a bit of green

What we loved most about Italy was the food. Coming home from our trip to Rome, being the foodies that we are, we stuffed our baggage with delicious stuff;  parmigiano-reggiano from Parma, salame from Milan, various sausages and a packet of herb mix called Diavola.

Having tasted several pizzas in Rome we wanted to make one ourselves for our friends using a relatively classic Italian recipe. Here we go then, for our Italian thin-crust pizza!

 

Italian Pizza Recipe

Dough:
2 teaspoon. dry active yeast
1 cup warm water
1 teaspoon sugar
2 cups all purpose flour
2 tablespoon oregano (optional)

Sauce:
1 can tomato sauce
1-2 tomatoes, chopped
1 tablespoon salt
2 clove garlic, finely chopped
2 tablespoon of Diavola Herb Mix*,

(*or, alternatively:
2 teaspoon dry oregano,
2 teaspoon dry basil,
2 teaspoon pepperoncino,
2 teaspoon thyme)

Toppings:
half a packet of salame,
400 grams of parmesan cheese, grated
(you can add pretty much anything here, bell peppers, mushrooms, anchovies, it’s your choice; we went for a quite simple pizza to get the purest flavors possible).

Let’s get started!

1. In a jug, mix the warm water with the yeast and the sugar. Leave for it for 10 minutes or so; it will get bubbly as the yeast gets active.

2. Pour the wheat and the salt into a large bowl and make a well in the middle, then add the yeast mixture. Using a fork (and/or your hands, if you like to get messy), keep swirling and mixing the ingredients until you have a smooth dough. Add wheat or water if needed. We also added oregano to give it more flavor!

3. Knead the dough until it’s soft and make a ball. Place it in a olive oil-greased bowl and cover it with a damp cloth. Let it rest for 30-45 minutes, until it doubles in size!

_{Pizza dough with oregano.}

4. Preheat the oven to 220°C. While the dough is resting, you can make the basic sauce! In a medium frying pan, add the tomato sauce, the diced tomatoes, the garlic, the herb mixture and, last but not least, salt and pepper. Let it boil until the sauce is thick.

_{Our spicy tomato sauce.}

5. Make sure you have the rest of your ingredients ready; grate the cheese if needed.

_{Freshly grated parmesan cheese.}

6. If the dough is ready, all you have to do is place the dough on a  flour-dusted surface and knead it a bit. Roll the dough into a circle about 0.5 cm thick and large enough to cover your pan and leave some overhang for the crust.

7. Grease your pan with olive oil and place the dough οn it. We made parmesan pizza crust, adding parmesan to the dough before folding the crust!

8. Spread sauce over the pizza base and add the toppings. Extra tip: sprinkle only half of the parmesan and keep the rest to add it after the pizza is half-baked so that the cheese is all melted when you serve!

9. Bake the pizza for about 10 minutes, until the crust is light brown. Then add the rest of the parmesan and let it bake for another 2-3  minutes until it melts.

10. Serve and eat!

_{Pizza in the oven!}

_{Pizza on the plate!}

You might also like: