Pizza

The introduction

Hello everyone, another great day has come and I want to tell you about another recipe. Well, today I am kind of having this Italy day, I guess, so that I will be writing about making pizza as it’s kind of a good thing to prepare for anyone.

I know, I know, who doesn’t love pizza?! And as everyone loves pizza, I use to prepare it myself and invite some people, or just prepare it for my family, because every member of our family loves pizza, especially when it’s prepared by me, because I know which ingredients they like and which ones they don’t and I make sure, that everyone is considered in the recipe, I mean, everyone’s requests are considered and that’s how I manage to prepare that kind of pizza, that people like.

Well, to be honest, I didn’t really love pizza in my childhood in comparison to my brother, who just loved eating pizza and he would order it whenever we went and if they had pizza in their menus.

How it all started

I want to tell you about the way it all started, I mean, how I got to know pizzas and how the things were back then, because those were the times, when everything has happened in Georgia and the country was coming back to life and the new things were coming into our lives and everything, you know. Well, you can’t really know that, because you may not know much about Georgia unless you have read or heard or something like that, so let me tell you about the time shortly _ it was darkness! So, some time later, things changed little by little and some things started to appear and our lives got a little bit better and things got lighter, in a way, in general. That was when these new things appeared in our lives, and I remember, my aunt told us about her friend preparing pizza and I thought that it was some kind of a miracle, because I just thought that pizzas could only be eaten in some kind of fancy restaurants and the usual people couldn’t prepare them, or there would be not all the ingredients affordable for us to prepare some pizzas and stuff like that, you know. So that we were pretty amazed, when my aunt told us that her friend knew how to prepare pizzas and we told her to get the recipe. And after some time she managed to ask her friend about the recipe and I remember, that we were all very happy that we had that pizza recipe and we could read it and see what the ingredients were and stuff like that. At first, we didn’t even think of preparing it, we just wanted to see what the ingredients were and how it was prepared. So, it didn’t really need much of the ingredients, if you want to know the truth, and I was kind of shocked, I guess. Well, then, we decided to prepare this pizza and see what it would taste like. And I remember, it was a day full of excitement, because we knew, that this day was a pizza preparation day! To tell you the truth, it just needed some ketchup, sausage, cheese and tomatoes according to the recipe and it was pretty simple, however, we thought that it needed much effort and stuff like that, you know. And the dough was kind of different, because it was a dough prepared from Matsoni and, well, usually, that kind of dough is soft and puffy in a way. You know, there are some pizzas with crisp dough and some of them have this thick dough, and none of them is the right one for me, so that I had this other dough recipe found some time ago, which is just perfect, I guess, because I really like it and it’s some kind of in the middle of those ones and it’s not very thin and not very thick and other people like it, too, so that it’s not just me who likes it.

After that, we used to prepare pizzas pretty often, because, as I’ve mentioned, my brother liked it very much and it was not that hard to prepare it, however, I really was not that keen on eating it, because it had this sausage taste, which I didn’t really like, and, well, I don’t really like sausage in general, so that I would eat one slice of it or something like that and that was it.

It’s only been some time, since I decided to google some pizza recipes and read more about pizzas and stuff like that, because as we often prepared pizzas at home, they might as well be that way so that I would like them and eat them, too. So, I got some knowledge about pizzas after reading much stuff on Internet and then, it was time to prepare one. You know, I really like pizzas to have much stuff on top of it and I was also interested in all toppings and everything and I remembered, that once I ate this pepperoni pizza, which I liked very much and that time I thought, that it was the pizza, that had this different taste, when in fact, it was that pepperoni sausage, which had this amazing taste. And then I found, that they had this pepperoni in Nikora supermarket and I was very happy about it. I was so happy about it, that I decided to prepare pizza the next day or something like that, if I remember it correctly.

Anyways, let’s stop here about the history of my pizza experience and I will tell you about that pizza, which I prepared this other day. It was a pretty good one and everyone enjoyed it, while I also enjoyed preparing it, because I have got some experience of preparing pizzas already and it’s like I prepare them pretty easily now, than I used to, and I just have to know, that I’m going to prepare it, because I need to prepare the dough at least one hour before preparing pizza, because the dough needs to be doubled in size and it usually takes something like 1-2 hours for it to be perfectly doubled, however, if you are in a hurry, you can leave it like that for about 1 hour or an hour and a half and then start preparing pizza. Well, you may prepare some other stuff while you are waiting for the pizza dough to be doubled in size, I mean, you can shred the cheese or chop some bell pepper and tomatoes or chop the olive oils or cut the pepperoni into some slices or have some other ingredients added to the recipe and prepare them for the topping, or you can prepare the sauce, which is very important for the pizza and if you don’t have a good sauce, then the pizza is not that tasty and I always try to prepare a good sauce for my pizza with all those spices and oregano and paprika and stuff like that. Well, everything needs to be great in order your pizza to be great, too, so that you can enjoy the whole stuff together, and if you can’t enjoy it, then what’s the point of bothering preparing it? I mean, you can always go and order some in some places and they will serve you some delicious pizzas and you will be all pleased and everything. So that, remember, that you need to have everything wisely prepared and chosen, because otherwise, it will just be a regular pizza, and while you are bothering preparing it yourself and for yourself, mainly, you might as well do your best in preparing that pizza!

