Piece o’ Pie
By Eric (Discover English Teacher)
Okay, another three months at home. It hurts the soul. But we’ll make it through; we’ll knuckle down and just get on with the gruelling hell of it.
Obviously, cooking is still one of the few things still not banned.
And one very easy thing to make that always puts a smile anyone’s face is… Pizza . One of the joys of pizza is that you can make it as junky or as healthy as you like – you can pile that piece of flat bread with all sorts of delicious, carcinogenic cured meats, or you can scatter it with a dusting of organic goats’ cheese and rocket and be done. Everyone has their own favourite spin on the dish. A friend of mine will only ever eat pizza with olives and pineapple, nothing else. Oddness.
So, I won’t tell you how to top the thing (personally, I lean towards lots of mushrooms and spicy salami), but I’ll give you the recipe to make the bread because it’s a piece of pie to make – that means it’s very, very easy.
You will need a rolling pin to roll the dough out, but if you don’t have one a wine bottle works just as well – with the added benefit that you get to drink it. If you do use a bottle be careful, because it would be terrible to push too hard and smash the bottle and lose all the wine.
YOU WILL NEED
Rolling pin (see above)
Pizza tray or flat baking tray or even a large piece of baking paper works
You will need to make the dough 2-3 hours before you plan to eat
And don’t forget, you’ll need to decide what you want to put on top
Also, an apron is very useful because flour goes everywhere
INGREDIENTS (to make two quite large sized bases)
2 cups of plain flour (and some extra)
1 cup of water
Dash of olive oil
Pinch of salt
1 tablespoon (or one sachet) of dry yeast (depending on your supermarket, you can get yeast in a jar or little sachets – it’s all the same stuff)
Tomato paste
Shredded Mozzarella cheese
METHOD
Place the flour, yeast, salt and oil in a large mixing bowl.
Add the water and mix everything together.
If the mixture is too sticky, add a little more flour; if it’s too dry add a little water – the mixture should not stick to your fingers, but it shouldn’t fall apart either.
And here is the fun part: You must knead the dough for about 5-10 minutes.
Spread some extra flour on the benchtop.
Place the dough on the benchtop.
With your hands over the dough, press the base of your hands (we call it ‘the heel of the palm’) firmly into the dough.
Turn the dough about 90 degrees around.
Fold the dough in half and press your hands into it again.
Repeat this action about 100 times. Soon (5-10 minutes) the dough will be smooth and elastic.
Once you’ve kneaded the dough enough, return it to the mixing bowl and cover with a tea towel.
Leave to rest for a couple of hours (the yeast will cause the dough to grow to about double its size).
When you are ready to prepare your actual pizzas, set your oven to 200 degrees.
Take half the dough and (on a floured benchtop) roll it out to fit your pizza/baking tray.
Spread with a little tomato paste.
Sprinkle some of the mozzarella cheese over it.
And now go nuts (go crazy) with your favourite toppings.
For myself, I usually add sliced mushrooms, a few anchovy fillets, a handful of chopped sopressa salami and a scattering of chilli. But do whatever you want. My sister likes to add roasted pumpkin bits, sliced onions, olives and fetta.
You could even try vegemite.
Don’t do that.
That’d be gross.