How to prepare Pizza

Pizza is oven-baked flat bread generally topped with tomato sauce and cheese.

It is said that the soldiers of Darius the Great (521-486 BC) emperor of Persia baked a kind of flat bread on their shields and then covered it with cheese and dates when on campaign. The modern pizza was invented in Naples, Italy, and the dish and its variants have since become popular in many areas of the world. Chicago style pizza is made in a pan or dish with the cheese going in first and then sauce on top. The crust is then formed up the side of the pan – even with crusts with sauce in between, known as a stuffed crust‘. The St Louis style pizza is a thin crust pizza using local Provel cheese in place of Mozzarella. This product is crisp with

a seasoning of oregano, other spices and a slightly sweet sauce. Hawaiian pizza uses pineapple and Canadian bacon, giving a rather sweeter product. British pizzas probably started from a point where they would be unrecognizable to either Italians or Americans.

Ingredients			Fillings
Maida	200 g		Tomato	3 Nos.
Fat	30 g		Cheese	4 pkts
Salt	½ tsp		Chillies	4 or 5
Yeast	5 g		Onion	2 big
Sugar	5 g		Coriander/curry leaves	One bundle(small)
Egg	1 No		Salt	for taste
Milk	40 ml		Capsicum/mushroom	as required
Oil	30 ml

Procedure

1. Sieve the flour twice.
2. Disintegrate yeast in luke warm water with little sugar
3. Dissolve salt in the remaining water and mix with flour roughly.
4. Mix dough as for bread and ferment for about 30 min.
5. Knock back the dough and let relax for 15 min.
6. Divide the dough into pieces of 120 gm. weight or according to the size of desired pizza. Round each piece and let relax for 10 min.
7. Sheet each piece into round shape like a chapatti of about six inches diameter or according to the size of desired pizza. Place on baking sheet and dock with a fork.
8. Proof for about 10 min. and bake at 200 degree C for only 3-4 minutes so that there is very light colour in the bottom while the top surface remains white.
9. This pizza base can be stored in refrigerator in polythene bag for short duration of 3-4 days. Acetic acid and calcium propionate in normal quantities as preservative should be used if pizza base is required to be stored for longer periods.