Pizza

Who doesn't love a pizza. It happens to be the only western food that I love as it is not as bland as the other foods. So whenever we go out we look for pizza outlets.
During my initial days in US once we went to Target. After all the shopping we ordered a Cheese pizza. Compared to all the pizzas I have eaten till date, the target cheese pizza happens to be my favorite. It is a simple Cheese pizza but is very soft and rich. I haven't tasted such soft pizza elsewhere. But that day when I opened the pack there was a pizza with red roundels starring at me. I thought it to be tomato slices. To be sure I asked my hubby who was shocked to see the ham slices. We returned it back and luckily we got our money back.
Few months back my mil had come to visit us. On one weekend we set out to visit Manhattan. When we were hungry we settled at a pizza outlet. Hubby ordered Mushroom and Spinach pizza. When I was about to take a bite I noticed a red piece hanging from it. Again it was a piece of ham that got stuck to my veggie pizza. We had already cut the pizza so this time we couldn't get our money back. Nowadays I am very careful whenever we eat out. I thoroughly inspect the food before having a bite.

For making this pizza I have taken tips from Shilpa's Garlic Pizza and from Vah Chef's videos.

Ingredients :
For the base
Maida/All purpose flour - 1 1/2 cups
Whole wheat flour - 1/2 cup
Salt
Sugar - 2 tsp
Warm water - 1 cup
Oil - 2 tsp
Active dry yeast - 1 envelope

Take 1/4 th cup of warm water. The water should be warm not hot. Add the sugar. Mix and then add the yeast. Leave it to rise for about 10 min. Bubbles will appear which is an indication that yeast is active.
Then add the remaining water(warm) and salt.
Take the flours in a big bowl and add the water little by little and form a dough. Knead well. The dough will be sticky. Add the oil and again knead well.
Cover it with a plastic and rest in a warm place for an hour.
After an hour the dough doubles in volume. Punch the dough to remove the air.
Again rest it for half an hour.
Now spread the dough on a pan or pizza stone.



For the sauce
Tomato - 2 medium
Capsicum - 1/2, chopped
Garlic - 1 big, chopped finely
Butter - 1 tsp
Salt
Sugar - 1/2 tsp
Red chili powder - 1/2 tsp
Pepper powder - pinch

Make small cuts on tomato and put in boiling water for 30 sec. Remove and put in cold water. Peel off the skin. I cut one tomato into pieces and pureed the other one.
Heat butter in a pan. Add garlic and fry. Then add the capsicum pieces. Fry for a minute and add the tomato pieces. Fry and add tomato puree. Now add salt, sugar, pepper powder, chilli powder.
I also added 2 drops of red food colour. Cook till the desired consistency has reached.

For assembling a pizza.

I spread the dough on a non stick pan without a handle. Spread the sauce on top and topped it with onions, bell peppers, mushrooms, shredded cabbage and mozzarella cheese and dotted it with oil.
I heated the pan over a low flame for about 5 mins and then baked in oven at 450 F till the cheese melted.
Garnished it with chilli flakes, pepper powder and dried parsley.


With a remaining dough I made a thin crust pizza and topped it with paneer in addition to the toppings used above.

Both pizzas were absolutely delicious and it was a great experience to make it from scratch.

Note: Adding herbs like oregano and basil gives a nice flavor to the sauce. As I did not have any of those I haven't added it. I have used Imitation Mozzarella Cheese in place of Mozzarella as it is low in Cholesterol. I have also added a few pieces of fried garlic to the dough.

Update: I am sending this to Bread Mania event at Sindhura's blog