PIZZA PERFECTION

Dough, glorious dough, why do you taunt me so! No real introduction needed, just a sheer love and appreciation of a bloody good pizza. DE-LI-CIOUS. I have died and gone to pizza heaven.

Dough

1 kg white bread flour or Tipo '00' flour

1 teaspoon fine sea salt

2 x 7 g dried yeast sachets

1 tablespoon golden caster sugar

4 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

650 ml lukewarm water

Sieve the flour and salt on to a clean work surface and make a well in the middle. In a jug, mix the yeast, sugar and olive oil into the water and leave for a few minutes, then pour into the well. Bring the flour in gradually from the sides and swirl it into the liquid. Keep mixing, drawing larger amounts of flour in, and when it all starts to come together, work the rest of the flour in with your clean, flour-dusted hands. Knead until you have a smooth, springy dough. Place the ball of dough in a large flour-dusted bowl and flour the top of it. Cover the bowl with a damp cloth and place in a warm room for about an hour until the dough has doubled in size.  Now remove the dough to a flour-dusted surface and knead it around a bit to push the air out with your hands. You can either use it immediately, or keep it, wrapped in clingfilm, in the fridge (or freezer) until required. If using straight away, divide the dough up into as many little balls as you want to make pizzas – this amount of dough is enough to make about six to eight medium pizzas.

Tomato Sauce

olive oil

4 cloves garlic, peeled and finely sliced

1 bunch fresh basil, leaves picked and torn

3 x 400 g good-quality tinned plum tomatoes

sea salt

freshly ground black pepper

Place a large non-stick frying pan on the heat and pour in 4 generous lugs of olive oil. Add the garlic, shake the pan around a bit and, once the garlic begins to colour lightly, add the basil and the tomatoes. Using the back of a wooden spoon, mush and squash the tomatoes as much as you can.  Season the sauce with salt and pepper. As soon as it comes to the boil, remove the pan from the heat. Strain the sauce through a coarse sieve into a bowl, using your wooden spoon to push any larger bits of tomato through. Discard the basil and garlic that will be left in the sieve, but make sure you scrape any of the tomatoey goodness off the back of the sieve into the bowl. Pour the sauce back into the pan, bring to the boil, then turn the heat down and simmer for 5 minutes to concentrate the flavours. It will be ready when it's the perfect consistency for spreading on your pizza. 

I decided to top my pizza with mozzarella (torn not chopped) and anchovies (because anchovies are delicious). The rest is really up to you! ENJOY!