How to make: Quick Pizza

This is my recipe for quick – but hopefully good – pizza.

There are many great resources to learn how to make pizza in the Neapolitan, Roman, New Yorker or Chicagoan style. Such as here, here and here. These recipes work very well, however, I wanted something you can make in a couple hours on a weekday.

We can steal ideas from each regional variation to make something that tastes nice with limited time.

To get the temperature required for the dough base it is key to have either: a pizza stone or a specialized oven thing such as this one.

Ingredients

All approximate, makes 4 pizzas my way. Experiment and see what ratios you like.

• Dough:
  • Strong white bread flour (~700g)
  • Easy bake yeast (10g)
  • Salt (10g)
  • Extra virgin olive oil (3 tbsp)
  • Oregano (dried 1tsp, optional)
  • Warm water (use boiling + cold tap 50/50)
  • Fine Semolina (~40g, for rolling)
• Sauce:
  • Tomato passata (~250ml)
  • Brown Onion (~2)
  • Garlic (~3 cloves)
  • Herbs:
    • Salt (1tsp)
    • Basil (fresh or dried 1tbsp)
    • Oregano (dried 1tbsp)
    • Henderson’s relish (5 dashes, optional)
    • Smoked paprika (1tsp, optional)
    • Chilli powder (1tsp, optional)
• Toppings:
  • Fresh Mozzarella (2/3 100g ball per pizza)
  • My personal favourites:
    • Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese
    • Olives
    • Sliced red onions
    • Red chili peppers
    • Jalapeño peppers
    • An Egg cracked into the middle
    • Hot sauce
    • Emmental cheese

Instructions

Preparing the dough: (12 mins, rising 1hr minimum)

1. Prepare at least an hour beforehand.
2. Place the flour in a large bowl, putting the yeast on one side, and the salt on the other.
3. Pour the olive oil over and then mix while adding the water. You want the dough to be tacky but not sticky.
4. Place the ball of dough on an clean surface coated in olive oil, begin kneading.
5. Adding more oil as necessary, knead for 10 minutes (or until the dough can be stretched about a forearm’s length without breaking).
6. Leave to rise, in a warm place. The longer you can leave it, the better. If you can prep it in the morning for dinner, perfect.

Preparing the sauce (30 mins, concurrent with dough rising):

1. The sauce is quick to make, so can be started much later.
2. Dice the onion and fry over a moderate heat.
3. When the onion is translucent, add the garlic (also diced).
4. When the edge of the garlic starts to brown, add the passata over the top and bring to the boil.
5. Add the herbs, adding more to taste.
6. Remove from heat when thickened, this is again to personal preference (I like a thin sauce).

Making pizza (<10 mins per pizza):

1. Pre-heat the pizza stone in the oven at maximum temperature, or otherwise prep the pizza oven.
2. With the sauce and toppings to hand, take the dough and place on a surface.
3. Knock the air out of the risen dough.
4. Cut off an amount of dough, between a table-tennis ball and a baseball. This is proportional to how thick you would like the base (I like a snooker ball).
5. Dusting the surface with semolina, roll the ball into a disk about 12 inches, adding more semolina underneath as necessary to stop sticking.
6. (Optional) Roll a crust, by pinching and folding the edge while rotating.
7. Remove the stone from the oven, or open the pizza oven, and place the base on the stone.
8. Spread a small amount of sauce over the base (experiment with the amount you like).
9. Add the toppings, with the mozzarella last.
10. Place in the oven, and allow to cook, checking every minute.
11. If making multiple pizza, you can prep the next one now.
12. Remove when the cheese just starts to brown.

Enjoy!

Some examples…