Ian Roff from Pizza Dreams Cafe says: 'Contrary to popular belief, pizza can be healthy, and in particular, the traditional Italian-style pizzas. With their thin bases, simple, good-quality ingredients with a high proportion of vegetables to cheese, a thin base pizza of the sort we serve at the Pizza Dreams Cafe can form part of a healthy diet.

   'There are three things that help to make a good traditional-style pizza. Unfortunately they are also the reason that many homemade pizzas don’t work as well as they should.

1. A thin base.

2. A few quality ingredients - this really is a case of less is more

3. Heat! The wood-fired pizza oven we use reaches temperatures of 400 degrees on the floor and up to 800 degrees in the dome - a lot hotter than any domestic oven can reach and the main reason why homemade pizza is never the same as the ones you get at the restaurant.

   'Below is a recipe and method that will help you achieve a pizza as good as possible at home and that is healthy as well. You will use a large frying pan to achieve a pizza base that is as close as you can get at home to a stone baked pizza base.'

 

Pizza dough 

First, start by making your pizza dough. You'll need:

1kg type ‘00’ flour (some supermarkets sell this as pizza flour)

2 x sachets (7g each) of dried yeast

600ml tepid water

2tsp salt

1. Tip the flour onto your work service and make a well in the centre. Dissolve your yeast in the water and pour into the middle of the well a little at a time whilst using your hands to bring the walls of the flour in so that the water begins to thicken. Once you’ve reached the consistency of custard, add the salt and bring in the rest of the flour until it comes together as dough. Knead for 10-15 minutes. This will take some real elbow grease as you are stretching and developing the gluten in the flour. If you don’t work hard at this stage your dough will be disappointing.

2. Cover and leave to rest for 10 minutes before kneading again quickly for 10 seconds (this helps to develop the flavour and the gluten).

3. Divide the dough into 200g balls and leave to rest overnight or for at least 8 hours in a sealed container or a deep baking dish sprinkled with flour and covered in cling film. It is important to flour and cover the doughballs properly as you don’t want a skin to develop. Remember to leave space for each of your doughballs because, as the gluten relaxes, they will spread out to take up twice the diameter that they do initially.

 

Pizza bases

Next, make the pizza bases. This part is different to the way we make pizza at the restaurant. We roll our bases to make them even thinner.
The method described below will give you a slightly thicker base with
a pronounced edge crust, which is more like a Neapolitan style of pizza.

1. Scrape a doughball out of its container using a spatula and as much flour as you need to ensure it doesn’t stick. The rounder the doughball comes out, the rounder the final pizza base.

2. Put the doughball onto a well floured surface.

3. Using your fingertips, press out the doughball firmly, starting at the centre and working out to the edge. Ensure you leave a centimetre around the rim of the pizza untouched. Turn the doughball over and repeat the pressing out process on the other side.

4. Using the palm of your hand, do one firm push in the centre of the doughball to ensure the thickness of the base is consistent (not counting the raised edges).

5. Take the newly flattened doughball on the back of your hands, ensuring the weight is on your knuckles and that your fingertips and nails are not going to poke a hole in the dough. Using the back of your hands, stretch the dough out as far as you can without tearing it (now there’s a challenge). Turn the dough through 90 degrees and repeat this stretching. Do this a few times.

6. You should now have a disc of dough around 10 inches in diameter (but no bigger than your large frying pan or it won’t fit!), consistently thin but with a slightly thicker rim. Now we are ready to cook.

 

The toppings

To help make it really healthy, this is a vegetarian pizza, but you can add some pieces of meat if you want to.

1. The most important part of the topping is the tomato base sauce. Simply take a tin of the best Italian plum tomatoes you can find and crush them with a potato masher. You don’t want any big lumps but you don’t want to blend it as this also blends the seeds and will give you a bitter sauce. Once well crushed, season the tomato with salt and pepper and a few herbs if you want.

2. Grated mozzarella (supermarkets sell this in bags ready-grated and you can also get a mozzarella/Cheddar mix if you want a little bit of extra flavour. 

3. Very thinly sliced mushrooms (the vegetables don’t cook for long which is nice as they retain a bit of texture and a fresh flavour, but you don’t want them to be thick or chunky as they will stay cold and be unpleasant on the pizza.)

4. Thinly sliced green and black olives.

5. Sundried tomato, chopped

6. Very thinly sliced red onion

7. Wafer-thin courgette, marinated for 15 minutes in a little olive oil, salt and lemon juice.

 

Into the frying pan

1. Preheat the grill to its absolute highest setting.

2. Lay a pizza base flat in a dry frying pan (preferably non-stick) that has been on a high heat and is screaming hot.

3. Spread a thin layer of sauce using a ladle across the base, leaving a couple of centimetres round the edge for the crust. Add some grated cheese, and sprinkle on the other ingredients. Take care not to overdo the toppings - if you overtop the pizza it won’t cook through, the base will be soggy and it really won' be very nice.

4. Once the base of the pizza has browned (about 1–2 minutes), take the frying pan and place it on the highest shelf, under the grill.

5. Once the crust has taken on some colour and the cheese has started to bubble (again about 2 minutes), the pizza is ready to go. Eat it fast and repeat.

 

This is a quick healthy meal to share that the whole family can get involved in.

.

If you'd like to try a Pizza Dreams Cafe Pizza, then don't forget to use your MumsaboutCookham.com offer:

Tuesday to Friday before 6pm

Half Price Prosecco for the mums

Kiddies meals at £7.50 for a Bambino Pizza, Ice Cream and soft drink.

 

Visit