Fireblog

First step is making the sauce.

The measurements are what I use. Feel free to add or subtract according to your taste. Finely chop about 4 balls of onion and 3 table spoons of garlic. Heat 3 tablespoons of Olive oil into a non-sticky pan. Put the onions and garlic in. Stir for about 5 minutes or until the onions are transparent, but before they turn brown. Chop about 6 tomatoes. I cut them rough coz I like the texture. In goes the tomato and puree altogether. Let the tomato juice come out. When it boils, put in the oregano, basil, and bay leaf, about 2 tablespoons each. Put in black pepper according to your taste.

Leftover Sauce

Turn down the flames and let it simmer for about an hour with stirs now and then. It is better to use a wooden spoon.

Sorry about the picture. That is leftover pizza sauce coz I only thought about making this recipe after baking the third portion of the pizza ha ha.

What to do in the next hour? Make the Pizza of course!

Put the yeast in a small glass or bowl and add 3.5 tablespoon of lukewarm water. Remember: lukewarm. Not cold, not hot. Mix them together.

Now, with a large bowl, mix the flour with a pinch of sugar and salt. You are allowed to be generous with the salt. Add 250gr of lukewarm water. Just get down and dirty with your fingers. Put the water-filled yeast into the flour mix. Use your hands. If you have a mixer, use medium speed. Add flour if the mix is sticky. After they are one, cover the bowl. About 7 minutes later, the mix should double in size. This is critical. If the mix does not expand, start over. Don’t worry, it took me two attempts to pull this one off.

Flattening the Dough

Break a chunk of the dough. Make sure the size fits your cooking table. Because I was using a cutting board, I had to split the dough into five small chunks. Do not forget to also consider the oven size. Flatten the dough with the bottom part of your palm. If you used to learn karate, this would come in handy.

Stretch! Stretch!

Hold the dough like the picture on the left. It should be vertical like the hand. Don’t mind the background coz I had to place the camera sideways in order to capture the handling position. It should be like as if you were driving; the 10 and 2 position. Just stretch a little bit and let the dough drop itself down thanks to gravity. Do this a couple of times while rotating the dough.

Some of you may not have a rolling pin. I had a rolling pin so I didn’t bother to look for it at the supermarket. When I was about to cook, however, the pin was missing. So I searched for a cylinder object and covered it with soft plastic. It cannot be thick plastic because it will ruin the dough. So… TADAAA!!! My home made “baseball bat” rolling pin was ready.

Batter Up!

Roll the dough using the pin from the center to the sides, rotate the dough a little, and then roll it again. Keep on rolling until you have a round, thin pizza about 1cm thick. Use your hands to touch up the edges. This will keep the sauce from spilling over when cooking.

Preheat the oven to number 8 of your dial. In the meantime, put the pizza sauce on top of the dough and spread it using the back of a spoon. Now this part is important. If you are using mozzarella, cover the sauce with it, then add about 2 tablespoon of parmesan cheese. Glaze the sauce with 2 tablespoons of olive oil. If you are using cheddar cheese, do not put the cheddar cheese on yet.

Put the pizza at the lowest part of the oven (least hot) and cook for 5 minutes. Turn down the heat to number 5 and wait 2 minutes. If you are using cheddar, this is the time to put the cheese on top. This is because if you put cheddar from the beginning, the cheese will dry up and be overcooked.

VOILA! Your pizza is now finished

You can add basically anything as pizza topping. From beef to chicken to seafood to salad. I myself am a simple man and thus enjoy a simple cheese pizza with the occasional green pepper and olive. When in a carnivorous state, I enjoy additional smoked beef or chicken.

So lunch last Saturday was pizza and fettuccine. I will explain how easy it is to make a cheese cream fettuccine at a later time.