Fig and Ricotta Pizza and Tomato Black Olive Mozarella Pizza

I was looking at my label for Pizza and realized I do not post too many pizza recipes and I do not eat too many pizzas anymore. Yes like everyone else my generation I was hooked to all those Pizza brands but one that I most loved was Sicillian. It was a small outlet in our cafeteria at work and they knew how to really bake the pizza base and the topping perfectly this while others used readymade pizza bases.

Recently I was browsing thru two recipe books actually I was just enjoying the pictures when I spotted a recipe for a thin crust dough. I just need to try it and it was so good I though I'd share it with you here.

We, that's Dad and me insist on crisp pizzas, limp will not do for us. So this recipe looked promising. Also I decided to try new toppings along with a standard veggie pizza of Tomato and black olives, dependable as it is.

Ingredients

For the dough (Reference: The Taj Magazine)

100 gms flour

1.5 tablespoons olive oil

salt to taste

1/4 teaspoon yeast

40 ml water

In the magazine all it says is knead the pizza dough and roll it out into a round base. Put on pizza tray.

However here is what I do from my experience of making pizza doughs.

Warm the water for 15 secs in the microwave. Add yeast and sprinkle some flour over it. Let it bloom for 10 mins. Now in a bowl measure out the flour. Slowly add the bubbled yeast liquid into the flour and bring it together in a ball. On a counter place 1/4 teaspoon salt and pour the 1.5 tablespoons olive oil over it. Now remove the dough on the counter and knead together with salt and olive oil for 5 mins. Make a smooth ball and divide into 2 portions.

Roll out the dough into two bases. I made one 8 inch base and another rectangular base.  Line the baking trays with foil if needed and place the base in it. Some trays do not have textured surface and it is tough to clean so I always line with foil.

Toppings for Pizza I

2 Sweet fresh figs sliced

1 cup Ricotta cheese, mine is homemade

2 pinches dried Thyme

2 pinches dried chili flakes

1/8 cup Balsamic vinegar

Bake the pizza base at 300 deg celcius for 15 mins. Remove from oven and sprinkle ricotta cheese. Place the fig slices over the ricotta. Drizzle the balsamic vinegar over. Sprinkle the thyme and follow in with chilli flakes. You can either put it into the oven for another 10 mins, till the ricotta bubbles or eat it straight once topped. 

The flavours of this pizza are amazing. Its not your everyday pizza and we loved it with the standard tomato black olive pizza. One was a main the other a wonderful dessert pizza!

Toppings for Pizza II

1/4 cup tomato sauce
1/2 cup grated mozarella and processed cheese mix
2 tomatoes sliced
a handful of olives sliced
2 teaspoons Itallian herbs
1 teaspoon dried chili flakes

On the second pizza base spread the tomato sauce, top it with cheese. Lay the tomato slices and spread evenly the olive slices. Dust with mixed Itallian herbs and chili flakes. 

Bake the pizza at 300 deg celsius for 20 mins or till desired crispness.

Enjoy the two pizzas!

Tricolored Peppers N Paneer Pizza

This was a quick dinner one cold night in Blr in the winter season. I had tricolored bell peppers and a "pizza must be made" urge. No cheese except fresh paneer was in the fridge. Yet when you crave for some pizza who can stop you.

I use Jamie Oliver's recipe to make pizza dough. Those were made ready first and then topped with red chili sauce and then tomato ketchup. 

In a big bowl crumble very fresh paneer, mix in the rough chopped onions, cubed tomatoes, diced red, yellow and green bell peppers that were deseeded.

 

Finally on top the pizza bases with the mixed vegetables and paneer. I used the microwave+grill mode to bake the pizzas. It took 20 mins.

It was such a colorful meal, if there were kids around I am sure they would have been thrilled. They tasted like Paneer tikka and veggie skewer on pizza base. Yummy.

Two Pizzas II: Onion Tomato Cheddar

This version is with just Pizza base, Onion and tomato slices with Amul Cheddar cheese shredded over it and speckled with Oregano. Baked till the cheese bubbles into beautiful brown freckles @ 250 deg Celsius in a preheated oven. In 15 mins you get a wonderful one.

Cheddar is less fattier than Gouda.

Two Pizzas I: Baby Corn, Capsicum, Tomato, Gouda

I used Pizza base from "Daily Bread" I avoided butter altogether. Layered the veggies, Capsicum slices, Tomatoes sliced into 8 pieces and Baby corn sliced on top. Sprinkled some crushed garlic. Finally covered with slices of Gouda cheese from Amul. In a pre-heated oven baked this pizza @ 250 deg centigrade till the base showed browning on the side and the cheese was completely molten, about 20 mins. Removed it from the oven and sprinkled with some dried rosemary and thyme.

The taste of a home baked pizza is always superlative. The large pieces of tomatoes tasted luscious. The gouda sealed the veggies perfectly onto the base and gave that effect of stretchy cheese we love to have on the pizza. I served it with ketchup as I had not used any sauce to spice up the pizza. What I noted was Gouda releases a lot of fat at high temperature making the pizza rich even though we have skipped butter or oil completely.

This series is for my colleague Seema as she revel in the pleasure of baking with her new LG microwave oven.

Colorful Pizza

Does anyone need a recipe for a good pizza. Most will say nah~~~. Plus I am not an Italian that people will beg me for a recipe of all the things a PIZZA.

Anyways this blog is a log of my experiments in the kitchen so here I go.

This was the first time I made a pizza from scratch. It tastes wonderful. Earlier to this I used a readymade base that I never liked. I wanted a base like the ones in Pizzerias. I made the dough exactly like the basic bread and rolled it out like a chapati and let it rise for an hour. Then before baking just scored the bread as I did not want a dome. Baked it for 10 mins in a preheated oven. Just to set it a bit so the topping don’t make the bread soggy.



Then topping went in this order

Tomato sauce
Mozzarella cheese yeah I like it below so it forms a bed for the veggies and they roast well.
Next the halved cherry tomatoes
The sliced olives
Baked for 30 mins till the veggies looked nicely baked
Removed from the oven and sprinkled oregano before serving.