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How to Make Great Pizza at Home

Many moons ago we declared we had discovered the ‘perfect pizza recipe‘. Well after a few more years research we have upped our pizza game here at Chilliking HQ. If you have been wondering how to make great pizza at home then look no further.

I think you’d really struggle to make better pizza than this in a regular domestic oven. The recipe below makes 4 good size 12″ 9 (ish) pizzas.

This recipe uses a sourdough base which adds a huge amount of flavour to the base. I won’t go into how to make sourdough starter in this post – let me know if you’d like to know and I can cover that in a follow up post.

Pizza Dough Ingredients

200g active sourdough starter
500g strong bread flour
310g water
10g salt

To make the dough combine all of the ingredients in a bowl then cover with a cloth and allow to rest for 10 minutes.

Next knead the dough for 15 minutes until silky smooth. This can be done by hand or in a food mixer with a dough hook (10 minutes on slow, 5 minutes on fast). Again cover the dough and allow it to proof for 3 hours.

Empty the dough onto a floured work surface and divide it into 4 equal pieces. Shape each piece into a ball by drawing in the corners repeatedly to build some surface tension in the dough. Set the balls aside in a covered tray to proof for another 2-3 hours.

Usually i’ll make a double batch of dough and simply freeze one batch straight after shaping the dough balls. I usually take the dough balls out of the freezer first thing in the morning and they are ready to cook with at lunchtime or if kept somewhere cool will be fine hanging about until the evening.

To shape the dough use your fingers to spread the dough balls into a flat circle. Leave a thick crust around. the edge. The air in this crust will puff up during the cooking process. I then pick the dough up and droop it over the back of my hands, letting gravity stretch it out while i rotate the dough.

I use a mix of normal flour and semolina flour on the work surface and peel to stop the pizzas sticking.

Tomato Sauce Ingredients

2 x tins of chopped tomatoes
2 x small cloves of garlic
1 x tablespoon of dried oregano

To make the tomato sauce simply crush the garlic and simmer for a couple of minutes in olive oil. Add the tinned tomato and oregano. Simmer for 4-5 minutes then blend with a hand blender to a smooth consistency. Continue to simmer for another 20 minutes to slightly reduce the sauce.

How to Prepare Your Oven

To make great pizza at home you need to cook it hot and fast. Below are a couple of tips i’ve found work really well to retain the heat while you’re cooking your pizzas.

When pre-heating the oven, I put a spare cast iron casserole dish and griddle pan into the bottom of the oven. These soak up the heat and prevent too much heat loss when you are opening/closing the oven to add/remove your pizzas.
I always cook the pizzas on a pizza stone.This helps to cook the pizza from beneath too and help get the base crispy. It also aids the overall heat retention in the oven like the tip above.

Cooking The Pizza

Leave your oven on full (240 degrees Celcius in my case) when cooking. I use a round thin chopping board (liberally dusted with semolina flour) as a peel to get the pizzas in the oven. To remove them I simply fish them out with a large chefs knife back onto the board. Because the crust/base goes slightly crispy this system works well and means you do not need a pizza peel.

In my oven the pizza take roughly 7 minutes to cook though exact timings will depend on your oven. How do you tell when the pizza is cooked? The crust should just be starting to get some black spots. Also when you lift one edge of the pizza up (with a knife or peel) the base should be slightly firm so it doesn’t droop or fold over immediately.

When it comes to toppings I find simplicity is the key. After adding the tomato sauce I add a sprinkle of parmesan before the mozzarella and a sprinkle of olive oil. Basil gets added after the cooking.

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When to Repot Chilli Seedlings

Knowing when to pot on chilli seedlings is not an exact science. I like to repot the chilli seedlings when they have developed their first true set of leaves like the seedlings pictured below.

My favourite method of planting chilli seedlings is to use module trays. This makes transplanting and potting on the seedlings much easier once they reach the appropriate size. This minimises any risk of damaging the root balls of the seedlings.

I raised the chilli seedlings pictured below on a south facing window sill. I planted the seed on the 24th February – germination took approximately 2 weeks. Because I wasn’t using any artificial lights or growing these in a greenhouse the seedlings became a little leggy. This isn’t a big issue as when potting them on I like to pot them a little bit deeper in the soil. The photo below was taken roughly 1 month after sowing the seeds.

At the above stage I will typically pot the seedlings on in to pots about 3″ in diameter. By using module trays you can simply apply some pressure under the module and pop out the seedling along with the whole rootball ready for transplanting to the next pot. Next simply fill the remainder of the pot with some fresh compost and water them in to ensure the fresh compost gets in good contact with the seedlings roots.

Knowing when to repot chilli seedlings is only half the battle. For the best success you need to provide them with sufficient light and heat. If your seedlings are leggy like the ones in the photo above it is a sure sign that the plants need some more light. In the case of the above plants. I moved them out to the greenhouse after potting them on to ensure they got a lot more light.

The Aji Lemon plant above appeared in the first photo above, approximately two months after being pricked out. I initially potted it into a 3″ pot before moving it up to it’s current 5″ pot.

Since I moved the plant to the greenhouse it has become more bushy. You can see more lateral shoots coming out between the main stem and the leave nodes. This is always a good sign the plant has enough light.

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How to Freeze Fresh Curry Leaves

Freezing curry leaves is by far the best way of preserving them. Using the leaves dry tends to lose some of that delicate, aromatic fragrance that fresh curry leaves have. My preference is to freeze some whenever I have a supply of fresh curry leaves.

How to Freeze Fresh Curry Leaves

Remove the leaves form the stalks
Discard any spoilt leaves
Wash thoroughly under cold water
Spread the leaves out on some kitchen roll to dry
Once dry simply place in a zip lock bag in the freezer

It is important to use a zip lock freezer bag to store the leaves in. Without a bag the leaves are prone to drying out and losing long term flavour.

To use frozen curry leaves simply remove as many as you need from the freezer and add to the pan. There is no need to defrost the leaves first.

How Else to Preserve Curry Leaves

The other common way to preserve curry leaves is to dry them. This can be done either in a food dehydrator or by simply spreading the fresh leaves out on a large tray and leaving the to dry in a warm room with good airflow. When the leaves are crisp and break instead of bending they are ready. Store them in an airtight container and they should last over a year.

While dried curry leaves are argably more convenient to store and use, I much prefer feezing them. I find frozen curry leaves is much better at preserving the fresh aromatic flavours.

Can you grow your own curry leaves?

Here in the UK I have had mixed success in the past when it comes to taking cuttings from fresh curry leaves that have been bought from the local Indian supermarket. A few cuttings that I have made in the past have taken however the plants have never really prospered.

Much more successful was buying a small plant from a UK supplier. The small plant arrived in the post in the depths of last winter and now spring is here it as started to put on some good growth!

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