Homemade Pizza's

The combination of a special anniversary and a generous gift of an aged bottle of red prompted me to make something a little different. Laura recommended this and it was wonderful!


I had some help in the kitchen, which made it fun and even easier.

Please, please take the time to make these. They are a taste sensation!

You don't need to make homemade pizza dough. Pita and or store-bought bases would be just fine.

375ml (1 1/2 cups) warm water
2 tsp (7g) dried yeast
Pinch of caster sugar
600g (4 cups) plain flour
1 tsp salt
60ml (1/4 cup) olive oil, plus extra for brushing

Combine the warm water, yeast and sugar in a small bowl and put aside for 5 minutes until foamy.

In another bowl, put the flour and salt and make a well in the centre. Add the yeast mixture and oil.

In a cutting motion mix until the mixture is combined. Use your hands to bring the dough together in the bowl.

Turn the dough onto a lightly floured surface and knead for 10 minutes until smooth and elastic.

Place in an oiled prepared bowl and turn to coat in oil. Cover with plastic wrap and set aside in a warm, draught-free place to rise for 30 minutes or until dough doubles in size.

Pull off as much dough as you need and stretch and roll out to the shape and thickness you like your pizza at. It didn't rise a lot.

Side note - we had far too much dough, so we made little balls and rolled them in a little oil and then cinnamon sugar and baked them for 10 minutes. Yummo!

Back to the pizzas, the reason why all this came up in conversation with Laura was that she had sent me some wonderful tapenade or kalamatta paste from here work. See here - http://www.olivegroves.com.au/

Across the road from her gorgeous shop (if you're ever in Hanhdorf, please check it out) is another great place called Udder Delights who produce wonderful cheese including a chevre, see here - http://www.udderdelights.com.au/cheeserange.htm

Laura's topping, as they went on were (see very first photo) -

2 tbsps Kalamatta paste/tapenade
several slices of prosciutto
couple sprigs of fresh thyme
several cherry tomatoes, halved
crumbled chevre

Place in hot oven for 10 - 15 minutes, remove and sprinkle with fresh basil and eat!

The second one in the order the toppings went on (see below) -

3 tbsp tomato paste or tomato sauce
light grating of parmesan cheese
few slices of prosciutto (optional)
fresh basil
cherry tomatoes, quartered
more grated parmesan

S