Making home made pizza

This is a bit of an off-piste post, but I enjoyed making pizzas so much I had to write about it. London is so expensive that sometimes you have to be more creative with what you do for entertainment. The only time my friends and I can ever go to the cinema for example is on a Wednesday; that’s when Orange do 2 for 1 cinema tickets. Suggestion to go to the cinema on any other night of the week is greeted with disgust, contempt and a suspicious glare.

But I have discovered something to add alongside two for one cinema tickets for a night of good cheap entertainment.

If you have a free evening or afternoon, and want to do something either by yourself or friends that is fun, messy but not expensive or requires going out (bar a quick run to the supermarket): make home-made pizzas!

What do you need?

– pizza base

– tomato passata

– TOPPINGS

Pizza base

Pre-made pizza bases, in some cases already rolled out into a pizza-shape, are perfect for a quick and easy pizza. It takes out the need to make your own dough, which can take much, much longer. Home made dough is a good thing to try, but give yourself more time and a chance to practice first.

We bought pre-rolled, cheap pizza bases from Sainsburys (if you’re not from the UK, Sainsburys is at the medium to high end range of supermarkets in the country). They were £1 for two, so I was unsure about the quality. But that’s not a problem; slather it with as many toppings as you can and it doesn’t matter that your pizza base originally looked like a large cracker.

Spread the passata over the base, leaving a small space around the sides for the crust.

Toppings

This is where you can go wild. Whatever you fancy, anything goes.

We used mozzarella, salami, artichokes, red onion, garlic, olives, anchovies . . . not all on the same pizza, naturally. Using them in different combinations over different pizzas means you can experiment with what works together.