For years I’ve wanted to make my own pizza from scratch, but I was basically intimidated by the whole idea (seemed like a huge undertaking – especially since pizza is so inexpensive and readily available in these parts). However, last week I really looked at the recipe (Jamie At Home cookbook), all of sudden, it looked do-able. With all this free-time on my hands I figured, “Hey what the heck… what’ve I got to lose?”

Making the dough was a little messy, especially since I didn’t really know how to handle it, but the dough rose perfectly in the end. I left it refrigerated for a couple hours which helped it rise a little more. Rolling it out was probably the easiest part. I ended up making 8 medium-ish thin-crust pizzas. The dough was crispy on the outside but still chewy on the inside! Next time I’ll try it with semolina flour as well, just to see how different the crust will taste like (which I didn’t have at the time).

The tomato sauce was fairly simple and quick to make. Just a little basil, garlic, whole canned plum tomatoes and salt/pepper and presto! It does however take a little elbow grease to push the tomato sauce mixture through the sieve / strainer.

The toppings were an assortment of vegetables and dairy/vegan cheese since it was a “build your own pizza party” after all. My faves were the marinated artichokes and the hot cherry peppers.

All in all it was a great learning/baking experience and it’s safe to say that I’ll definitely be making pizza again in the not-so-distant-future.