Pizza Toppings

Italian pizza chain, Pizza Express are trying to combat the perceptions that eating pizza is unhealthy by launching a new range called Leggera. What makes the pizzas different to any other on the market today is that the centre of the pizza has been removed and replaced with a generous helping of salad.

The pizza is made from their classic pizza dough and tomato sauce topped with Fior di Latte mozzarella which is a lighter cheese and finished with one of three pizza toppings -

• The Margherita Leggera - Sweet Santos tomatoes marinated in extra virgin olive oil and garlic
• The Gustosa - Hand torn prosciutto cotto ham, slices of portobello mushroom and sweet yellow peppers
• The Vitabella - Whole asparagus spears, mixed chargrilled vegetables and fresh red and yellow peppers

For the health conscious this is an imaginative way to go out and enjoy pizza. However, in our opinion, paying £8 for a pizza which is missing the centre seems a little expensive, especially at a time when pennies are tight and you could stay in, rent a DVD and make your own for a lot cheaper!

Are you fed up with using a standard knife or rotary pizza cutter to cut your pizzas?

Well now Lamson Sharp have designed a Stainless Steel Rocker Knife which will cut through the thickest of pizza bases in a straight line.  At 14″ long, it will cut the length of most homemade pizzas and with a 8cm blade it will cut through the most pizza topping laden of pizzas!

It has rubber handles to protect your hands and is even dishwasher proof, so there is no need for you to scrub your knife clean anymore!

Pizza delivery giants Domino’s Pizza have had to defend themselves after an employee posted a video of himself on YouTube “playing” with food whilst working for the company in North Carolina, USA.

As a result, the two involved have been fired and been charged with distributing prohibited foods.  In the video, Michael Setzer (32) can be seen sticking cheese up his nostril and including it on the pizza which he is making, then passing wind on a slice of salami and again using that on the pizza.

Consequently, Domino’s Pizza have promptly responded by posting a video on YouTube a video of their president, Patrick Doyle apologising and pointing out that this was an isolated incident.

Now there’s a good reason to try cooking your own pizza’s!

For the dough, you can find our recipe here.

Ingredients

• 30ml unsalted melted butter
• 200g milk chocolate
• 150g strawberries

Recipe

1. Make the thin crust pizza dough and dimple the surface with fingers and glaze with butter
2. Preheat oven to 230ºC and when ready, bake for 15 - 20 minutes until the base is golden brown
3. Melt the chocolate in a saucepan
4. Spread the chocolate sauce over the pizza base and return to the oven for 1 - 2 minutes
5. Thinly slice the strawberries and arrange over pizza

For the dough, you can find our recipe here.

Ingredients

• 125g seedless raspberry jam
• 100g fresh raspberries
• 75g flaked almonds
• 75g marzipan
• 2 egg whites
• 2 tbsp icing sugar

Recipe

1. Make the thin crust pizza dough and dimple the surface with fingers and glaze with butter
2. In a bowl beat the egg whites  until foamy and then add the marzipan, stirring until smooth
3. Add the raspberry jam until it is well mixed in
4. Spread the raspberry jam and marzipan mixture over the pizza base
5. Preheat oven to 230ºC and when ready, bake for 10 - 12 minutes until the base is golden brown
6. Sprinkle the raspberries, almonds and icing sugar over the pizza

For the dough, you can find our recipe here.

Ingredients

• 500ml whipped cream
• 250g mixed fruit (raspberries, blueberries, strawberries, orange segments, kiwi)

Recipe

1. Make the thin crust pizza dough and dimple the surface with fingers and glaze with butter
2. Preheat oven to 230ºC and when ready, bake for 15 - 20 minutes until the base is golden brown
3. Spread the whipped over the pizza base
4. Slice the fruit thinly and arrange on top of the cream

For the dough, you can find our recipe here.

Ingredients

• 30ml unsalted melted butter
• 200g milk chocolate
• 120g chocolate chips

Recipe

1. Make the thin crust pizza dough and dimple the surface with fingers and glaze with butter
2. Preheat oven to 230ºC and when ready, bake for 15 - 20 minutes until the base is golden brown
3. Melt the chocolate in a saucepan
4. Spread the chocolate sauce over the pizza base
5. Sprinkle the chocolate chips over the pizza and return to the oven for 1 - 2 minutes

For the dough, you can find our recipe here…

Select the pizza sauce that you want to use… Pizza Sauce Recipes, for this calzone, we recommend using the Homemade Pizza Sauce

Ingredients

• 100g prawns
• 60g mushrooms
• 50ml dry white wine
• 15g all purpose flour
• 15g unsalted butter
• 10ml flat leaf parsley
• 1 spring onion
• 40ml single cream

Recipe

1. Make the calzone pizza dough and sauce
2. De-vein the prawns and chop the parsley
3. In a saucepan combine the prawns, wine and parsley, adding enough water to just cover the prawns
4. Bring to boil and leave to simmer for 5 minutes, or until the prawns are pink and then remove them from the liquid
5. Bring liquid to the boil again and continue to cook until it has reduced and then strain it
6. Slice the mushroom and spring onion
7. Melt the butter in a frying pan and add the mushrooms and spring onion until the mushrooms are tender
8. Add the flour and stir until the flour is mixed in
9. Whisk in the liquid from the prawns used earlier and allow to cook for 1 minute
10. Grate the cheese and stir into the frying pan, along with the cream, mushrooms and prawns until the cheese has melted
11. Place the ingredients onto one half of the dough circle, leaving a 2cm  gap around the edge
12. Do not overfill the calzone as it will leak out
13. Brush the edges clean with water
14. Fold the other side over to cover the filling and pinch together the edges to seal it
15. If using a pre - made base follow the manufacturers cooking instructions, if you are using one of our pizza dough recipes follow the instructions shown on the page

For the dough, you can find our recipe here…

Select the pizza sauce that you want to use… Pizza Sauce Recipes, for this calzone, we recommend using the Homemade Pizza Sauce

Ingredients

• 100g mushrooms
• 200g sausage
• 100g mozzarella cheese

Recipe

1. Make the calzone pizza dough and sauce
2. Spread the sauce over the dough circle leaving a 2cm gap around the edge
3. Remove the sausages from their casings and crumble them up
4. Thinly slice the mushrooms
5. In a frying pan with a drizzle of oil, cook the  sausages and mushrooms
6. Place the ingredients onto one half of the dough circle, leaving  the gap around the edge
7. Grate the mozzarella and sprinkle it over the pizza topping
8. Brush the edges clean with water
9. Fold the other side over to cover the filling and pinch together the edges to seal it
10. If using a pre - made base follow the manufacturers cooking instructions, if you are using one of our pizza dough recipes follow the instructions shown on the page

For the dough, you can find our recipe here…

Select the pizza sauce that you want to use… Pizza Sauce Recipes, for this calzone, we recommend using the Homemade Pizza Sauce

Ingredients

• 1  large sun dried tomato
• 1 medium onion
• 1 clove of garlic
• 150g mozzarella cheese

Recipe

1. Make the calzone pizza dough and sauce
2. Spread the sauce over the dough circle leaving a 2cm gap around the edge
3. Thinly slice the onion and clove of garlic
4. In a frying pan with olive oil, fry the onion and garlic until they have softened
5. Cut the tomato into small chunks
6. Roughly cut up the mozzarella cheese
7. Place the ingredients onto one half of the dough circle, leaving  the gap around the edge
8. Brush the edges clean with water
9. Fold the other side over to cover the filling and pinch together the edges to seal it
10. If using a pre - made base follow the manufacturers cooking instructions, if you are using one of our pizza dough recipes follow the instructions shown on the page