Pizza

Andy is making this for me tonight. I make it a lot and taught Andy the recipe a couple of months ago. When I cook I am quite messy but have my little rituals and when I showed him how to do this recipe he laughed at the processes I go through - I like to set out all the toppings on a large plate so that when the dough is ready and rolled out they are all ready and I can add them in turn. This meticulous approach tickled Andy's funny bone it seems.

Anyway - this recipe is very easy and Andy sometimes makes teh dough and leaves it to rise while I am coming home on the train from Edinburgh. Then, when we get in from him picking me up from the station all we need to do is roll out teh dough,add the toppings and pop in the oven. Fresh, homemade pizza on a Friday night - perfect!

Pizza dough

225g/1lb plain flour
13g/.5oz yeast (or one pack dried)
half a teaspoon of salt
half a pint of hand hot water
(you can also half the water and make up with olive oil if you want to be fancy!)

Mix the flour, salt and dried yeast (if using fresh, dissolve in a little water then add).
Bit by bit add the water until you get a soft, pliable dough
Knead for 2-3 minutes until light and elastic
Roll into a ball and leave in a bowl covered with a clean, dry tea towel for an hour
Knead the dough for 30 - 60 seconds then roll out to desired shape. I like my pizza thin and crispy so use a large oven sized baking sheet)
Add toppings
Bake in oven 180-200c for 10-15 minutes

Cured meats pizza toppings

Take a tube of tomatoe purree and sqeeze it out in an ever decreasing circle on your pizza dough. Take a dessert spoon and spread the purree in half circle motions.
Thinly slice an onion and a pepper and a large portobello mushroom and sprinkle over the pizza
Add a selection of cured meats such as salami, chorizo and parma ham
Add finely slicedcherry tomatoes
Topwith grated mozzarella

Once cooked sprinkle with some parmesan grated using the biggest grate size on your grater

Rocket, parmesan and olives

In Pizza Express they do a pizza called the 'soho'. This is my version.

Take a tube of tomatoe purree and sqeeze it out in an ever decreasing circle on your pizza dough. Take a dessert spoon and spread the purree in half circle motions.
Add thinly sliced red ionion
Add black olives

Once baked top with shaves of parmesan, a handful of rocket and a generous drizzling of olive oil.

Calzone

This probably isn't the real Italian way to do it but I basically take the pizza dough but instead of topping it like a pizza cover half with the toppings, foldover and crimp the dough, then bake in the oven. This is a good way to cook if you have 'sloppy' toppings like chilli beef. It is basically an italian pastie.