We lived in Trieste, Italy in the nineties for seven long years, where we had our first taste of Italian Pizza. There were not many pizza houses in Chennai or Bangalore before 1995 and therefore we had never tasted it in our lives! It was love at first bite and we took to the thin-crust pizza topped with vegetables and cheese like fish to water! Then began our monthly ritual of visiting a pizzeria to devour delicious hot brick oven cooked Italian pizzas of different flavors. Pizza Margarita, Pizza Vegitariana, Pizza Alla Roucola, Pizza Quatro Formaggi were some of our favorites. I could devour a 12-inch pizza all by myself assisted by generous refills of Coca-Cola!
Well! Sigh! Those were the golden days when I was young and muscular with little care about my waistline which I watch out for a lot now! 😞
Tired of eating the local store ordered pizzas we decided to make fresh pizzas from scratch. We pored through multiple youtube videos searching for authentic Italian pizza recipes and finally settled on an amalgamation of preparation methods that we felt gave the best results and comes closest to the pizza we savored in an authentic Italian Pizzeria!
Ingredients:
- White flour (maida)- 2 cup
- Yeast granules-1 tablespoon
- Sugar - 1 teaspoon
- Rosemary- 1 teaspoon
- Oregano- 1 teaspoon
- Salt - 1 teaspoon
- Red Bell Peppers-1
- Green Bell Peppers-1
- Yellow bell peppers-1
- Onions (medium size)-2 nos
- Tomatoes - 3/4 kg
- Garlic pods- 4 to 5
- Olive oil- 4 teaspoons
- Mozzarella cheese shavings- 200gm
Preparation of the pizza dough:
Prepare one cup of warm water (it should be not too hot, you should be able to bear the warmth). Next, add one teaspoon of sugar in it and dissolve. Add one tablespoon of yeast to it and cover it. Leave it aside for about 10 min in a warm place. The yeast would multiply and frothy water.
Next in the frothy yeast add rosemary and oregano one teaspoon each. If you like the flavor add a bit more. Stir to mix it up. Add one teaspoon of salt or a bit more to the white flour in a bowl and add the yeast water into it. Knead the dough for 10 minutes. If it becomes a little bit watery do not worry! Add a bit of more of white flour to the dough to offset the water. If it is hard add a bit more warm water to the dough until it becomes a bit soft. Knead the dough until it becomes a bit bouncy. If you press the side, it should regain its shape. In a glass bowl add a tablespoon of olive oil and wet the sides of the bowl with the oil. Place the dough in the bowl, cover it with a plastic wrap or a plate, and leave it aside in a warm place for an hour.
Preparation of toppings:
Meanwhile, as the pizza dough is rising, we may prepare the vegetables and the sauce. Chop the bell peppers into long slices. Chop one of the onions into long strips. In a pan add two tablespoons of olive oil and saute the onions and peeled garlic until it looks glassy. You may remove the garlic if you like as it is only for flavor. Add the strips of bell pepper and a little salt and cook until the bell peppers are soft. Set the peppers aside while we prepare the tomato sauce.
In boiling water put the whole tomatoes and let it be there for a minute and a half. With a pair of tongs pick them up from the boiling water and put them in a bowl of ice water for a minute and a half. Peel the tomatoes. Mash the tomatoes with a hand blender or in a food processor. The tomatoes should be ground coarsely. Pour it into a vessel, add salt to taste, and two tablespoons of olive oil. Cook the tomato puree in a pan until it thickens a bit.
Cut the second onion into small pieces and in a pan saute them until golden. Add the tomato sauce to the onions and let it boil for a minute. Set the tomato sauce aside.
Preparation of the pizza:
By now the pizza dough would have risen. On around 8 to 10 inch plate sprinkle some flour or place a butter paper cut to the size of the plate. Puncture the risen pizza dough and knead it for a minute. Divide it into two portions and with one portion put it on the powdered plate and pat the pizza, gently pressing from the middle to the edges. Roll up the edges so that you get a thick crust and also holds the sauce and the vegetables. Pour the tomato sauce on the pizza and spread it around till the edges. Sprinkle the mozzarella shavings on the pizza and top up the pizza with the bell peppers and onions. You may add olives to the toppings (black or green). Sprinkle some more mozzarella cheese to cover the gaps. Set the oven at 220 degC and leave the pizza plate in the oven for 12 to 15 minutes. I used an oven in the grill mode so both the bottom and top grills were active. Watch as the pizza rises and the turns brown at the edges when it is done. Remove the pizza from the oven, cut with a pizza cutter, and serve hot.
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