Our semi-regular trip to Pizza Express for St. Valentine's Day.

Click on the thumbnail to view the image

The pizza base was made using some root vegetable mash which was in the freezer. I can't remember which vegetables were there but I think it included carrots, sweet potato and possibly turnip. The mash was quite coarse so I puréed it, added 3 quail eggs (equivalent to 1 small egg) and a splash of vegetable oil. I gradually added plain flour and cornmeal until the texture became a bit dryer and more dough like. I didn't add any yeast.

I roughly shaped the base before putting it on a hot pizza stone, followed by a bit more spreading out. The pizza sauce was our usual favourite, red pesto. I topped the pizza with some thinly sliced onion, courgette and chilli pepper, then sprinkled on some assorted cheeses.

I cooked it for the usual 15 minutes at gas mark 7. The base was very similar to a shop-bought potato cake but with a lot more flavour.

The pizza dough was based on our normal pizza base with a few changes: We used 1½ cups of plain flour and ½ cups of fine polenta, and we added a teaspoon of dried chillies to the mix. We no longer add the vegetable oil but add 1 medium egg (or about 5 quail eggs).

The sauce was made by mixing together 1 tablespoon of wasabi powder with 1 tablespoon of cream cheese. For the topping we grilled 2 tuna steaks and flaked them onto the pizza. We added grilled asparagus and a sprinkling of capers. Finally we topped it with grated cheese and cooked in a hot oven for 15 minutes.

This recipe also appears on our Pizza Blog.

meta-converted: markdown

A few weeks ago we thought it would be a good idea to make a giant pizza sized cookie, using our 10 inch pizza trays.

Recipe:

• ½ cup butter

• ½ cup peanut butter

• ½ cup white sugar

• ½ cup brown sugar

• 1 egg

• 1½ cups plain flour

• ½ teaspoon baking soda

• ½ teaspoon salt

• 1 cup chocolate chips or m&ms

Soften the butter. Mix together the butter, peanut butter and egg, then add the rest of the ingredients. Mix well.

Bake for 10-12 minutes at gas mark 5.

(See measuring cup sizes to convert cups to volume or weight or oven temperatures for conversion information.

meta-converted: markdown

Last weekend we bought a book of Pizza recipes from the National Trust 2nd hand book shops. We're going to work our way through some of the different dough and topping types but we've been impressed so far. We'd already made several dessert pizzas and calzone using our normal pizza base but the book had a recipe for a sweet base so we decided to try that.

Sweet Pizza Base

The book was published in the USA so uses cups rather than weights. Conversions can be found here.

• 1 teaspoon of bakers yeast

• 2 cups of plain white or bread flour

• 2 tablespoons of sugar

• ¼ teaspoon of salt

• 2 tablespoons vegetable oil

• 1 egg

• ½ cup warm milk

Follow the standard pizza method to make the dough. The pizza can be topped as normal or folded over to make a calzone.

Suggested Toppings

• Mincemeat - this makes a very good 'mince pie calzone'

• Summer fruits or berries - stewed with sugar to taste and a little cornflour to thicken

• Marshmallows and chocolate chunks

Saturday night has become our traditional 'home made pizza' night. Emma makes the base and I make the tomato sauce and then we sort out the toppings.

Pizza Base

• 8oz bread flour (white or wholemeal flour)
• 1 tsp bakers yeast
• pinch of salt
• 2 tps dried herbs
• pinch of salt
• 4 tsp vegetable oil
• ¼ pint warm water

Mix the yeast with a little water and wait until it starts to 'bubble'. Sift the flour into a mixing bowl and add the salt and herbs. Add the yeast, water and oil and mix to form a dough. Knead for around 10 minutes before returning it to the bowl. Leave for about an hour until it has started to rise.

Divide the mixture in two, roll out and cover with the chosen toppings. One alternative is to make a 'stuffed crust' by putting a ring of spreading cheese around the pizza, about 1 inch in from the edge. Fold the edge inwards to cover the cheese.

Tomato Sauce

• 1 tin of tomatoes
• 1 medium onion
• 2 cloves of garlic
• 2 tsp mixed herbs
• pinch of chilli flakes
• pinch of salt

Put everything in a food processor or liquidizer and puree. Pour into a pan and simmer gently for about 1 hour until the mixture has cocentrated down to a thick paste. You may need to stir occasionally to make sure it cooks down evenly and doesn't stick or burn. Leave to cool slightly before spreading on the the base.

Toppings

The range of suitable toppings is almost infinite but we tend to stick to either chicken/turkey based, seafood based or vegetable based. We sometimes do combinations such as a paella style topping, with saffron and paprika in the tomato sauce and a mixure of chicken and seafood on top.

Most of our pizza toppings include capers and anchovies along with the obligatory cheese. For the cheese we either use proper mozarella, sometimes grated cheddar or even feta. The seafood pizzas often include tinned tuna, baby clams, crabmeat and sometimes king prawns. Vegetable toppings include sliced onion and peppers or sometimes to cheat, a scattering of a frozen 'roast veg' mixture which includes peppers, courgettes and aubergines.

When everything is on the base, bake in a pre-heated oven (gas mark 6) for about 15 minutes.