The final trio in my Italian repertoire is the Pizza. This is another universally loved dish, irrespective of nationality. The melty cheese and the spicy tomato sauce combination makes this dish the go to mood uplifter, the random evening snack, the I-don’t-feel-like-cooking dinner or simply the I-feel-like-a-pizza dish.
While I do not claim to have ever made the pizza base at home, I can do wonders with toppings and I like to make my own sauce.
Ingredients:
Pizza Base – 2 nos. 6”
For sauce:
Tomato – 4, medium, roughly chopped
Garlic – 2 cloves, chopped
Onion – 1, small, chopped
Salt – to taste
Pepper – 3 tsp.
Oregano powder – 2 tsp.
Thyme powder – 2 tsp.
Red chilli powder – 1 tsp.
Sugar – 1 tsp.
Oil – 2 tsp.
Water – as reruired
For the topping:
Onion – 2, small
Capsicum – 1, medium
Cheese – 2 cubes
Sweet corn – ½ cup
Mushrooms – ½ cup
Bell pepper red & yellow – 1 each, small
Oil – 3 tsp.
Method:
- In a frying pan, heat 2 tsp. oil. Add the chopped garlic and fry till aromatic.
- Add the onions and fry till translucent.
- Add the chopped tomatoes and salt and mix. Add a little water and cook on low flame till mushy. Mash with a flat spatula or a masher.
- Add pepper, red chilli, oregano and thyme powder, and sugar. Mix well and fry till raw smell is gone.
- Add water as required and bring to a boil to reduce. The final result should be a mushy sauce texture.
- Boil the sweet corn.
- For the topping, slice the onions and capsicum and chop the mushrooms and bell peppers.
- In a frying pan, heat 2 tsp oil and lightly fry the mushrooms and bell peppers till cooked and lightly fried. Remove and keep aside.
- In the same pan, add the remaining 1 tsp oil and fry the onions and capsicum till golden brown.
- Assembling the pizza: On the pizza base, spread the prepared tomato sauce generously. Place the fried veggies all over the base. Now sprinkle the fried onions and capsicum. Grate cheese over the whole pizza.
- In an oven, toast the pizza at 180°C for 10 minutes or until the cheese melts.
- Veg pizza is ready!
Admittedly, I mostly make chicken pizzas and veggies are an accompanying topping to my dish, the veggies on their own make a delish pizza as well. Do try this one out.
Tip: I recently discovered Wingreens Pizza dough mix which is a premixed flour mix. You simply add water, knead and let it rest in a warm place. It triples up in size in 30/40 minutes. Then you roll out and bake for 12 minutes with your sauce and toppings. Its much better than a store bought base.
This post was written for Blogchatter A2Z challenge; Day 22 – Letter “V”.
