I think we can agree on one thing: everybody loves pizza. And isn’t it great to be able to make it at home? Yes, it does take some time to make – mainly because the dough for the crest needs time to raise. But it’s totally worth it, I swear! It’s also fairly simple, so don’t be afraid to give it a try.

Crust

(for one 36x36cm tray – it turns out very thick, use half of the ingredients if you prefer your pizza with thin crust)

• 4 heaping cups of plain flour
• 50g fresh yeast
• 2 tablespoons of vegetable oil
• 1 teaspoon of salt
• 1 teaspoon of sugar
• 1/2 cup of warm (but not hot! just slightly above lukewarm temperature) water
• ~1 extra cup of warm water

Crumble the yeasts into 1/2 cup of warm water. Add sugar and one teaspoon of flour. Leave for 15 minutes.

Combine flour, oil and salt in a bowl, stir. Make a well in the flour and add the yeast mixture. Combine all ingredients and knead the dough adding water – not too much, only as much as you need to wet the flour and make all ingredients combine. I usually end up using no more than 1 cup. The dough will be very thick and dry – that’s fine, it will puff up and become fluffier.

Leave for 1.5-2h to rise.

Tomato sauce

• 400g of tomatoes (I use canned, chopped tomatoes – if you prefer to use fresh, use 4-5 and add 2-3 teaspoons of tomato paste for more intense taste and colour)
• 1 onion, chopped
• 2-3 cloves of garlic, chopped
• 1 tablespoon of butter
• salt, pepper, basil, oregano or any other herbs of your choice

Melt butter in a pan. Add onion and garlic and cook on low heat for a few minutes, until golden in colour and soft. Add tomatoes, season to taste. Cook on low heat until most of the water from tomatoes has evaporated and the sauce has a nice, thick texture.

Garlic sauce (optional)

• 1 cup of natural yoghurt
• 1 tablespoon of mustard
• 1 tablespoon of mayonnaise
• 3-4 cloves of garlic, pressed
• sprinkle of salt, pepper – to taste

Combine all ingredients and leave for at least an hour.

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Grease the tray with butter and spread the dough on it, spread tomato sauce on the dough. Use toppings of your choice. This time I went for ham, salami, green and black olives, sweetcorn, chilli and cheese.

Pre-heat the oven to 220°C. Bake for 15 minutes.

If you like, serve with garlic sauce or ketchup.

Enjoy!

• Savoury