4 top individual pizza with toppings
Recipe Mari Loewen, Photography Ross Cornish
For dinner pizza party get everyone involved to choose their very own toppings. Here, we share our best pizza dough (make it the night before) and best Italian meats, and cheeses.
Ingredients
1 basic pizza dough
2 cups homemade tomato sauce
Prawn and pineapple
½ pound prawns, shelled and deveined
½ cup fresh pineapple
1 cup mozzarella, grated
¼ cup well-aged Parmesan cheese. grated
Geno Salami, provolone and mozzarella
10 - 30 slices Genoa salami
1 cup mozzarella, grated
1 cup provolone, grated
¼ cup well-aged Parmesan, grated
Margherita
4 Roma tomatoes, thinly sliced
4 - 5 small bocconcini balls, thinly sliced
4 - 6 fresh basil leaves, torn into pieces
¼ cup well-aged Parmesan, grated
Italian sausage, provolone and mozzarella
2 hot Italian sausages, removed from skin and sautéed for 5 minutes
1 cup mozzarella, grated
1 cup provolone, grated
¼ cup well-aged Parmesan, grated
Preparation
In bowl of stand mixer, combine yeast and water, and let it rest for 5 minutes. Then add flour and turn on mixer with dough hook and mix until soft dough forms. If the dough is wet, add more flour until dough just comes together, and mix for 5 minutes. Now add salt, and continue mixing for 3 more minutes. Now the dough should be easy to handle and not stick to your hands.
Cut into two even balls and place in plastic bags or plastic wrap. Place in fridge overnight. Remove from fridge for 2 hours before using for pizza. This step is very important for the fermentation process.
To cook the pizza dough, regardless of your toppings, preheat oven as hot as possible, and turn on your 2 oven-top elements to high. Stretch dough into 12-inch round and place on a cookie sheet drizzled with 1 teaspoon olive oil. Place cookie sheet over 2 oven elements and allow the bottom to cook about 2 minutes. Meanwhile, add your toppings and place into hot oven, and bake for 5 minutes.
Note: Always place sauce on, then cheese then toppings. Add any fresh toppings like basil or arugula after pizza is baked.
If you don’t have a stand mixer, place ingredient into bowl and with your hands, bring ingredients together until soft ball forms. Run dough around the bowl until the bowl is clean of flour. Transfer dough to floured surface and knead. With the ball of your hands push the dough forward then tuck under and under. Continue this process for 8 minutes.
