Pizza

Pizza was named as a poor man’s food, as you can probably tell by the ingredients (flour, water and yeast) being so simple and cost effective. But, let me tell you the history first. It first started in Napoli. It was first just a basic flat bread with any veg, meat, or fish they can get their hands on or afford, but Raffaele Esposito got asked to make one for Queen Margarita back in the day and so he made one, representing the Italian flag by using tomato for the red , basil for the green, and mozzarella for the white. In the end the queen loved it, so they called it the famous Margarita pizza and from then it still goes on now.

Cooking Methods

There are many different ways you can cook it such as deep frying, which is a technique first started in Scotland (believe it or not). You get a stretched and flattened disc of dough and toss it in a deep fryer for several minutes so it puffs up. The fried dough base is crispy on the outside and light and fluffy on the inside. It is then topped with tomato sauce and cheese, and then baked in a wood-burning oven to melt the cheese. The next technique is stone-baked, this technique is used a lot in Napoli as it is quick, easy, and takes no time at all to cook the pizza. (This is the best way and just amazing) you get your dough, stretch it and then top it with what you like and then chuck it in the stone baked oven, wait 2 mins, and done. It leaves the pizza a nice soft but crispy texture with a nice chew to the dough as well (like the perfect bread, soft, crispy, and a little chewy) and doesn’t take long at all in the oven. A calzone it is basically a folded pizza (like a English Cornish pasty).

Pizza Dough Recipe (Makes 4 Pizzas)

Ingredients

• 500 grams 00 flour
• 1 tea spoon salt
• 7g/1 packet of yeast
• 325ml warm water

Method

1. Start by pouring the flour into a mixing bowl, add the salt, and mix together with your finger tips.
2. In a measuring jug, put lukewarm water and mix in the sachet of yeast, give it a good stir until the water turns cloudy.
3. Mix the water with the flour and start to kneed the bread, use more flour to wash your hands (you will understand when you get to this point it gets messy).
4. Once kneaded, divide the dough in 4 balls on a tray or a large container and cover with a damp cloth and place the tray in a dark warm place such as an airing cardboard and leave until doubled in size.
5. Once risen you can now roll out your pizza dough and start to get creative. Don't forget tomato sauce, then cheese, then toppings.

It is amazing how pizza was looked down upon back then, and now everybody is eating it. Breakfast, lunch, dinner, and even dessert. Everyone loves pizza. You can do so much to it, it is unreal. Turn it into a calzone, you could use the left-over dough and make a focaccia, you could deep fry it. Not even that, but the toppings of the pizzas, there are just so many things you can do with it.

All I can say is “Everyone loves pizza.” It isn’t just an easy cheap meal, now it brings people together, and with the variety of toppings, it’s just too good. It is going to be one of those meals you need to have in your weekly meal plans as you can make it a low-calorie meal. All you need to do is just add less cheese and fill it with your 5 a day.