Pizza is an Italian delicacy but has become a global cuisine. It is an oven-baked, flat, round bread typically topped with a tomato sauce, cheese and various topping. Pizza is cooked in various types of ovens, and a diverse variety of ingredients and toppings are utilized. For tomato sauce, other than the tomato as main ingredient, fresh basil and oregano is added along with other ingredients. Usually mozzerella cheese is used to top the pizzas and this works fine since it is a processed cheese and cooks faster. Whereas light cheddar cheese is strong in flavour and is also used for making pizzas. Combination of both cheddar and mozzerella also results in an excellent pizza depending upon the other components used.
To suit the Indian taste, here I have adopted domestic ingredients like coriander leaves, curry leaves, garam masala, for making the tomato sauce, and used light cheddar cheese for topping, while maintaining the style and preparation technique. Here the cheddar cheese is strong in flavour and thus overpowers the taste of tomato sauce where garam masala is used and tastes excellent beyond expectation.
Ingredients:
1. All purpose flour - 1 cup (500 gms)
2. Baking powder - One and half tsp.
3. Oil- 1 tsp.
4. Salt 1 tsp.
For Tomato Sauce/Chutney
1. Tomatoes - 3 nos. (chopped finely)
2. Onions - 1 nos. (chopped finely)
3. Cumin seeds - 1 tsp.
4. Garlic - 2 pods (optional) (chopped finely)
5. Green chillies - 2 no. (chopped finely)
6. Curry leaves - 1 spring
7. Coriander leaves - handful
8. Chilly powder - 3/4th tsp.
9. Coriander powder - 1/2 tsp.
10. Garam masala - 1/4th tsp.
11. Oil - 2 tbsp.
12. Salt as per taste
Pizza Topping:
1. Peppers/Capsicum - 3 small nos. (diced finely) (Have selected yellow, green and red colors for colour combination)
2. Fresh/frozen corn - 1/2 cup
3. Cottage cheese (paneer) - 10 pieces
4. Cheese - Mozzarella or light cheddar (I used light cheddar here in the recipe)
Cooking Method:
1. In a bowl mix flour, baking powder, oil and salt. With the help of warm water make a soft dough. Cover it and leave it aside.
2. For preparing tomato sauce/chutney, heat up oil in a pan and add cumin seeds. Add finely chopped garlic and let it get into the oil well.
3. Add curry leaves followed by onions. Once onions gets translucent, add tomatoes and give it a stir adding salt.
4. Once the tomatoes are cooked well along with onions and other spices, add in dry spices like chilly powder, coriander powder and garam masala.
5. Now finally add coriander leaves finally and switch off the flame.
6. Now pre-heat the oven by setting it at 350 degree F. Once the dough and tomato sauce is ready, its time to make the pizzas now.
7. Knead the dough well and make equal sized balls. Roll out the dough, thin/thick, using a rolling pin and little flour for dusting.
8. Bake the dough for 5 to 8 minutes, then remove it from the oven and add tomato sauce/chutney and then place cheese on it and later the veggies of your choice.
9. Check the pizza after 20 to 25 minutes whether the edges are roasted and cheese melted and gets bubbly. Time can be reduced if the dough is rolled very thin, as thin flat dough will cook faster and get crustier.
Note:
1. The oil used in tomato sauce makes the crust soft, while its done completely. This gives a real good taste to the pizzas.
2. While preparing for kids, you can omit the green chilies in the tomato chutney.
3. For addition of meat just cook the meat shred off into small pieces and then place it as a topping.
4. Mushrooms also makes a fine topping along with green and black olives. The options are so open that you can try a variety of meat and vegetables.
Note:
1. The oil used in tomato sauce makes the crust soft, while its done completely. This gives a real good taste to the pizzas.
2. While preparing for kids, you can omit the green chilies in the tomato chutney.
3. For addition of meat just cook the meat shred off into small pieces and then place it as a topping.
4. Mushrooms also makes a fine topping along with green and black olives. The options are so open that you can try a variety of meat and vegetables.
