Quick and easy dinner: Colm O'Gorman's homemade pizza
Colm O'Gorman's perfect pizza.
Use whatever toppings you fancy, but this chorizo and squash combination blew my family away. Ideally use strong white flour for this, but if you don’t have any, plain flour will be fine. You don’t need any special equipment, just a mixing bowl, a cast iron or heavy-based frying pan and a grill.
I use buffalo mozzarella on my pizzas as I prefer it to prepacked grated mozzarella. If you can get low moisture cheese do - or just wrap the cheese in a clean J-cloth and squeeze out some of the moisture. This is worth doing as it prevents your pizza from being too wet once it's cooked.
- 475g strong white flour
- 7g (1 sachet) quick active yeast
- 25ml olive oil
- 50ml lukewarm milk
- 275ml lukewarm water
- 2tsp salt
- 1tsp sugar
- 300g cherry tomatoes
- 1 tbsp tomato purée
- 1 shallot
- 1 clove garlic
- A little olive oil
- 1tbsp honey
- Salt and pepper
- Roast butternut squash
- 75g of chorizo, thinly sliced
- 125g buffalo mozzarella
- 1 spring onion
- A little grated Parmesan
To make the dough, mix the flour, yeast, sugar and salt together in a large bowl. I used my Kenwood Chef with its dough hook for this, but you can mix and knead the dough by hand. Stir in the olive oil and milk. Gradually add water, mixing well to form a soft dough.
If using a dough hook, use medium speed for 4-5 minutes. If kneading by hand, turn the dough out onto a lightly floured surface. Knead for 10 minutes until you have a smooth dough. Pop into a lightly oiled bowl, cover with cling film. Allow to prove until doubled in size, about an hour.
To make the sauce, cut tomatoes into quarters. Finely chop the shallot and garlic. Cook in a small pan with a splash of olive oil until soft. Add the chopped tomato, tomato purée and the honey. Season with salt and pepper. Cook on a medium heat, stirring occasionally until the tomatoes break down and the sauce thickens to a soft paste-like consistency. About 15mins.
You can just use a jar passata if you like, but I adore this sauce. I’ve developed it over a few months and it is full of flavour and really elevates the taste of my pizzas. It is simple to make and really worth the little effort involved.
When dough has proved, turn it out onto a lightly floured surface. Knock it back a little. You will have enough for 3 decent sized pizzas, so divide in three. You can wrap any you do not need in some cling film & freeze until you want it.
Heat a heavy-based frying pan on a high heat and turn on your grill to its highest temperature. Do not use any oil, a dry pan works best here.
Dust one of the dough balls with a little flour and then use your hands to press it into a disc. Now using your fingertips, starting in the middle and gradually working your way out, press the dough into the size and shape for your pan. Keep a nice thick crust of 2-3cm at the edges.
Pick up the dough and little shake off any excess flour. Pop it onto the hot pan and stretch it out a little if needed, carefully though as the pan will be very hot. Add the sauce, using a spoon to spread it across the pizza base, leaving the crust sauce free so it can rise and get super crispy.
Tear and scatter the mozzarella evenly on top of the sauce. Next, or toppings of your choice. Let the pizza cook in the pan on a high heat until the base is crisp and brown, this should take about 3-4 minutes. If you are using a thinner based pan, just keep an eye on the base to make sure it does not start to burn. When the base of crisp and brown, transfer the pizza in the pan to the grill and cook for another 3 minutes or so until it is cooked on top. Your crust should rise and turn lovely and brown. I like a little char mine slightly but finish to your own taste.
Keep an eye on the pizza under the grill, as it can cook faster than you might imagine. I cook mine under the grill on the middle shelf of my oven which works beautifully. When there is about a minute left to go, add the spring onion, cut down the middle and into lengths.
Take the pizza out of the oven and finish with some grated parmesan and some dried oregano. Slice it and serve up. And that is it.
- For more of Colm's cooking adventures, follow him on Instagram
