Almost Pizza

Last night we decided to make pizza. We’ve done it quite successfully a few times before, so had no reason to believe that this time would be any different. But it was different. The dough just didn’t work out very well. We guessed at many reasons for this, ranging from the yeast being old to the planets not being in correct alignment.

Luckily, we had a ciabatta loaf available, so we sliced this in half horizontally and made each half into an almost-pizza. We had a variety of toppings: salami, paleta iberico, mozzarella, marinated artichoke hearts, sundried tomatoes, manchego cheese, red onions, chopped olives and basil. We decided to make one “Italian” pizza with the salami, mozzarella, artichoke hearts and basil leaves and one “Spanish” pizza with the paleta, manchego, olives, red onions and a token amount of mozzarella. The mozzarella was buffalo mozzarella from M&S, which is really good and I ate rather a lot of it before it made it anywhere near the pizza.

Kerri had made a tomato “sauce” by roasting some tomatoes and onions with a little chilli and other seasoning. We squashed the tomatoes down a bit and then spread this over the bases before putting the toppings onto them. They turned out quite well, although obviously not the same as a proper pizza would have. The ciabatta went crispy on the outside and stayed soft on the inside, which gave a nice contrast. I preferred the “Spanish” one and Kerri preferred the “Italian” one.