Anchovy & Red Jalapeño Pizza
The basic pizza crust can be pre made & frozen, ideal for when you’re cooking for a large group of friends. Why bother with takeout?
- 350 g Flour
- 200 ml Warm Water
- 1tbsp olive oil
- 7g Sachet Yeast
- 1tsp salt
- 500g Passata
- 3 cloves garlic
- 1 ball of light mozzarella
- handful of cheddar cheese
- Jar of pickled jalapeños
- Tin of anchovy fillets in olive oil
First things first, you’ll want to get the dough made – this is the most difficult part of the process but after this it’s plain sailing. Promise. If you’re clever you’ll have some dough in your freezer ready for thawing & baking.
Add the flour, yeast & salt into a large bowl and mix thoroughly. Make a well in the centre of this mixture.
Next, gradually add the water & olive oil to the mix – adding gradually to make sure you don’t saturate the dough. This stage can be done with a spoon if you’re not up for getting your hands dirty just yet.
Once the dough resembles the above picture you’ll want to start kneading (Mixing / Stretching the dough with your hands) Lightly flour a clean surface and place the dough on it.
You’ll want to do this for around 5 minutes to get the dough to rise – once it resembles below and has begun to rise, put it back in it’s bowl under a damp tea towel. How long you leave it for depends on what style you like your dough, I like mine to be thin & crispy so I only left it for the duration of the time that it took me to make the tomato sauce.
To make your sauce you’ll only need a couple of ingredients (Why over complicate things!) Begin by browning off your garlic just to release it’s aromas (this can be done over a low heat with 1 tsp of olive oil) Once it’s browned off add your passata and bring to a simmer to reduce.
Whilst your sauce is simmering you can return to your dough, you’ll notice that it has risen slightly and is a lot smoother than previously.
Next you’ll want to roll your dough out, no rolling pin? NO PROBLEM! At this stage you can use anything to roll your dough out, I used a full balsamic vinegar bottle. Initiative can be low when hungover, but you can use pretty much any bottle filled with liquid for this purpose. At this point it’s also wise to preheat your oven to 220C
Lightly oil a baking tray and then roll your dough out to be larger than the baking tray that you intend to use. The excess can then be folded down to make a crust.
Next, put your untopped dough in your preheated oven for 5 minutes to ensure that the base cooks prior to the next stage.
Remove from the oven and top with the tomato sauce.
Then top with your toppings, I’ve used anchovy & red jalapeño but feel free to use absolutely anything you have lying around!
Finally, bake for 10 – 15 minutes and pat yourself on the back for cooking a beaut of a pizza.
Plate up with a side salad and then feel free to ponder where your phone / wallet / keys are.
