Pizza - Healthy, Easy and Delicious!

Mmn, Pizza! I absolutely adore Pizza, even more since travelling in Italy in July. The kind of pizzas that I like are the Italian, thin kind with lots of tomato sauce and not smothered in cheese like American styles. I make mine out of wholemeal flour and use really good mozzarella cheese and quality ingredients. 
Here's the simple recipe, you can add whatever toppings you like:
Ingredients - (makes 2 good sized pizzas)
For the base - About 300g of wholemeal plain flour (not that sure on the quantity, I just chuck it in the bowl and add more if needed)
1/2 sachet of yeast
About a tablespoon of olive oil
Pinch of Salt
Tepid Water
Chopped fresh basil
For the sauce - Olive oil
1 tin tomato purée
1 tin of chopped tomatoes
1/2 red onion, chopped
Clove of garlic, crushed
Fresh basil
Splash of Balsamic Vinegar
Toppings - Mozzarella (I like either Sainsbury's taste the difference or Sainsbury's organic or if I'm feeling extravagant, M&S have some great options or the local deli), Red Onion, Mushrooms, Prosciutto/Parma Ham, Asparagus, Courgette etc...
Preheat oven to about 200c.
To make the dough: Mix the flour and yeast in a bowl, then pour in some olive oil and a tiny bit of salt and chopped basil if using. Then very gradually add the tepid water and keep stirring until all combined. Hard to say how much water, if you put too much and it's too sticky then add more flour and vice versa. No need to prove. Then roll it out to your chosen thickness, I usually do about 1 1/2 cm thick and put on a tray (I find the pizza trays with holes in best as they don't stick, also don't worry if the dough is rough, it's supposed to be rustic) and pop into the preheated oven about 5minutes before topping to help them rise a bit and shrink away from the tray.
For the sauce: Fry off the onion and garlic in a pan and add the basil, then add the purée and stir until it starts to blacken. Then pour in the chopped tomatoes and reduce the heat, add a splash of balsamic. 
Then assemble the pizzas with half the sauce on each of the bases, add the cheese and toppings and cook for about 12minutes until the cheese is bubbling and toppings just crisp.

The Pizzas are also really good if you have a group to feed. You can make them in batches and serve with lots of salad. We built a pizza oven so it's great fun in the summer but to be honest, they taste just as good in the normal oven!

Proper Italian Pasta Sauce and Fresh Pasta.

When my Great Auntie Jean was alive, she used to make the most incredible pasta sauce. And then one day, while looking through Jamie Oliver's website I saw a basic tomato and basil sauce that I decided to make, when I went to eat it with lots of parmesan and black pepper it reminded me of my Aunt's incredible sauce!! So now for a quick and easy but delicious dinner I knock up some of this sauce and serve it with some fresh tagliatelle and grate lots of parmesan and add soo much blackpepper!

This picture isn't the best but seriously make this pasta and you won't regret it!!

The sauce goes like this (for 2 people) -
1 Red onion
A couple of cloves of garlic, finely chopped
Fresh basil 
A tin of tomato purée
A tin of chopped tomatoes


Fry a red onion in some olive oil and add some finely chopped garlic,
While the heat is still high add the basil into the oil so that it blackens and spits a bit
Then add the puree and let it sweeten for a couple of minutes, you may need to turn the heat down
Then add the chopped tomatoes and reduce the heat, adding more basil.
Cook for as long, or as little as you like. It tastes great in about 10minutes but you could reduce it more.


Then serve with the fresh pasta (I like green or multigrain tagliatelle) but add some of the pasta's cooking water to the sauce to loosen it a little. ADD PARMESAN AND BLACK PEPPER! Sometimes I serve with some asparagus spears on the side. 




If you want to make fresh pasta (I've tried it a couple of times, and yeah it tastes great, you get a great sense of achievement that you've actually made the pasta, but to be honest Sainsbury's fresh stuff is just as good so don't feel you have to) - then use Jamie's recipe.
http://www.jamieoliver.com/recipes/pasta-recipes/a-basic-recipe-for-fresh-egg-pasta

My version of Jamie's 30mm 'Pregnant Jool's Pasta' - Ragu

After this photo was taken I added lots more sauce, cheese and black pepper.

I've been watching Jamie's 30minute meals, and brought the cookbook that goes with it, and saw this ragu recipe! I've never made a ragu, usually opting for spaghetti bolognese. But I saw a bag of multi-grain tagliatelle that Sainsburys have just brought back and thought this would be perfect with it!

I've modified the recipe, using the tagliatelle instead of penne, mince instead of sausages, red onion instead of the spring. But I thought it tasted delicious! My Boyfriend made 3 batches of it in a week!

Ingredients -

1 red onion

1 carrot

1 stick of celery

1 fresh chilli 

Pack of mince (either pork or beef)

Garlic

1 x 400g tin of plum tomatoes (chop the tomatoes when in the pan)

Herbs - Oregano or mixed italian

Balsamic 

Fresh pasta to serve - I like multigrain tag.

1. Blitz the onion, carrot, celery, chilli and garlic in a food processor until well mixed and then spoon into a hot frying pan with oil. Keep breaking it up and stirring it quickly.

Meanwhile, blitz the mince in the processor to make it finer. Then add this to the pan and stir.

2. Add balsamic and let it cook down and then add the tomatoes. Add some herbs.

3. Put the pasta on, if using fresh it should only take 4mins.

4. Add a little of the starchy pasta water to the sauce if needed to loosen.

5. Then drain the pasta and serve with the sauce and lots of cheese! Cheddar or parmesan work well, finally add some basil and black pepper.