Homemade Pizza Dough and Sauce - The Italiana Choice

Homemade pizza can't be beat. Of course you need the perfect pizza dough, a tasty pizza sauce, some soft, milky mozzarella and a medley of colourful vegetables.

If I make homemade pizza, it means my vegan husband doesn't miss out. All the lush flavours, just hold the mozzarella.

I usually use bog standard olive oil to make my pizza dough, but this time I used a rich extra virgin olive oil from Umbria in the heart of Italy.


So how did I get my mitts on this lush Italian oil?

I got it from Italiana Choice.

Italiana Choice is an online Italian delicatessen who provide a wide range of Italian produce, from oils, wine and cheese to pasta, gourmet sauces and olive wood products. And the best bit? They deliver worldwide.

Italiana Choice sent me a specially tailored hamper full of authentic Italian goodies suitable for a hungry vegetarian and her family. It even came wrapped in it's own tomato sleeve in honour of Tinned Tomatoes.

(carry on to the end of the post for my pizza sauce recipe)

What a joy! The quality was superior and it was such a treat to cook with authentic Italian products.

My hamper contained:

1. Extra Virgin Olive Oil Umbria PDO - 500ml
2. Sugo all Norma (tomato and aubergine sauce) 250g
3. Nerone Organic Black Rice 500g
4. Mountain Lentils from Castelluccio di Norcia 500g
5. Love Bomb (hot chilli sauce) 180g
6. Olives
7. Artichokes alla Cafona 300g
8. Passato e Passito Pantessco (a pesto made from capers, almonds, sun-dried tomatoes sweet wine and olive oil) 180g
9. Arance (orange light marmalade) 340g
10. Maloreddus (semolina pasta) 500g
11. Fior di Sale (handcrafted sea salt) 80g
12. Crema di Pistacchio (sweet pistachio cream) 190g

 

They also included a rather exciting bag of seeds. 

Here is what they said about them "ps: we put inside even a new product, very interesting for health food lover and even quite addictive. It is a mix of 5 seeds (Linum, Cucurbita, Papaverum, Psyllii and Helianthus) prepared by a pharmacist with the passion for nutrition .They should be  much good for the body. A spoonful a day keeps the doctor away and they're even quite tasty."


The olive oil is so good I've managed to finish the whole bottle! I used it in my pizza dough and in my pizza sauce (I didn't use the whole bottle in the pizza, but I used it in just about everything else I could think of).

For Graham's pizza, I topped thinly rolled (no, I don't have any pizza throwing skills) pizza dough, a good slathering of pizza sauce, topped with mushrooms, roasted red peppers, cherry tomatoes, basil and a good grinding of black pepper. 

I made my own pizza sauce, but the rather gorgeous Norma Sauce included in my hamper would make a super pizza sauce.

I had the same as Graham with mozzarella added and Cooper had a sauce, mozzarella and sweetcorn, his pizza of choice.

 

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Homemade Pizza Sauce

Written by Jacqueline Meldrum

March 11, 2013

A quick and tasty pizza sauce made with the simplest of ingredients.

Ingredients

• 350g passata
• 150g tomato purée
• 2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
• 2 cloves garlic, crushed
• 1 tsp dried oregano
• 1 tsp dried basil
• a good grinding of salt and pepper

 Instructions

1. Throw all the ingredients into a bowl.2. Stir until well combined. 3. Cover and set aside for 30 minutes, to give the flavours time to develop.4. Spread onto pizza bases before adding mozzarella and other toppings.5. Can be frozen.

Details

Total time: 32 mins
Yield: 1 batch (enough for 10-12 pizzas)

Here are a few of my pizza recipes:

• Perfect Pizza Dough
• Deep Pan Pizza Dough
• Simple Pizza Sauce
• Hearty Aubergine Pizza Sauce
• Quick Mini Muffin Pizzas 
• Bite-Sized Pizza Quiches

Disclosure: Italiana Choice sent me a hamper of their products to try. I was not required to write a positive review and any opinions expressed are my own.