Pizza Toppings

For these pizzas I have made –

• 1 cheese and tomato deep dish (for the children who couldn’t possibly eat anything that was spicy or contained herbs!)
• 1 deep dish with chorizo cubes, onion and sliced red chilli
• 1 thin crust I have used onion, basil and sweet piquant peppers

I think the key to home made pizzas is to not overload the pizza with too many toppings – the base will end up soggy and uncooked. So try to stick to about 2 or 3 different topping on your cheese and tomato sauce pizza – don’t even try a meat feast! Stick to ones like –

• Ham, onion and pineapple
• Peppers, olives and onion, etc.

Some obvious and not so obvious toppings are –

• Meat: Ham, Parma ham, pepperoni, chorizo, cooked chicken pieces
• Fish: Anchovies, prawns, tuna
• Vegetables: Onion, peppers, olives, chillies, sweet corn, spinach
• Herbs: Basil, oregano

Try adding some pickled / preserved toppings from jars like roasted peppers, jalapeno chillies, sweet pepper dews, etc. if you are stuck for fresh toppings.

If like me, your growing pot of basil looks like a weed after a few days, try the frozen herbs that your can get from Sainsburys (not seen them anywhere else) – just pop out a cube or two from the tray when you need them.

Thing is to keep it simple and don’t try a mega topping pizza.

Then just pop it in a very hot oven - I put a fan oven on at 220 - 240 for about 8-10 mins. and that's it! Pictures top left and below are the actual pizza results.

Or if you have a pizza stone, try heating it in the oven for about 1/2 hour and then put your pizza (already on the pizza tray) directly on top of the pizza stone. The heat this sends up to the pizza base is fantastic and cooks the base in no time at all - I find around 6 minutes and it is done to perfection. I would definately recommend getting one of these - they are less that £15 from amazon - check out this link - Kitchen Craft Two Piece Pizza Stone Set