Make a mouthwatering home-made pizza with Chef Lati

POLOKWANE – Making your own pizza is actually easier than you think and can be made on a budget. Molatelo Chef Lati Malebatja shares the following pizza-making tips with the readers. The nicest thing about making a pizza base is the dough can be made in advance, and even frozen. If you are cooking on a budget you can use cheap toppings such as mushrooms, tinned sweetcorn, onions and peppers etc,” Chef Lati added.

Ingredients:

• 1 cup (250 ml) of warm water

• 1 teaspoon (5 ml) of instant yeast

• 1 teaspoon (5 ml) sugar

• 2 cups (500 ml) of all purpose flour

• 1 teaspoon (5ml) of salt

How to prepare it:

• In a bowl, combine the water, yeast and sugar. Let it stand until the mixture foams on top about five minutes

• Combine the flour and salt

• In a food processor, it is important to work with the plastic blade or the dough hook

• Increase the speed to medium and the yeast mixture until a soft ball forms

• Remove the dough from the bowl and knead for a few minutes on a floured surface to prevent it from sticking

• Place in a lightly oiled bowl and cover with a clean cloth

• Let the dough rise for about 30 minutes in a warm and draft-free area

• Cut the dough in half (any shape your children prefer. Normally it’s cut in triangle shapes)

• Use the pizza dough immediately or refrigerate it for less than 48 hours, or place it in an airtight bag and freeze it

Toppings you can try:

• 200g lean beef mince

• 1 red onion, sliced

• 3 garlic cloves, crushed

• 1 tsp of olive oil

• Hand full diced pine apple

• Mozzarella cheese

After topping your pizza, set oven to middle position and preheat to 180°c (you can do while your preparing your dough)

Place pizza in the middle rack (Do not use a cookie sheet to bake the pizza)

Bake for 25 to 30 minutes or until pizza is golden brown

“The pizza is ready to dig in. This recipe will make two 23 cm thin crust pizzas or two 20 cm thicker crust pizzas,” Chef Lati concluded.

anne@nmgroup.co.za