Ingredients:

For the dough:

• 1 and a half cup of warm water
• 1 envelope yeast
• 1 tsp sugar
• 2 tbs oil
• 2 tsp salt
• 3 and a half all-purpose flour

For the topping:

• 1 package pepperoni
• 4 tbs tomato paste
• 30 grams ketchup
• 1 red bell pepper
• 1 small can of mushrooms
• 1 small sausage
• 300 grams cheese
• Olives
• Oregano
• Paprika
• Pizza spices
• 2 cherry tomatoes, small

Preparation process

Well, those were the ingredients that I used for my pizza the other day. Though it may seem a lot, however, it was really good and nothing seemed too much for my pizza, so that, everything was just perfect there.

First of all, I prepared the dough, of course. Preparing it is just very simple, it just needs some time to get doubled in size. So, first of all, you need to boil some water, or have it warm, so that the sugar will dissolve in it with the yeast. Well, you need to take that water and add some sugar to it and sprinkle the yeast on it and let it be like that for a couple of minutes. Until that, you can add half of the flour to a bowl and add the oil and salt and then this water mixture to it and mix them together, and then add the remaining flour to it and mix everything well. After that, you can oil another bowl and put that dough in that bowl and have it covered with plastic wrap and put it somewhere in a warm place, so that it will double in size.

Until that, I prepared some topping stuff, so that, when the dough got ready, I would have everything ready and it would just need to be rolled and I would just put those toppings on it and that would be it, I would put the pizza into the oven and bake it.

First of all, I prepared the sauce for the pizza. I took some tomato paste and ketchup and mixed them together and then I added oregano and paprika and some other pizza spices. There’s this package called “Pizza Spice” and I had bought it in the supermarket and added to the sauce directly. Well, the sauce was ready and I put it aside.

After that, I chopped those bell pepper and olives and tomatoes and sausage and set them aside, too. You know, you can put those sausage pieces into a frying pan and cook them for a while and they will get a different taste and it will be pretty tasty, however, I didn’t do that.

Next, I cut those pepperoni pieces into halves, because you still need to cut them after baking, so that it would be easier to cut those pizza slices with those pepperoni stuff already cut into halves.

Then I opened the can of mushrooms and I spilled its juice out and kind of washed them with boiled water and set them aside, too.

After that, it was only left to shred the cheese and that would be it. of course, I shredded it and set it aside. Well, to be honest, I put it into my chopper and the chopper shredded it, so that I didn’t have to shred it myself.

So, everything was pretty much ready and it was something like one and a half an hour or so, when I checked the dough, and it was ready, I guess, so that I took it and put it on my oiled pan and started rolling it. Well, it’s typical to roll the dough with your hands, so I did that and little by little it reached the edges of the pan and it was ready to have some sauce and toppings on it.

First of all, it was time for the sauce. I poured the sauce onto the dough and spread it evenly everywhere with the help of a spoon. On top of the sauce it was time for the sausage pieces and after that I put those mushrooms on them. I also sprinkled some dried oreganos and paprika onto them for the taste. So, after all these, it was time for the cheese. I’ve read it somewhere, that the mushrooms should be under the cheese and that cheese should be on top of those mushrooms, so that the mushrooms won’t get dried and everything. Then, on top of the cheese you can put those pepperoni pieces and have some pieces of tomatoes and bell pepper pieces and olive pieces on top. It all becomes very pretty, when you put those pepperoni pieces on top of the pizza and then sprinkle some oregano on it. well then, it was time to bake it. I preheated the oven on 180 degrees Celsius and after 5 or 6 minutes, I put my pizza in it. it needed something like 20 or 30 minutes or something like that for the pizza to be ready and it’s not that much, I mean, if you buy a frozen pizza, it’s written that it needs to be baked for 15 minutes, and that is some pretty small pizza, and mine is pretty large. It’s like a double of that frozen pizza size. So that it’s ready in 30 minutes, I guess.

So, this was my pizza recipe, which I prepared the other day and people just loved it. I usually don’t use sausage pieces in my pizza, however, then I wanted to have some reach pizza and I had those sausages and I just used one of them on the toppings for my pizza, and it was not bad, I can say. So, it’s not a bad idea to use sausage in your pizza, too, however, if you don’t like the taste of it, you just don’t use it in your pizza, that’s simple. It also becomes really delicious if you use bacon for the topping. That bacon really tastes good, you know.

So, I hope, that you will find my pizza recipe delicious and that you will prepare it, too. I will write about other pizzas, too, I guess, as soon as I prepare some other pizzas. Until then, I can encourage you to prepare this pizza yourselves!

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