Yummy Rustic Homemade Pizza

Eating without dairy doesn't mean that we have to exclude all the yummy things in life, such as our personal favourite: pizza! This pizza is made entirely from scratch, using all cheap ingredients that are really easy to find! The pizza base might take a while to prepare (has to double in size like bread doesn't it?) but you can freeze the base which will speed things up for the future. On the plus side, the sauce takes a mere 5 minutes to make, and doesn't involve scales (which makes for excellent Uni grub!)

 Hope you all enjoy!

Ingredients:

For the base:

2 1/2 average mug size scoops of flour (strong or normal, we have used strong wholemeal)

-1 sachet of quick dry yeast-

-250ml of warm (not hot!) water-

-4 capfuls of virgin or sunflower oil-

-2 pinches of salt-

For the sauce:

-Half a tin of plum tomatoes-

-Half a chopped onion-

-4 chopped sundried tomatoes or tomato puree-

-Splash of tomato ketchup-

-2 chopped cloves of garlic-

For the topping:

We enjoyed our pizza with buffalo mozzarella and salami, but you can go for anything you want!

Method:

Pre-heat the oven to 200°C

For the base:

1) Measure out all ingredients and into a bowl add the flour, yeast and salt.

2)  Make a little well in the middle of the flour, and then add the oil and slowly pour in the warm water.  Roll this mixture into whole ball of dough, at this point it doesn't matter if it is a little bit wet as the rolling flour will absorb this.

3) Spread a little of the flour onto a surface and knead the dough for about 5 minutes. Then put back in a bowl and cover with cling film or a damp towel, and place somewhere warm until it doubles in size.

4) Once doubled in size (shouldn't take more than 20-30 minutes) take out of the bowl and knead again for a couple of minutes.

5) Split the dough into portions and then roll out into any shape until about 1/2 cm thick. Pop onto a pizza tray and pre-cook for about 12 minutes to make sure the dough cooks thoroughly when the yummy toppings are added!

For the Sauce:

1) In a saucepan fry the chopped Onion and Garlic until soft. Then add the chopped sundried tomatoes (or puree), and then the Plum tomatoes. Add a splash of tomato ketchup and reduce and cook for about 5 minutes.

2) Puree the sauce if you want a smooth sauce or leave chunky for a little bit more texture.

Once the base is partially cooked and quite hard to the touch, add the sauce and then the fun bit- your chosen toppings!
 Pop into the oven for another 10- 15 minutes until the toppings are melted and cooked, and the base is starting to crisp and brown.

Take out of the oven and enjoy!

xoxox