Vegetable pizza - Indian Style

Making the Italian delicacy involves lot of patience & creativity. We love making pizzas at home & trying a new topping each time. Someone once told us the less number of toppings, the tasty pizza will be. So we usually use around 4-5 different toppings each time.

Ingredients: -

For the base: -

1/2 Kg maida

3-4 tbsp Olive oil

200 ml lukewarm water

1/2 tsp Sugar

2 tsp yeast

Salt

For the piazzaiola: -

1 finely chopped red onion
2 tbsp Oil
1 tsp powdered pepper

2 tsp sambar powder / garam masala

1 small tin of concentrated tomato paste

1 strand dried oregano
Few fresh Basilikum leaves (Tulsi)

Salt

For the toppings:-

Grated pizza Cheese

Red onions

100 g maize corn

Capsicum / bell pepper

Tomatoes

Olives

Pineapple

Method: -

Making the base: -

1. Mix the yeast with the sugar & add little lukewarm water & stir.

2. Let the mixture sit for around 10 minutes until it triples in volume.

3. Take maida into a mixing bowl & add olive oil & salt to it.

4. Add the yeast sugar mixture to the flour after the former has increased in volume.

5. Add also oil, salt & 200 ml of lukewarm water.

6. Mix with hands & knead until a smooth dough is got. Checked with a tester if necessary. We used the food processor to make the dough initially & later kneaded the dough with hands.

7. I slightly heated the stove for 30 seconds & then put the dough into a steel plate & kept it on the warm plate of the stove. The dough was covered with a steel plate.

8. Let the dough ferment for 30 minutes t0 an hour.

Making the piazzaiola: -

1. Finely chop the onion & fry in oil.

2. Add the tomato concentrate, pepper, basilikum, oregano, sambar powder/garam masala & salt.

3. Mix everything well & let the mixture cool.

4. Grind it in a blender to a smooth paste.

Making the pizza: -

1. Check the dough. If it's risen, then pre-heat the oven to around 180 Deg C.

2. Grease the pizza pan with oil & dust maida on to it to prevent the pizza from sticking to it.

3. Take some amount of the dough & spread it into the pan with fingers. The dough can be also rolled out & then transferred to the pan. But the dough can break. Hence roll it out if possible in the pan itself, else use fingers.

4. Spread the piazzaiola on to the pizza base.

5. Take little cheese & put it on the base first before putting the toppings.

6. Put the toppings one after another saving few pieces of each topping to put on pizza at the end.

7. The last topping to be placed before the cheese is put, is the tomato. Then place the remaining toppings on the cheese. We like the toppings to be grilled a little bit more than usual.

8. I put dry red chilly seeds before placing the pizza pan inside the oven.

9. The pizza was left in the oven for 40-45 minutes.