Sunday pizza

HOMEMADE PIZZA DOUGH

• 800g bread flour
• 200g semolina flour
• 1 tbsp fine salt
• 2 x 7g sachets of dried yeast
• 1 tbsp soft brown sugar
• 4 tbsp olive or sunflower oil
• 650ml lukewarm water

Put the two sachets of yeast into the warm water with the sugar, mix gently and leave for a good 10 minutes until you have a nice frothy head on the water. Mix the two flours and salt in a bowl. Mix it well so the salt is well dispersed (if the yeast hits a big lump of salt it won’t work so well). Put the oil in the water/yeast mix and then pour it into the bowl of flour. Mix with your hand until you have most of the flour in a big clumpy lump, then pour it onto a clean surface. Knead it for about five minutes until it’s smooth. Put it back in the bowl, cover with clingfilm and then leave it in a warm place for a couple of hours. In the winter this is tricky so I parked mine on a table near the radiator. It sat there for the afternoon whilst we went for a walk, cleaned the house etc.

After a couple of hours it should have at least doubled in size. If not, leave it longer until it is. Slam it onto the counter and knead again for a couple of minutes to get it back to a smooth dough. This is a lot of dough so halve it and put one half in a zip-lock bag and in the freezer for another day.

Put some flour on the counter and roll out two big pizza bases. You are ready to add your toppings.

I used to make my own tomato sauce but they were always so runny so I just buy a good quality jar of pasta sauce. Spoon it over generously. Then put whatever you fancy on top. Tonight I went simple; fried onion, garlic and pepper, spread them over. Added fried halloumi and bacon and topped with some mozzarella. Bake for about 20 mins in a hot oven.

Sometimes I invite the children to get involved in the toppings but honestly they can make such a royal mess. If I’m not feeling all “organic mum” then I just whip them up when they’re out of the room!

Homemade pizzas are so much better than shop bought ones and it’s all about the dough. This recipe is from Jamie Oliver’s ‘Jamie at Home’ recipe book and it’s the best, in my opinion. Easy to make dough that has never failed to rise, really tasty and bakes with a great crisp.

It’s good for a weekend dinner, because you can make the dough at lunch time and then it’s super easy to put together later when you’ve got that lazy afternoon feeling going on.

Perfection!