Homemade Square Pizzas

Homemade square pizza

After much time spent trying to decide what would be a good recipe to start with, I settled upon homemade square pizzas. These are the perfect weekend treat, and I love how diverse they can be, thanks to the infinite combination of toppings you can concoct. We make the dough and tomato sauce ourselves, and then pick a few toppings to go on top, which sometimes vary and sometimes stay the same (depending on the level of my obsession with artichokes on the day).

The dough can take a bit of time to get right, but keep at it, as good pizza dough is a joy, and will transform your pizza! When it comes to cooking the pizzas, the trick is to turn your oven as high it goes, so as to ensure a crisp crust and a thoroughly cooked base – nothing worse than a soggy bottom.

As for the toppings, you can really put anything you like on top of a pizza – although I can’t say I’ve ever understood the appeal of ‘crispy duck pizzas’ or ‘paella pizzas’. If you can splash out, then a sprinkling of fresh basil and rocket, with a drizzle of extra virgin olive oil (or chilli oil), are the ultimate way to finish off your pizza as it emerges sizzling from the oven. I buy these as a treat every so often, but mostly make do without them – and still love the finished article.

I won’t profess to having my own dough recipe, and instead rely on the prowess of Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall. The rest is all me though, so I hope you find these as delicious as I do!

Pizza Dough Ingredients (makes 2 large pizzas)

200g strong white bread flour

200g plain white flour

5g dried, powdered yeast

10g salt

325ml warm water

1 tbsp olive oil

In a large bowl, mix the flours, yeast, salt and water together to form a sticky dough. I find it easiest just to get your hands dirty here and not faff about with wooden spoons or other fancy instruments. Next mix in the oil to the dough, and then sprinkle your work surface with plain flour, before tipping the dough out onto the surface and kneading it until it is smooth, stretchy and silky (which sounds worryingly like an advert for anti-ageing cream). Everyone has different kneading techniques, but I tend to find that the heel of the hand works pretty well. If you’re unsure, then Paul Hollywood offers some great kneading tips in this short video. Keep kneading until the dough reaches the right constituency (and you are embarrassingly tired and your arms are aching far more than you care to admit). Shape the dough into a round, then place in a bowl, cover with a tea towel or clean plastic bag and leave it to prove somewhere warm and toasty for approximately an hour, or until satisfyingly doubled in size.

Pizza dough

Tomato Sauce Ingredients

1tbsp sunflower or vegetable oil

1 small red onion

2 large cloves of garlic

1tsp balsamic vinegar

400g tin of chopped tomatoes

1tsp dried basil

Salt and pepper to season

Whilst the dough is proving, make the tomato sauce. Heat the oil in the pan, and finely chop the onion and garlic cloves. Add the onion to the hot oil, and fry for a couple of minutes until soft and transparent. Add the garlic and fry for one minute, before adding the balsamic vinegar and frying for a further 30 seconds. This is a new trick I’ve discovered, and gives the sauce an extra richness and depth. Next add the tinned tomatoes and dried basil, and leave to cook for half an hour. Stir occasionally, and season with salt and pepper. You want the sauce to be fairly reduced, so as to ensure it doesn’t seep off the edges of your pizza base and leave you with the dreaded soggy bottom.

Heat the oven to 220c in preparation for cooking the pizzas, and whilst the sauce cooks, you could watch this Tedx Talk from Laura Bates, the founder of The Everyday Sexism Project. She’s completely brilliant, and watching her talk is a wonderful, mind-improving use of your time (or at least it will be if you are as good at time wasting as I am). This brilliant talk, and the Project itself, are both really important  factors in raising awareness of how both sexism and harassment have become commonplace in the lives of so many women, and some men too. The Project is a place for people to come together and share their experiences, thereby enabling others to realise just how bad things have got, and to work together to change this aspect of many a woman’s life. It’s so important that this side of our culture change, and Laura Bates is doing excellent work to make that happen.

Pizza Toppings

2 mozzarella balls, sliced

50g black olives, pitted and halved

1tbsp capers

1 large red pepper, sliced

1/2 tin of artichoke hearts, quartered

1/2 red onion, chopped

Pizza toppings

Once your dough has doubled in size, tip it out onto the surface and divide it into two equal pieces. Roll out the two pieces into squares, about 2-4mm thick. Take out a tray from your oven, and carefully manoeuvre the dough onto the tray.  Spread half the tomato sauce evenly across the pizza base, before adding your toppings of choice. I’ve gone for artichoke hearts, black olives, capers, red pepper, red onion and mozzarella. Also delicious are mushrooms, jalapeños, ricotta, and anchovies – but really the toppings are entirely up to you, and are the most fun, inventive part of it. Your pizza is now ready to be cooked, so slide it into the oven for 10-12 minutes, or until the crusts are golden brown, and the mozzarella is bubbling away. Drizzle with olive oil, chilli oil or sriracha and tuck in! Happy munching!

Perfectly cooked toppings!