Pizza - super thin crust

This recipe is extremely forgiving and brilliant ...... and quite lazy as well, yeast does a third of the work and a third is done by the oven ..... making life easier !! I have made pizza's using this recipe A LOT of times ..... add whatever you want, serve topped with olives, sundried tomatoes, dressed salad leaves, fresh basil ... anything you fancy, or nothing at all !

Though this recipe is for four it can be doubled for eight or halved for two (as I do, its just that the measurements become odd when trying to write a recipe for two eg. 5/6 th of a cup (1/2 cup + 1/3 cup) .... it's easier to calculate on your own .... trust me !! )

And, though, this recipe looks really long ...... a lot of it depends on your personal preferences !

The Base:

Ingredients for the dough:

1 2/3 cup plain flour

3.5 gms of dry yeast (1/2 of a 7 gm sachet)

3/4 teaspoon salt

3/4 cup warm water (not too cold or not too hot)

2 teaspoons olive oil

Method for the dough:

Add yeast, olive oil and salt to the warm water and let it stand for 5 minutes.

After, 5 mins, just add this mix to the flour (placed in a big bowl ...... giving it enough room to double)

Knead the dough ...... dont worry if its too sticky !

Cover the dough with cling wrap and leave in a warm place (under a bright light is fine) for an hour ..... a little more is fine, but a little less restricts the airiness, so don't !

The Sauce for the base:

Tomato paste 4 teaspoons (heaped) ... one per person

1/2 teaspoon pepper

1/4 teaspoon salt

2 pinches of sugar (cuts the tartness of the tomato paste)

1/2 teaspoon mixed dried herbs of your choice ... italian, pizza mixes ..... anything !

1 teaspoon olive oil

Toppings:

Grated mozzarella cheese 250 gms (more or less depending on how cheesy you want your pizza to be)

All toppings are optional:

2 sliced onions (medium)

2 tomatoes (medium) - de-seeded & sliced

3-4 small eggplants (not the big roasting kind .... japanese (thin long) are good)

5-6 mushrooms sliced

Capsicum - sliced

Chicken (pre-cook and add t0 the pizza 3-4 minutes before its ready)

Fresh Rosemary - hand shredded

Chopped green chillies

........ you get the drift, anything goes ..... it's pizza !!

Garnishing (optional):

Chopped olives

Chopped sundried tomatoes

Fresh Basil

Method:

-Pre-heat oven to 220 degrees celsius

-Divide the dough into 4 portions

-Throw some flour on the surface for rolling the dough

-Roll out the dough (thickness - 0.5 cms - more or less on personal preference)

-Spread tomato paste mix on base

-add a layer of grated mozzarella

-top with chopped chillies & rosemary

-add layers of all the toppings your hear desires, the only thing to remember is that if eggplant is right on top, please brush the eggplant with some olive oil (it burns quite quickly)

-bake for 15-20 mins in the center of the oven, depends on your personal preference for crispiness .....

-top with garnishes of your choice & serve up !