01 Aug pizza: two ways

These recipes first appeared in Insider Magazine in The Irish Independent on July 31st

There’s nothing like a pizza party to celebrate a long weekend. The possibilities for toppings are vast and it’s a gloriously simplistic route to feeding friends. Get your buddies to bring around their favourite toppings and boom! You’ve got a pizza party.

Pizza Dough 

Ingredients

500g type “00” flour (available in all good supermarkets)

1 teaspoon of quick yeast (we always use Dove Farm Organic Quick Yeast)

1 teaspoon of salt

300g of warm water

Method

Sieve the flour into a large bowl and add the yeast and salt. Mix well before adding 100ml of water. Mix with your hands. Add another 100ml and mix again. Add the last 100ml of water and mix really well in the bowl until a dough ball starts to form.

Transfer the dough to floured surface and knead the dough for 5 to 8 minutes. You want it to be nice and smooth. Get your friends to help out with this stage.

Lightly oil a large bowl and put your dough ball into it. Let it rest in a warm place for 30 minutes to 1 hour until risen and fluffy. Cut it into three pieces and roll each into a smaller dough ball, ready to be rolled out into a pizza base.

Pizza Toppings

We think less is more with pizza and prefer to use ricotta cheese or even our beetroot hummus as a base instead of tomato sauce.

Ricotta pizza

Ingredients

4 large tablespoons of ricotta cheese (we adore Cork made Toonsbride Dairy ricotta)

4 tablespoons of your favourite green pesto

Handful of finely chopped walnuts

Method

Pre-heat your oven to its highest heat. Put sunflower oil on your baking tray or pizza stone and put it in the oven until it’s good and hot.

Roll out one of your pizza balls into a thin round circle, no more than 2cm thick. Carefully transfer your pizza base to your hot baking tray or pizza stone.

Spread the ricotta over the pizza base and dollop with the pesto. Sprinkle the walnuts over the top and put the whole lot back into the hot oven for 11 to 12 minutes, until the crust is wonderfully golden.

Beetroot hummus pizza

Ingredients

4 small vacuum-packed beetroots (or roast fresh beets for 45 minutes until soft)

3 cloves of garlic

Juice of 1/2 lemon

Handful of finely chopped walnuts

Salt

Pepper

4 tablespoons of olive Oil

Handful of feta cheese

Handful of chopped hazelnuts or walnuts

A handful of black kalamata olives, finely sliced

Method

Chop the beetroot into chunks and put in a food processor. Finely grate in the garlic cloves, add the juice of half a lemon, the walnuts, a pinch of salt and pepper and the olive oil. Whizz until you have your smooth beetroot hummus, adding a drop of water if you want to get a very smooth consistency.

Pre-heat your oven to its highest heat. Put sunflower oil on your baking tray or pizza stone and put it in the oven until it’s good and hot.

Roll out one of your pizza balls into a thin round circle, no more than 2cm thick. Carefully transfer your pizza base to your hot baking tray or pizza stone.

Spread the beetroot hummus onto the pizza base and sprinkle with the feta, nuts and olives. Cook in your oven for 11 to 12 minutes, until the crust is wonderfully golden.

Check out our video on how to prepare beetroot hummus.