Not quite perfect pizza.

After a week in food heaven (Andalucia; amazing tapas, dirt cheap and lots and lots of ham) we're going to be staying in a bit for the next while... which might mean more blog updates. This post is a total cheat. I'm sure you can all follow someone else's recipe but hell, it's the first proper cooking I've done in a while and I'm quite excited about it.

Tonight's weekend treat was pizza and a film. I've always loved pizza. When I was growing up frozen pizza was our Friday night tea, when my mum had been working all week and couldn't really be bothered to cook. To this day it's the only ready meal type thing I really have in the freezer. I've made my own pizza a few times, but always found that the base was a bit bread-y (it's a word) and doughy, and time consuming. I haven't quite worked out how to avoid that yet.

Then I watched Lorraine Pascale and she made a basic bread dough and used it almost straight away. I thought this could revolutionise pizza making in my house! Her recipe is here: http://www.bbc.co.uk/food/recipes/pizza_expressed_three_77124 and I used that for the base. But I'm still not sure this nails it. I think it needs to be left to prove then just be rolled really seriously thin, but that's for next time. This was still good, just not as bubbly and crispy as I would have liked.

I've made my own pizza sauce, my own toppings, and two tasty salads to go with it.

Before you do anything, put your oven on to preheat as high as it will go. It's the only way you'll get anything resembling crispiness.

The salads:

Spinach salad with tomatoes, cucumber, peppers and toasted pine nuts. I made a lemon-y dressing:

- one part lemon juice

- two parts good extra virgin olive oil

- plenty of salt and pepper

- half a teaspoon of grain mustard

I'm sad enough to keep jars specifically for making dressings in. Give it all a good shake about, then dress the salad just before serving.

Bit blurry. Sorry about that, I was really hungry.

The second salad had beetroot (because it was reduced), grated carrot, spring onion and celery. Autumnal, eh? It would have been REALLY good with some feta in it, but I decided two types of cheese in one meal was probably enough. Two go with this I made a balsamic dressing:

-  one part balsamic vinegar

-  two parts good extra virgin olive oil

-  plenty of salt and pepper

- half a clove of very finely grated garlic

And again, dress it just before serving.

  

The pizzas:

First make a pizza sauce, I like to keep it fairly basic.

- some passata/seived tomatoes (I used a whole carton, as it's going to be pasta sauce later)

- a clove of garlic, finely chopped (or a clove and a half if you've got a random half clove of garlic after making the balsamic dresing)

- a splash of red wine vinegar (a teaspoon?)

- salt and pepper

- a handful of fresh basil

Fry the garlic in a little oil on a low heat for a minute or two. Don't let it colour. Then add the passata and red wine vinegar, season and let it bubble away for a little while before adding your chopped or torn basil. You could add some thyme, or some chilli or whatever you like really. That's it. Let it cool a bit before you use it.

For the pizzas you want the sauce to be a very thin layer so it's not too gloopy. Any leftover sauce can be used in pasta/with chicken or whatever during the week.

Follow the base recipe as above (or leave it to prove for an hour then roll it). Without a pizza oven or even pizza stone it's always going to be difficult to get a really crispy base. You just need to make it as thin as possible and hope for the best.

I'm not sure about pizza “expressed” three ways in Lorraine Pascale's recipe, I made two different types.

Of course you can add whatever you like. I made one with goats cheese and red onion. Just thinly slice a red onion, put it on top of a thin layer of sauce then add big chunks of torn up goats cheese. Season it well. 

The other was a more standard pepperoni and mozzarella. A thin layer of sauce, then a load of pepperoni (try not to lay it flat so some of it goes crispy) then some proper mozzarella torn up over the top. Season well. 

When you've put the toppings on your pizza shove in the hottest oven you can for ten minutes. That's it.

Don't pile the toppings up too high, remember it's all going to melt and go everywhere anyway.

We had it with artichoke hearts in olive oil, lots of olives, and the salads. And some wine. Happy days. 

This week's soup: Celeriac. It was reduced. With some home made stock, white wine and parmesan in there it's pretty tasty.

Whilst making this I mostly listened to: Fleetwood Mac – Rumours on vinyl, then 6music. Because it's brilliant.