Pizza dough and Sauce

Pizza Dough and Sauce

No one knows where pizza first originated and to tell you the truth I would like to know when but since there is no real way to tie it down to when and where lets just be thankful that it has come to being at its current incarnation shall we? Great!
Everyone has their favorite kinda of pizza, whether it’s ham and pineapple, pepperoni and cheese, plain cheese or what the Danes like to call a Garden pizza. No matter what your toppings are nothing can beat the taste of home made pizza. My preference is double pepperoni, garlic and jalapeno’s next in line is the meat lover’s pizza. What’s your?
I have been looking for a while for a good pizza dough recipe and searching on the net you will find a basic recipe for the crust. What I was looking for was one that used semolina in the recipe. I had found several but ended up melding two different recipes into one that I liked. It will make two twelve-inch pizzas or four-nine inch (personal size pizzas that can be prepared in a 9-inch metal pie plate.
Here is the recipe and I hope you like it as much as I do. In making the dough be sure that the room you are using to let the dough rise is a warm room or use your oven to proof the dough. Also make sure that all of your ingredients are at room temperature prior to making the dough.

The Dough

Ingredients:

1 Packet yeast
1 Tbls Sugar
3 ½ cups Flour
1 cup Semolina
1 ¾ cups warm water
3 tbls Olive oil
1 tbls Salt

1. In a separate container add ¾ cup warm water, 1 tablespoon of sugar and mix well, once mixed add the yeast and set aside.
2. In a large mixing bowl add your flour, semolina and salt; blend all of the ingredients well.
3. Check the yeast and make sure that there is a good amount of foam on top if so than your yeast is good. Pour it into the flour mixture along with the olive oil and add ¾ cup of warm water, knead into the flour and do not add any more water than necessary if you do just add a bit of flour and knead into the dough until it is not longer sticky, tacky is ok.
4. Knead the dough for about 10 minutes after that amount of time your dough should feel silky if not knead until it is.
5. Once kneading is complete divide the dough accordingly and shape into round balls, place then in oiled bowls, cover, place in a warm place and let rise for two hours.
6. Once the dough has risen to double in size remove and knead place back in the bowl and cover and let rise again.
7. After the second rise remove the dough to a lightly floured work surface and either lightly roll out the dough to form a 12 or 9 inch round or use your fingers to form the dough.



Pizza Sauce

500 g Tomato Sauce
60 g Tomato Paste
1 Tbls Italian Seasoning
½ tsp Garlic Paste or more to suit your taste
1 tsp powdered onion or
½ medium onion diced
1/8 tsp Ground Black Pepper
¼ tsp Salt
1 – 2 tbls Olive Oil

Combine all ingredients together and simmer for at least an hour prior to using. Taste and increase any of the ingredients to your liking.


As a side note if you would like to experiment, flavor your dough with some dried herbs like oregano, basil or anything that you believe would taste good. I used a bit of Cayenne pepper in my last batch and it did taste pretty good. Use infused oils other than olive oil, you can buy infused oils at a number of well stocked stores or on-line, they come in a variety of flavors like hot chili, garlic, etc.