Vegetarian Pizza
Recently, there was a small get together in my mum’s place and my brother decided to order pizza from a popular pizza company. He spent about S$200 and when I tried a pizza slice, I was so disappointed! It is a shame that a popular pizza company is selling such dry pizza with no fragrance and topped with really cheap cheese that is bad for health. Pizza is easy to make and you don’t have to leave it to the Italians to do it. In fact, I think pizza making is as easy as making chapatti at home. Hahaha! You can make the base with plain, atta or multi-grain flour. You can pile on any of your favourite toppings on it. I am sharing a Vegetarian Pizza recipe here. Just remember that if you wish to top the pizza with green leaves like fresh basil, arugula, moringa leaves and so on, you need to sprinkle them over the pizza right when it comes out of the oven. The residual heat from the pizza will wilt the green leaves just slightly and bring out their flavour. Just watch that you don’t put too many toppings on the pizza as it will take longer for the crust cook, and also it may become too soggy. As for cheese, buy only good quality cheese to eat and don’t go overboard with cheese sprinkling (though they are so tasty) to stay healthy.
Preparation time: 15 minutes
Cooking time: 15 minutes
Serves: 6
500 g bread flour
1 sachet instant yeast
10 g salt
15 g extra virgin olive oil
270 ml milk or water
METHOD
- Combine flour, yeast and salt together in a large mixing bowl and stir in the oil and milk or water. Mix well to form a soft dough.
- Turn the dough out on to a floured work surface and knead for about five minutes, until smooth and elastic.
- Transfer to a clean bowl, cover with a damp tea towel and leave to rise for about one and a half hours or until doubled in size.
- When the dough has risen, knock it back, and then knead again until smooth. Roll into a ball and set aside for 30 minutes to 1 hour until risen again.
- Preheat the oven to its highest setting.
- Divide the dough into 4 balls and roll each one out onto a lightly floured work surface until 20 cm in diameter.
TO MAKE THE PIZZA TOPPING
Cooking time: 15 minutes
Preparation time: 15 minutes
Serves: 6
20 g olive oil
300 g shallots, peeled and halved or quartered according to size
450 g leeks, cut into 3 cm pieces
60 g whole garlic cloves
10 g caster sugar
2 big sprigs rosemary, needles stripped from stalks
15 g garlic cloves, finely chopped
180 g feta cheese
Freshly ground sea salt and black pepper
METHOD
- Heat oil in a large wok and add in the shallots, leeks and garlic. Sauté over a medium-high heat for 15 minutes, stirring every now and then until golden.
- Stir in the sugar and cook a minute or two. Season with salt and pepper.
- Preheat the oven to 200°C.
- Put the pizza bases on greased baking sheets. Spoon the onion mixture over the pizza bases.
- Crumble the feta cheese on the pizzas. Scatter with rosemary.
- Season with black pepper and salt.
- Bake for 15 minutes or until the edges turn golden brown.
- Serve while still hot.
