Deliciously Healthy Homemade Pizza

For the crust, combine lukewarm milk or water and yeast in a cup. Set aside for about 5 minutes to activate (mixture will become foamy).

In the meantime, add flour, 1/2 cup water, olive oil and salt to a big bowl. Pour yeast mixture into the bowl and knead until all the flour is incorporated and dough is smooth and elastic.

Set oven to 450°F to 500°F (250°C to 300°C) and let it heat whilst pizza dough is rising. (If you use a pizza stone, then don’t forget to preheat that as well.) Leave pizza dough in the big bowl, cover it with a clean kitchen towel and set it aside in a warm place whilst you prepare the pizza toppings. (In case your kitchen is cold, you may want to pop the bowl with the dough into another oven if you have one, at no more than 100°F or 40°C. Make sure that it isn’t more than that as too high temperature will kill the yeast before it could raise your dough!)

For the sauce, wash tomatoes, cut in quarters and put them into a food processor with basil leaves, oregano and a pinch of salt to chop. Process to combine. (Pizza sauce is always tastier if you use fresh basil and oregano.)

Pour sauce into a frying pan and cook about 5 minutes, stirring as it cooks. Meanwhile, grate cheese.

After about 20 minutes and after preparing the sauce and topping, remove pizza dough from bowl. Divide it into two pieces with a knife or scraper. Work with one piece of the pizza dough at a time.

Form dough into a large disk with your hands or a rolling pin and lay it on the baking paper. Work from the middle of the dough outwards, using rolling pin or your palm. Stretch the dough until it’s the size of your baking tray. If you like thin crust (as we do), roll a bit more or use your fingers to press the extra dough to the edge and leave it at the side of the tray.

Spoon half of the sauce into the center of the pizza and spread it out to the edges. Pile on any toppings you like. We usually go with the easy 4-cheese topping.

Slide pizza into the preheated oven and bake it about 15 minutes until crust is golden brown and the cheese looks toasty. Prepare the remaining pizza while the first one is baking.