Homemade Sunday night pizza

Mmm, so delicious, and so simple. Sunday night pizza, except homemade, and with just a few simple ingredients. Perfection!

We used a Donna Hay recipe from an autumn issue a few years ago, and threw on some stuff we had in the fridge.

I made two types: proscuitto, parsley and olive, and potato and rosemary. The proscuitto pizza also had a spoonful of tomato passata smeared across its base, unlike the potato and rosemary. Cheese-free, of course!
They were just the right size, with nice crispy bready bottoms, not too filling, but just right.

Mushroom pizza is my absolute favourite. The trick is to pre-cook the mushrooms in water so that they don't dry out in the oven. Slice your mushrooms and put them in a bowl of water in the microwave. Cook for a few minutes: they just need to lose that raw edge. I also like to add some sliced raw garlic to the mushrooms. The water cooking makes the garlic lose some of its pungent flavour and also protects it from the oven. Drain the mushrooms before sprinkling onto your pizza base.

Other pizzas we've made include fresh tomato, blue cheese and basil as well as potato, rosemary and salami. They truly are better the less toppings you add. And fantastic the next day, as well.

Here's my recipe for basic pizza dough, after Donna Hay.

2 and a half teaspoons active dry yeast

One teaspoon of sugar

1 cup lukewarm water

2 and three quarters cups of '00' flour

1 tsp salt

Mix yeast, sugar and water, and set it aside in a warm place for a few minutes, until bubbles appear. This means the yeast is ready and raring to go! Put flour and salt in a bowl, add yeast mixture and mix with hand to form a dough. Knead dough on a lightly floured surface for about 5 minutes, or until smooth, elastic and skin-like. Cut the dough into four or six even balls. Put them on a floured tray under a damp teatowel, and sit them in a warm place for about half an hour or until doubled in size. In winter, I usually create a warm spot by putting the oven on low heat and sitting the tray on the stove. It gently warms the air above and makes your dough rise really well. In summer, don't bother. Just sit the tray anywhere and wait for the rising.

Using more flour, roll out each ball into a round: not too thin though. Place your round on a piece of baking paper, and add your toppings.

Have the baking trays or pizza trays preheating in your hot oven (220 C). As soon as the toppings are on, lift the pizza (on its paper) onto the hot trays, and throw back into the oven. This makes your base cook quickly, crisply and evenly.

They should be done in ten to fifteen minutes.