Italian night-in

Picked up a glossy free magazine from Tesco few days ago, didn't really expect to get much from it.  The magazine surprisingly filled with dozen and dozens of recipes and all looked quite fun (and easy!) to make.  Of which, fresh pizza dough is one of the many things my husband and I had always thought of tackling.

We followed Tesco's recipe of making a florentine pizza last Sunday, and last night, after having Chinese food for many stay-in nights, I decided to have a 2nd take on the home-made pizza!  (Well, part of the reasons was to kill the left over tomato and mozzarella cheese)

Rocket and parma ham pizza (makes 2)

Dough

250g strong bread flour
1/2 tsp caster sugar
7g dried yeast (this equals to 1 sachet of the yeast I recommend in my previous post)
1 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
150ml luke warm water

Topping

200g tin chopped tomato (just get the cheapest one from the super market)
1/2 mozzarella ball, tear in small pieces
a handful of grated cheese (emmental or mozzarella are both nice)
35g rocket leaves
5-6 slices of parma ham

1. In a large bowl, mix together flour, sugar, 1 tsp salt and yeast.  Stir in oil and add water to form a soft dough.  If it is too sticky, sprinkle with more flour.

2. Transfer the dough onto a floured surface and knead for 10 mins.  Put into an oiled bowl and cover with cling film.   Rest the dough in an un-preheated oven, to keep the dough moist, I also placed a bowl of boiling water on the bottom of the oven.  Rest for 1 hour until it's doubled in size.

Cover the dough with cling film and spread olive oil on the bowl before placing the dough.

3. Cook the tomato in a saucepan until thickened and reduced.  Season with 1 tsp of sugar to off set the sourness of the tomato.  Season with salt and pepper to taste.

Reduce the sauce by cooking in a sauce pan over medium heat.

4.  Preheat the oven to 200C.

5. Remove the dough from the bowl on to clean surface again.  Punch it a few times to remove large air bubbles from the dough.  Divide into 2 balls.  Roll out each into a very thin pizza base.  Place them onto a tray lined with baking paper.

Punch hard on the dough and remove air bubbles from the dough.

Roll out into a very thin pizza base.

6. To prevent a soggy base, spread a thin layer of olive oil on the pizza before spreading the tomato sauce.  Then sprinkle with teared mozzarella and grated cheese.

After sprinkling the cheese, it is ready to bake!

7.  Bake for 8 mins or until crisp.

Bake for 8 mins until crispy.

8. Sprinkle with rocket leaves and parma ham.  Season with olive oil, salt and pepper to taste.

Final touches: add rocket leaves and parma ham!  Drizzle with olive oil.