Pizza, as we all know is a savory dish of Italian origin, consisting of a usually round, flattened base of leavened dough topped with tomato based sauce, cheese, and various other ingredients (onions, vegetables, peppers, meat, etc.) baked at a high temperature. This version of pizza has five peppers: green, red, orange, yellow and jalapeno along with onion, tomato, olives and generous amount of grated mozzarella cheese and flavorful marinara base sauce. Though it is a time consuming process, the end result is an amazing 8 inch pizza with soft crust and colourful toppings and is certainly better than the store bought pizza. Come, let’s see how to make this perfect recipe at home from the scratch with easy method and step by step pictures.
Author: PRIYA SRINIVAS
Cuisine: Italian
Preparation time: 15 minutes
Resting time: 60 minutes
Making time: 10 minutes
Baking temperature and time: 410° F ( 210° C) for 20 to 23 minutes
Serves: 2
Ingredients
Pizza base:
- All purpose flour- 1.5 cups + extra
- Instant dry yeast- 1 tbsp
- Sugar- 1 tsp
- Water- 1/2 cup
- Salt- as required
- Oil- 2 tbsp + 1 tsp
Toppings:
- Pizza sauce- 4 tbsp
- Chilli flakes- 1 tsp
- Oregano- 1 tsp
- Jalapeño- 2 tbsp sliced
- Olives- 10 slices
Thinly slice the following veggies:
- Onion- 1/2
- Tomato- 1 deseeded
- Green capsicum- 1/4
- Red capsicum- 1/4
- Yellow capsicum- 1/4
- Orange capsicum- 1/4
Method:
1. To a large mixing bowl, add warm water, sugar and yeast.
2. When the mixture becomes frothy (takes 1-2 min) , add all purpose flour, salt, and mix with hands, add some more flour if needed and sprinkle oil to form non sticky dough (like chapati dough)
3. Cover the bowl with cling wrap and rest in a warm place for 1 hour. I placed it inside the oven with the lights on.
4. In the meantime, slice the toppings and keep them ready.
5. After 1 hour, the dough would have doubled in size. Puncture it with your knuckles to release air and add more flour and knead
6. Place the dough between two parchment papers, flatten and roll gently with rolling pin. Grease an 8 inch pizza pan with a few drops of oil and set aside.
7. Transfer the dough onto round pizza tray and flatten the dough with your fingers to form a circle till the ends of the plate. It should be of medium uniform thickness. Make a thick border by pressing on the ends of the dough. Pizza base is ready
8. Spread pizza sauce generously on the base and add chilli flakes and oregano on top.
9. Add thin layer of finely shredded mozzarella cheese. Add half of the sliced toppings on top of the cheese.
10. Add generous amount of shredded mozzarella cheese to cover the entire base. Top it with red chilli flakes and oregano and add more toppings.
11. Preheat the oven to 410° F ( 210° C) and bake the pizza for 20 minutes. Check whether the base has turned golden brown. If not, bake for 3 to 5 more minutes. Slice into 8 with a pizza cutter and serve hot.
Potato Kitchen 