Nothing beats a fresh out of the oven pizza! These homemade pizzas are so much better than anything you can have delivered. A crisp crust and fluffy base topped with salty bacon and creamy cheese.
Makes: 2 large pizzas
Preparation Time: 2.5 hours (includes dough proving time)
Cooking Time: 10 minutes
What You’ll Need:
For the dough:
- 375g strong plain flour
- 7g yeast
- 2tbsp olive oil
- 1 tsp salt
- 200ml warm water
- 1tbsp olive oil
For the sauce:
- 2 tbsp olive oil
- 3 cloves garlic, peeled and sliced
- 1 kilo Isle of Wight Tomatoes, chopped
- Salt & pepper
- 1tsp red wine vinegar
- 1 tsp caster sugar
- Half a small bunch basil
For the toppings:
- 6 rashers of streaky bacon
- 4 mushrooms, sliced
- 1 carton Paysan Breton cream cheese, any flavour works well
- A handful of rocket salad
What To Do:
- Mix the flour, yeast, oil, and salt in a large bowl, or in the bowl of your food mixer if you have one with a dough hook. Add the warm water and knead until smooth and elastic or use the mixer for 2-3 minutes. The dough should be soft but not sticky.
- Form the dough into a ball, put it into a large, clean bowl, drizzle with a little olive oil and cover with clingfilm for 90 minutes until double its size.
- Meanwhile, make the tomato sauce. Heat the oil in a large saucepan and add the garlic, it will sizzle, swirl it around for no longer than a minute, and then add the tomatoes. Turn down the heat and leave it to cook for half an hour. Season with salt and pepper and add a splash of red wine vinegar and a little sugar, to your taste. Once done, add the torn basil and leave to cool.
- NB: This will make more sauce than you need for the pizzas but is great stirred into pasta and will keep in the fridge or freezer.
- Preheat the oven to 225°c.
- Take the dough out and knead for around 10 minutes until it’s smooth and elastic. Then cut it in half, flatten it into two circles about 25cm in diameter and put them on two baking sheets. Put the streaky bacon on another baking sheet and cook in the hot oven for 5-10 minutes until it starts to crisp.
- Spread the tomato sauce evenly over the dough then top with the mushrooms and bacon. Bake in the oven for 10 minutes.
- Remove from the oven and top with spoonful’s of Paysan Breton and a handful of rocket.
- If you like, you can pop the pizzas back in the oven for two minutes for the cheese to warm through, but the hot pizza and cold cheese is delicious just as it is!