Quick Pan Pizza

Everybody loves pizza.  It’s unpretentious, simple, honest food.  It also comes in many guises: from the incredibly thin, crisp pizza base found in Italy, spread lightly with intense tomato sauce and strewn with slices of mozzarella, to the thick, stuffed crust of the commercial English version; there is a pizza type out there to suit everyone.  Everyone, perhaps, except for the food intolerants of this world.  I’ve long been working on a gluten, egg, dairy and yeast free pizza crust that would remind me of my 6 months spent in Italy, where, on a student budget, we ate slices of pizza, cut fresh from a giant, baking hot base that was lifted from the clay oven set in the wall before our eyes.  The price was the equivalent to about a pound a slice and your choice was between the much loved (and in my eyes, the best) margarita or whatever the vendor felt like creating that day: sometimes mushrooms, sometimes pepperoni, once, on a heady day, anchovies and olives.  We ate there every single day and never, ever grew tired of it.  So I understand the importance of a good pizza, but I also understand the sometime need for a quick and simple fix.

This pizza is not the traditional affair but a cheating little number that can be whipped up in minutes.  The base is made from a light dough that can be rolled out to any thickness you like, and the topping is quite literally, anything you want it to be.  For me, I want an intense tomato sauce and then a selection of what can only be described as antipasti, to decorate the top.  I also like to scatter over toasted pine nuts to give a savoury flavour that mimics that of parmesan or pecorino cheese and add a bit of rocket for a peppery kick.  Whatever your choice, this base can be built on to satisfy any pizza craving you might have and makes a brilliant midweek supper when served with a large green salad.

This makes one 8 inch pizza which is a good meal for one or serves two if served with accompaniments.  If you want to make two pizzas simply double the recipe quantities and then divide the dough into two balls, rolling them out and pan frying them separately, before transferring to the oven to cook together.

QUICK PAN PIZZA

Makes 1 eight inch pizza

For the pizza base

110g/4oz Doves Farm Gluten Free Self Raising Flour

¼ tsp xantham gum

1 tbsp olive oil

4 – 6 tbsp warm water

A good pinch of sea salt

For the pizza sauce

1 x 400g tin of chopped tomatoes

1 tbsp tomato puree

1 tsp garlic oil or good olive oil

½ tsp lemon juice

½ tsp soft brown sugar

½ tsp dried oregano

A few basil leaves, torn up

For the topping

A selection of antipasti: chargrilled artichokes, olives, roasted peppers

A handful of rocket

A small handful of pine nuts

Drain the juice from the tomatoes, discarding the liquid and placing the remaining tomatoes in a small saucepan.  Add the tomato puree, oil, lemon juice, sugar and oregano the tomatoes, season well and bring to the boil.  Reduce the heat and leave to simmer for 15 minutes.  Stir in the torn basil leaves, season to taste and set aside to cool down slightly.

Preheat the oven to 200c.  Using a large mixing bowl, mix together the flour, water, xantham gum, sea salt and oil until you have a stiff dough – add a little more water if the mixture is not coming together but remember that you don’t want it to become sticky.  Pull the dough together with your hands and knead lightly, just stretching the dough a little to allow the xanthan gum to bind, for a few minutes.  Roll the dough into a smoo

Roll the dough into a smooth ball and lay it between two pieces of clingfilm.  Roll it out into a circle, approximately 8 inches in diameter and 5mm thick, shaping the edges with your fingers.  Heat a large frying pan or flat griddle until very hot.  Once rolled, lay the pizza base into the pan and cook until browned on one side – about 3 minutes.  Transfer the pizza to a flat baking sheet, cooked side down, and then lightly spread over the tomato sauce and layer over your chosen toppings.  Place in the oven and bake for 12 - 15 minutes or until the base is crisp and slightly coloured.  Serve immediately.

Olive and Oregano Bread

The smell of freshly baked bread is one of life’s great pleasures; so for those of us who can no longer eat the ‘real’ stuff our enjoyment is usually left to scent alone.  When put like that, the aroma of a loaf straight from the oven is more an experience of torture and temptation rather than gratification.  It always makes me happy to take a scenario such as this and turn it on its head.  So how about this for an idea: a freshly baked loaf, straight from the oven, seeped in the heady of aroma of oregano, salty with the taste of olives and crusty and pliable to the bite.  Tempted?

This is a glorious and simple little loaf of bread that is both delicious and heartening.  Based on a Turkish method of baking bread, I use just a little baking powder as the raising agent.  It lends the loaf a good interior quality, while allowing the combination of olive oil and rice milk to smooth and flavour the batter.  It is a wonderful bread to make for an impromptu lunch or supper with friends and family, the speed of its preparation key to making it a blissfully easy bake.  Serve it with hoummous, roasted peppers and courgettes and a bowl of really good quality olive oil to dip in to.  Or, offer it up alongside a bowl of spaghetti with an intense beef or lamb ragu.  I really recommend always using black olives as I prefer their slightly more concentrated, rounded flavour, but feel free to substitute the oregano with other herbs: thyme or mint work particularly well.

It is worth noting that making bread without gluten, dairy, eggs and yeast will not go unnoticed in terms of its texture.  Loaves without eggs or yeast lack anything substantial to help them leaven and rise and so will always be a little denser than your average.  Don’t hold this against them; they are delicious nonetheless.  One of the benefits of this type of bread is that it toasts brilliantly.  My recommendation would be to serve it hot out of the oven initially and then toast it thereafter.  If you find yourself left with a few ends then drizzle with a little olive oil and roast or fry into croutons – they will be the best you’ve ever had.

OLIVE AND OREGANO BREAD

Makes 1 loaf

You will need a 2lb loaf tin for this recipe

350g/12oz Doves Farm Gluten Free Plain Flour

100g/3½ oz Doves Farm Gluten Free Self-raising Flour

1 tsp baking powder

200ml/8floz water

200ml/8floz rice milk

75ml/3floz olive oil

2 eggs – 2 heaped tsp Orgran Egg Replacer mixed whisked together with 4 tbsp water

75g/3oz dry black olives, stoned

The leaves from 8 sprigs of oregano

1 tsp sea salt flakes

Preheat the oven to 175c (155c Fan) and grease the loaf tin with olive oil or butter replacement.  Combine the egg, water and rice milk in a jug and set aside.  Sieve the flour, baking powder and salt into a large mixing bowl and then slowly pour in the liquid mix, a bit at a time, stirring as you go, until you have a smooth and creamy dough.

Roughly chop the olives and then stir these, along with the oregano and olive oil, in to the dough mixture.  Spoon the bread dough into the loaf tin and level the top.  Bake in the oven for 1 hour until risen and pale gold on top.  Turn the bread out of the tin and serve it straight from the oven, warm and crisp.