Home-made Pizza from scratch

(Archived from Nuts & Sprinkles)

Making pizza at home from scratch is one of the easiest and most convenient recipes. Both in time & ease of following the recipe as well as throwing in leftover meat and vegetables as toppings. This is a great way of sprucing up leftovers so you don't feel bored of eating the same food for days.

I had leftover chicken (a funky mix of roast chicken and spices/sauces that the hubbs concocted) and spinach sauteed with garlic begging me to try them on something new. So, I yanked out my pizza recipe! The reason why I love this recipe is the fact that the pizza base is a no yeast recipe, so there's no waiting for the dough to rise etc. You can finish everything in one go from prep to finish.

This is the second time I tried this and it definitely improved in quality from the first time. But, I believe that's because of the tomato sauce that I put together this time. I usually just throw in whatever I feel like when I'm cooking without a recipe. This time I wrote the recipe down immediately since it did complement the pizza really well. The only note/change I'd make to the recipe is baking the pizza base alone for 5-7 minutes before adding the toppings and sending it back into the oven. It's a fun recipe, so any experiment goes! Bon Appétit!

Ingredients & directions:

For the base/crust -

• 1½ cups plain/all purpose flour 
• 2 teaspoons of baking powder 
• ½ tsp salt 
• 2 tablespoons of olive oil 
• ½ cup of water 

Preheat oven to 450F.

Put the flour, baking powder and salt in a bowl. Make a well in the centre and pour in the olive oil and water. Combine well until the mixture comes together in a slightly sticky dough. Now turn the dough onto a floured surface. Knead for a minute or two, then roll out onto a pizza peel.

With a traditional dough, you can shape and stretch the crust with your hands but a no yeast pizza dough tends to be a little less elastic so you will probably find that a rolling pin comes in useful here.

Top the pizza with your usual sauce and toppings and bake at 450F/220C, preferably on a pizza stone, for about 10 minutes. A thicker crust may need a few minutes more.

For the Pizza sauce - 

• 3 medium tomatoes, pureed 
• ¼ tsp salt 
• 1 tsp parsley or any dried herb of choice 
• 1/3 tsp cayenne pepper 
• ¼ tsp garlic powder 

Heat pan on medium-high flame and pour the tomato puree in. Add all the other ingredients and let it cook for 10-15 minutes, till the tomatoes are cooked. You can add chicken stock/broth if the liquid dries up quickly.

For my toppings, I first slathered the pizza sauce on the base, followed by the chicken, spinach, onion slices and Mozzarella and Cheddar cheese.