Veg Pizza My Style

I'll walk you through the the process of making a yummy mouth-watering pizza!

So what if it's not easy we can always give it a try, as the saying goes try and try till you succeed.

I'm sure this recipe will help you, just focus on the details.

Let’s begin!

INGREDIENTS

For pizza dough:

·         All purpose flour (Maida) - 3 cups

·         Rapid rise yeast or active dry yeast - 1 packet or 2¼ teaspoons

·         Olive oil - 2 tablespoons

·         Lukewarm water - 1 cup

·         Salt -to taste

For pizza sauce:

·         Tomatoes - 6-7 medium

·         Olive oil - 2 tablespoons

·         Onion - ¼ cup, finely chopped

·         Garlic - 2-3 cloves, finely chopped

·         Dried basil - 1 teaspoon or 2 tablespoons fresh

·         Dried thyme - 1 teaspoon

·         Oregano - 1 teaspoon, instead all three dry spices, you can use mix Italian herbs

·         Red chili flakes - ½ teaspoon or to taste

·         Ground black pepper - to taste

·         Salt -to taste

For toppings:

·         Onion - 1 small, sliced

·         Green bell pepper - ½ small, sliced

·         Red bell pepper - ½ small, sliced

·         Jalapeno - 1 or 2, sliced

·         Black Olives - as required

·         Mozzarella cheese - as required

·         Dried herbs like oregano, basil, chili flakes - to taste

METHOD

For the Pizza dough:

1.      If using active dry yeast then sprinkle yeast over 1 cup of lukewarm water and set aside for 10 minutes, so it becomes frothy. But if you using rapid rise yeast like me skip this step and add yeast in the recipe as such, no need to dissolve in water.

2.      Take all purpose flour, salt, olive oil, yeast and water (yeast water in case of active dry yeast) in a food processor with dough blade.

3.      And knead into dough, remove it and make smooth ball by hand. You can make the dough by hand just like we make chapati dough.

4.      In a large bowl, apply some olive oil and place the dough ball. Apple some oil on the surface of the dough. Cover it with plastic wrap or kitchen towel. Let it rise in the warm place for 1½ hours to 2 hours or till it becomes double in size.

For the pizza sauce:

1.      Meanwhile dough is rising, make the sauce. Blanch the tomatoes in enough water and peel the skin and mash it or puree it.

2.      Heat the oil in a pan, once hot add onion, sauté till it becomes translucent.

3.      Then add chopped garlic and cook for 1-2 minute.

4.      Then add mashed tomatoes and dried or fresh herbs along with salt, pepper and chili flakes. Mix well.

5.      Let it cook for 20-15 minutes. If there are big pieces of tomatoes then keep mashing as it cooks and becomes soft.

6.      This is optional, but I have sautéed very lightly the topping vegetables in little oil with some dried herbs.

Assembling and baking pizza:

1.      Pre-heat the oven to 450-500 degree F for at least 10-15 minutes.

2.      Slightly flatten the risen the dough and divide it into 3 equal dough balls.

3.      Work with one at a time. Take the one ball on floured surface and roll it into a 8-9 inch round for thin crust pizza or 6 inch round for regular crust.

4.      Spread some tomato sauce.

5.      Top it with the vegetables.

6.      Sprinkle the cheese on top.

7.      Bake into pre heated oven for 15-18 minutes. To make it crispy crust, bake first 10 minutes on middle rack and last 5-7 minutes at bottom surface of the oven.

8.      Remove it from the oven, slice and serve.

And the pizza is ready

Serve it straight from the oven hot