I was watching some TV program where they were making pizzas and I got really hungry and thought to myself “I’m going to make a pizza”. So I totally did!

Pizzas are usually a mighty faff to make because you have to make the dough with yeast etc and leave it to rise for a few hours and then use a really fancy oven to get the right results. I have neither the time nor the equipment for such endeavours, or the inclination. What I do have is some basic ingredients and a hungry girlfriend. So without further ado, let’s get our cheap, fast and very authentic pizza on the go!

I start by assembling my ingredients:

Plain strong flour, tin chopped tomatoes, some tomato paste, mozzarella, fresh basil.

First I make a basic sauce my combining 1 tablespoon of the paste with half the tin of tomatoes along with a dash of fish sauce:

And once that has cooked through for about 5 mins I transfer to a container and set aside.

Next, I make a basic pizza dough by mixing some flour, water and salt.

After working for a few minutes to ‘work the gluten’ (I don’t know what to say here, tell me in the comments) I use a wine bottle to roll out the dough into a basic pizza shape:

Now, this is where it all gets a bit unorthodox. You see, the secret to a great pizza is the temperature of the oven and I don’t have a great one so I figured I would use a technique I tried before which is the ‘hot frying pan-grill method’.

I put my base into a hot, dry frying pan:

After about 3 minutes or until the bottom has started to colour, I add the tomato sauce:

Closely followed by some mozzarella and fresh basil leaves:

And then it’s off to a ridiculously hot grill for a further 4 minutes:

A few minutes later just checkout what we have!

Annnnnnnnnd how’s it taste?

I can’t fault the tomato base or the cheese or the taste in general; it’s very nice indeed and because the base is burnt you get that super nice traditional wood fired taste you only get with hot ovens. What I would say is that I shouldn’t have put in the base to a relatively cold frying pan as it is a fraction dry and firm.

It takes a couple more goes but on my third attempt and by using a 3mm base and a stupid hot frying pan I get the best effort:

The base this time is softer, but still firm, lighter. A great result!

Overall, and for the time and money spent, this is a wonderful effort and is definitely something you should try; it only takes 15 minutes from start to finish; if you’re after a fast and cheap alternative to store bought pizza, then this is for you.

But what do you think? What does working gluten do? Do you have a hot oven? Do you like babymetal? See you in the comment section or on huffpost or twitter!

Ingredients:

1 tbsp tomato paste

2/3 tin tinned tomato (I changed it)

1 tsp fish sauce for the tomato base

Bunch basil leaves

200g strong plain flour and 150 mls water, pinch of salt, for the base

125g Buffalo mozzarella, chopped.