What's Cookin? Pizza!

Everybody loves Pizza! Think homemade gourmet pizza and everybody as the Chef! You don't have to sacrifice family's nutrition for convenience and order Pizza Hut or Dominoes. I found out that pizza dough is easy to make and the kids can be involved in the cooking process. If not, purchase some frozen or refrigerated pizza dough. Teach the kids to roll their mini pizza out and let them choose and place the toppings (make funny faces!!)

You and the kids can go wild, experiment with different toppings, and this is a great chance to get rid of leftovers too :) It is a great and entertaining meal that can be healthy.

Here are some yummy pizza toppings combos:

• Pumpkin, spinach & fetta
• Rosemary, Mozzarella, Potato + Tomatoes
• Proscuitto, Rocket + Shaved Parmsen **my fav**
• Spinach, Ricotta + Pinenuts
• Red Onion, Portobello Mushrooms + Brie
• Zucchini & Oregano

Basic Pizza Recipe 
serves makes 6 to 8 medium-sized thin pizza bases

• 1kg strong white bread flour
• 1 tablespoon fine sea salt
• 2 x 7g sachets of dried yeast
• 1 tablespoon caster sugar
• 4 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
• 650ml lukewarm water

1. Sieve the flour/s and salt on to a clean work surface and make a well in the middle. 
2. In a jug, mix the yeast, sugar and olive oil into the water and leave for a few minutes, then pour into the well. Using a fork, bring the flour in gradually from the sides and swirl it into the liquid. Keep mixing, drawing larger amounts of flour in, and when it all starts to come together, work the rest of the flour in with your clean, flour-dusted hands. Knead until you have a smooth, springy dough.
3. Place the ball of dough in a large flour-dusted bowl and flour the top of it. Cover the bowl with a damp cloth and place in a warm room for about an hour until the dough has doubled in size.
4. Now remove the dough to a flour-dusted surface and knead it around a bit to push the air out with your hands. You can either use it immediately, or keep it, wrapped in clingwrap, in the fridge (or freezer) until required. If using straight away, divide the dough up into as many little balls as you want to make pizzas – this amount of dough is enough to make about six to eight medium pizzas.
5. Timing-wise, it’s a good idea to roll the pizzas out about 15 to 20 minutes before you want to cook them. Don’t roll them out and leave them hanging around for a few hours, though – if you are working in advance like this it’s better to leave your dough, covered with clingwrap, in the fridge. However, if you want to get them rolled out so there’s one less thing to do when your guests are round, simply roll the dough out into rough circles, about 0.5cm thick, and place them on slightly larger pieces of olive-oil-rubbed and flour-dusted tinfoil.

Source: Jamie Oliver at Home