 minutes check it - It'll likely need a few more. I usually turn the oven up to around 200c (392f) for a further 5-10 minutes until the crust and base is crispy.

Done!!! You should have a wonderfully tasty Pizza.

I'm not going to get into what you could have as a topping as everybody has different tastes. I've attached a few different variations I often enjoy (salami, peppers etc..). What you should have after this is a lovely base on which to build up the toppings that work for you

I hope you enjoy my 1st instructable and please vote for me in the Pizza contest if you love the result, thanks :)