Home-made pizza beats commercial recipes from the big chains with ease. While you can buy ready-made bases, those hoping to make a truly gourmet pizza will be preparing their pizza bases from scratch. Make your efforts go further by making extra bases that you can freeze – the fresh ones are best, but your home-made bases will still be better than store-bought ones even if they’ve spent some time in storage.
1. Now to Prepare the Toppings
Looks and colour are as important as flavour! Our top tip is to make sure your knife is super-sharp. Give it a few strokes on the sharpening stone before you begin. You’ll be amazed at the difference it makes. Preparing beautiful pizzas means getting that clean cut and even-sized slices of everything. Add to the fun by letting everyone build their own pizzas from a selection of mouthwatering toppings. Need some inspiration? Let’s look at toppings next.
2. Cheese With a Difference
Mozzarella, cheddar, feta: they work so well, but there are other cheeses you can try to add an element of the unexpected to your selection of toppings. Try offering ricotta, provolone, asiago, burrata, fontina, or gruyère. Skip the feta and go for goat’s milk cheese instead. The mozzarella is a must-have but you can already start adding a signature style to pizza when you choose one or two of the less-commonly-used alternatives.
3. Toppings to Please the Palate
Roasted beetroot or butternut are fantastic on pizza, especially when combined with goat’s cheese. Caramelised onions are a huge favourite and go well with just about any other toppings, but have you considered adding apple? Add bacon to the equation and you have a marvellous taste contrast waiting to happen. Other fabulous toppings to try? How about shrimp, honey-basted chicken or rhubarb with basil and barbeque sauce? While you’re at it, take a look in the fridge. Leftovers of almost any kind could find new life as pizza toppings with a difference.
4. Pizza for Dessert?
Dessert pizzas are trendy and delicious besides being easy to make. Try a combination of mascarpone cheese and raspberries as toppings and serve it up with custard. Cream cheese, choc chip and crumbled cookies with lashings of white chocolate melt make for a taste explosion that will see everyone coming back for seconds. Or try an apple pie variation with a deep dish and pizza dough as a crust. Tasty! One more combo for luck! Blackberry, pistachios and honey: is your mouth watering yet? If dessert pizzas are a bridge too far for you, try these simple and yummy dessert recipes.
Anything Goes
Pizza is far more versatile than we give it credit for! You can use just about anything as a topping for pizza and get fantastic results. Get creative! Test the waters with fun new ingredients, and develop your own, homemade combos that no restaurant will equal. You’ll enjoy the taste adventure, so if you never thought about trying it on a pizza, now’s the time to give it a whirl. Anybody can do ham, cheese and tomato, but you’re ready to take pizza to the next level.