Pizza payday

The father of a very good friend of mine has a rare talent for making his own pizzas from scratch. He reckons when he retires he'll sell the recipe and make some money out of it. Having sampled one of his pizzas over the Christmas Holiday I could readily agree with the reasoning behind his tasty pension plan.

With these quality pizzas to live up to I decided to have a got my own homemade pizza during the damp early days of January. As I began to make the dough the sounds of a much maligned act found their way onto my CD player in the shape of Jethro Tull's 1974 album Warchild. Often dismissed by those not in the know as a pompous prog rock act listened to only by sad anoraks and country yokels  the subject matter of the band's songs which cover such topics as the pitfalls of celebrity and environmental concerns are as relevant today as they were when originally released in the seventies. Plus the band boasts one of the best guitarists in rock who has almost as many memorable riffs at his disposal as Black Sabbath's Tony Iommi or the Stones' Keith Richards.

To make the dough I put eight ounces of strong white bread flour into a mixing bowl with one sachet of yeast, two tablespoons of milk, two tablespoons of warm water, three tablespoons of olive oil and a beaten egg. I then used a metal table spoon to mix these ingredients together until I had a soft, slightly damp dough. In order to make it dry enough to roll out I added some extra flour which I kneaded into the dough and then exercised my limited upper body strength to punch the air from the dough and make it pliable enough to roll out.

I rolled the dough out after first having left on the window sill of the warmest place in the house to rise for an hour. The dough was rolled out until it was a twenty-five centimetres wide circle and to stop the topping of the pizza falling off when cooking it I made a centimetre high lip around the outer circumference of the dough. I put the dough on a greased baking tray and left it to one side as it was time to make the topping.

In a wide frying pan I lightly fried one diced red pepper, five finely sliced cloves of garlic, two carefully sliced large red onions and a teaspoon of oregano. Once the onions began to turn translucent and the pepper began to soften I added a can of tinned tomatoes and a half-sized can of tomato puree and let the contents of the pan cook for another five minutes. After cooking for the five minute period I found I had a rich topping which I poured into the pizza base and spread evenly over it. I then added thirteen stoneless black olives to the topping and arranged them in an aesthetically pleasing manner.

I cooked the pizza for fifteen minutes in the oven at 210 degrees (more like 218 degrees if you don't have a fan oven) and then turned down the oven to 165 degrees (175 degrees for non-fan ovens) and cooked it for another fifteen minutes. I knew the pizza was ready as the edges of the dough had begun to turn a deep chestnut brown.

For a first effort I was reasonably pleased with the pizza as the dough provided plenty of protein and the oregano helped give the topping a distinctive taste to complement the substantial fruit and vegetables contained in it. Next time however I'll put cheese in the pizza as that will give it more taste and texture and the chance to match my friend's dad as premier pizza maker in the area.

The final product with a rich topping and plenty of olives.