Pizza with Homemade Tomato Sauce
In summer it's good to have a repertoire of quick cooking meals so we can make the most of being outdoors.
Pizza tops the bill and is universally popular in most households. It's quick and easy to make your own rather than buy the ready made supermarket varieties.
You can buy ready made pizza bases to speed things along or use our recipe for flatbread which is ideal to use as a pizza base either with or without the herbs and garlic.
Homemade tomato sauce is a 10 minute task. This makes enough to top 2 medium sized pizzas.
- 250g fresh tomatoes
- 40ml olive oil
- 2 garlic cloves — finely chopped
- Handful of fresh basil leaves — torn into strips
- Salt, black pepper and ½ tsp sugar to season
- Cut the tomatoes roughly into 2cm pieces, cherry tomatoes just need to be halved.
- Drizzle some of the oil into a large pan, just enough to cover the base and place over a high heat.
- Toss in the tomatoes and stir fry until they collapse.
- Add the rest of the oil, garlic, basil and seasoning and stir for just one minute.
- Scrape into a medium bowl and flatten the tomatoes with a fork to make a rough puree ready to put onto your pizza bases.
Pizza Toppings — everyone has their favourites: sometimes it's good to try something different!
Shredded parma ham goes well with crumbled goats cheese and greek basil.
Spinach, feta and mint:
- Wilt and squeeze dry 400g spinach.
- Finely chop along with a small onion, a clove of garlic and a handful of mint.
- Stir in 100g crumbled feta, a couple of spoonfuls of crème fraiche and some seasoning.
Lamb and chilli is a traditional turkish topping:
- Spread 200g minced lamb on a large chopping board along with 1 red chilli, 1 diced onion, 1 diced tomato and about 50g french parsley.
- Chop this all finely until it is very smooth.
- Transfer to a bowl and stir in 1 tsp each of smoked paprika and olive oil with some seasoning.
- Spread thinly onto your pizza base before baking then top with some plain yogurt, red pepper flakes
and rocket leaves to serve.
Pizzas need to be baked in the hottest oven you can manage. They take 5 – 8 minutes depending a lot on your oven, fan ovens are fastest. Just keep an eye on them every minute or so.