Saatvik Pizza - My Style

 Srimathe Ramanujaya Nama:

As I sit here on a friday evening wondering when I'll get off work and what I should make for dinner, the thought of warm cheesy pizza crosses my mind. Then, I realize that I've been making this family favorite for 12+ years now. I would have probably made 500+ pizzas in all these years. 

The most common way for someone to have a pizza is to order in - well, not in our family. 

It's not even that hard to make, so, I figured I should share the recipe and hope that I've inspired someone to try it.

Notes: 

I use canned tomato paste to recreate flavorful pizza sauce, somehow fresh tomatoes dont seem to cut it for me, but if you are ok with it, please go ahead.

You can use bread flour, all purpose flour, whole wheat flour, a combination of these flours, whatever suits your palate and mood on that day

I generally use perforated pans, they seem to produce the best results if you need to make multiple pizzas. I've also tried with cast iron pans, they seem to work for the first pizza, but from the second one and beyond, you'll need some skill to transfer the pizza base without burning your hands

You can precook just the base and keep it ready. Add sauce and toppings and cook just before pizza is ready to be served. I use this method when I'm making for pizza for multiple families and have to cut down my cook time

You can make the dough by kneading manually with your hands, or a stand mixer or using the dough setting in a bread maker

Equipment Needed:

Pizza pans (or cast iron pans), oven, knife or pizza cutter, stove for the sauce.

Ingredients

Pizza Base:

 All purpose, bread flour, whole wheat flour or a mix of these - 6 cups

Water: 1.25 - 2 cups, depending on the flour type

Salt: 1 tbsp

Sugar: 3 tbsp

Olive oil: 1/2 cup

Yeast: 1.5 tsp ( 2tsp for quick rise)

Pizza Sauce:

Canned Tomato Paste - 1 can

Italian seasoning - 2 tbsp

Water - 2 cups

Salt - 2 tsp

Olive oil - 1/4 cup

Toppings :

Cheese, grated - 2 cups

Vegetables of your choice - cut into any shape you prefer. Our family favorites are

Green bell peppers - cut into finger length and width sizes 

Jalapenos - sliced

Black olives - sliced

Pineapple - cubed

Spinach

Sun dried tomatoes

Recipe: 

Pizza Base

Combine the water, salt, sugar, flour, olive oil and yeast and knead well. If the dough is too sticky, add more flour, if the dough is too dry, add more water. You can use  a stand mixer, knead with your hand or use the dough setting on your bread machine. 

Knead well, cover with cloth and put in a warm place for the dough to rise. In about 2 hours, the dough would have doubled, punch it down and knead again, set aside for another 30-45 minutes. This is called double rise. The dough has to rise atleast once, optional to let it double rise. Keep this covered until you are ready to bake.

Sauce:

In a thick bottom pan, add the tomato paste, water, oil, salt, italian seasoning and mix well. Bring to medium heat, stir and let it cook. Once it thickens, in about 10 minutes, turn off the heat. 

Rolling out the pizza and baking:

Preheat oven to 425F. 

Cut the dough into 4-5 equal size portions. Grease your pizza pan and keep ready.

Take each portion of the dough, give it a quick knead and roll using a rolling pin to desired thickness and diameter. Lift and place on the greased pizza pan. Adjust the sides as necessary. If using a perforated pan, the dough may peak out from the holes, gently lift once and lay flat on the pan. 

Brush some oil on the edges of the dough. 

Add 2 -3 ladles or desired amount of sauce. 

Top with your choice of vegetables followed by cheese. 

Ensure the vegetables or not too crowded. 

Sprinkle some oil. 

Place the pan into the oven and bake for about 15-20 minutes, depending on the size of the pizza and the efficiency of the oven. 

You'll know pizza is done when you start seeing brown spots on the cheese. 

Use oven mittens to remove the pizza, place on a cooling rack or other surface to cool slightly. Transfer to a cutting board and make slices using a knife or pizza cutter. 

Offer to Krishna and enjoy. 

More Notes:

I use tomato paste rather than fresh tomatoes. The tomato paste provides more of the dense italian flavor that is somehow missing when I make with fresh pureed tomatoes. The fresh pureed tomatoes have more of a rasam or north indian gravy flavor than Italian. 

For alternate flavors, you can use panneer butter masala gravy, pesto sauce, palak panneer gravy etc. instead of the pizza sauce

I prefer to top with vegetables and then cheese, thats just a preference, you can add cheese first and then vegetables as well

Amount of sauce, vegetables, cheese etc are personal preferences... I like to add generous amounts of sauce while my children like light sauce on their pizzas

It's a great way to engage kids during parties, they love crafting their own pizza.

If you tried this or have a question, please drop a comment.