Nothing beats a home made pizza with a fresh dough. Making your own is quick and easy - and certainly beats any bought base that you can get! This has been a family favourite on many occasions such as when my wife was pregnant and she was craving pizza or my father-in-law's 60th and we ended up making 15 pizzas in a wood fired oven.
Pizza Base
Tipo 00 flour: 1 cup + 1 tablespoon
All purpose flour: 1 cup + 1 tablespoon
Dry yeast: 2g (~ 1/4 teaspoon)
Salt: 4g (1 teaspoon)
Olive oil: 1 teaspoon
Toppings
Tomato base (I like to use a passata)
Sausage meat or salami
Cheese (e.g., mozarella)
Vegetables (sliced capsicum, onions or mushrooms)
Any other toppings that you like (e.g,. chilli, basil leaves)
Combine both types of flour and salt.
Combine 1 cup lukewarm water with the yeast and olive oil. Mix into the flour with a chopstick (much easier to clean if you use a chopstick instead of a wooden spoon)
Knead until the dough is well combined, typically about 3 minutes. Rest for 15 minutes, then knead rested dough for 3 minutes. (Alternatively, if you have a stand mixer, you can knead the dough for several minutes until smooth and soft. The dough should be slightly sticky)
Cut into two equal pieces and form into a ball. Place on lightly floured surface and cover with a damp cloth. Rest for 3 - 4 hours.
Pre-heat the oven to as high as it will go (we use ~300C fan forced at home).
Use flour to dust the workbench. Roll out into pizza base (~0.3 cm think). Using your fingers, create a diameter that is 1 cm away from the edge of the pizza for the crust.
Top with a tomato base, meat, vegetables (such as capsicum or mushroom) and any other topics.
Bake for 10 - 12 minutes depending on the temperature of your oven. If you have a pizza oven, at higher temperatures you may be able to cook the pizza in 5 minutes or less. Experiment with your oven to determine how to get the base crispy, crust browned and the top bubbling.
Flat bread variation: The pizza dough can be cooked plain (i.e. without any topping) to make a crispy flatbread perfect for dips. Prepare the dough as you normally would, roll it out and cook it in the oven/pizza oven.