Get Floured Up!

The weekend is a kingdom of possibility. Free time is precious, as is family time, and we want you to bring both together this week, along with a little food! We’ve been focussing on the family this month at Oregano and we thought it was high time you spent a little quality time with the kids.

For Italians, the only thing more important than food is family, and we want you to bring both together this weekend by making your own pizzas! They’re easy, they’re quick, they’re tasty, and they’re great fun to make!

Let’s start off with…

The Dough

Ingredients

• 300g strong bread flour
• 1 sachet quick action yeast
• 1 tsp salt
• 200ml water
• 1 tbsp olive oil

Method

1. Put all your dry ingredients in a bowl. OR – if you’re really brave – on a counter or kitchen surface.
2. Make a well in the centre of your flour, salt, and yeast, and pour in your water. (Yeh, a bowl is probably wiser if you have littlies about!)
3. Add your olive oil and mix together until you have a soft, wet dough.
4. This is the fun bit! Tip the dough out onto a floured surface and knead it! (This is a perfect way to get out any tension for the week, and calm the stress of cooking with the children…)
5. Pre-heat your oven to 240◦c.
6. Pop the dough back in the bowl and cover with oiled cling-film then leave to rise for 10-15mins. (This is a bit the kids will love. Gather round the bowl and watch the dough do its thing!)
7. Once risen, roll your dough out to your preferred size – Teeny-weeny pizzette or one big family-sized pizza to share, it’s up to you – but make sure it’s very thin.
8. Place on a floured baking tray and it’s ready to top and then bake!

The Toppings

Ingredients

This is up to you really! Whatever floats your family boat! As a base you could have:

• Tomato Sauce
• White Sauce (Such as cream cheese with lemon and garlic)
• BBQ Sauce (If you want to get a bit Tex-Mex) 

And you could top it with any or all of these:

• Ham/Bacon/Prosciutto/Pepperoni/Chorizo (Meat from your country of choice!)
• Mushrooms
• Spinach
• Onions
• An egg! (find some inspiration for Egg Pizzas HERE)
• Pineapple (If you’re feeling Hawaiian)
• Peppers
• Cherry tomatoes
• Any number of herbs or spices

Basically any animal, vegetable, or mineral which you and your kids love (ok, perhaps not so much the minerals…) chuck it on there then cover it with your cheese of choice – which should, really, be mozzarella, and pop it in the oven! Your oven should have been pre-heated to 240◦c, bake it for 8-10 minutes until perfectly crisp.

This is the most delicious way to have fun with the family – make sure everyone gets involved, one person chopping, one person mixing, add your toppings with care and love and, if you aren’t all covered in flour by the end of it, you’re not doing it right! And if it all goes horribly wrong, just pootle on over to Pizzeria Oregano and we’ll give you the finished product for afabulous family price. 

Pizza Dough Recipe

Well Valentine's month is coming to a close, so we can stop with all this lovey-dovey nonsense and get back to normal! We thought we'd wrap up this series with one last romantic activity though: making pizza together. This messy activity is bound to get sparks - and flour - flying. So grab some yeast, roll up your sleeves, and bid February farewell with some fabulous food-making.

Our very own dough-maker hard at work!

People often think that making pizza is a nightmare and is something that cannot be successfully achieved at home. Not to do ourselves out of business of course, but at Pizzeria Oregano we're out to prove you wrong and show how easy it is to make pizzeria-standard pizzas in the comfort of your own home.

To make the pizza base, you need just four ingredients:

300f strong bread flour
1 sachet of quick action yeast
1 tsp salt
olive oil

1. Put the flour, salt and yeast in a large bowl. Make a well in the centre and pour in 200ml of warm water. Add 1 tbsp of olive oil and stir together until you have a soft, wet dough.
2. Turn out onto a lightly floured, clean surface and knead for five minutes.
3. Place in a large bowl and covered with some oiled cling film. There is no need to leave it out to rise for a long time. Ten minutes is enough!
4. On a floured surface, roll out the dough into large rounds, around 25cm in diameter. Make sure you get the dough really very thin. Place onto a floured baking tray.
5. Preheat the oven to 240C. Add any topping that you wish to use. Try making pizza bianco - this is pizza without tomato sauce. If tomato sauce is more you thing, just use some supermarket passata.
6. Place the pizza on its baking tray into the oven and bake for 8-10 minutes until crisp.

Have fun!