Many of you will find that the week’s New World budget leaned more towards the wine section than it did the fruit and vege, and now all you have left in your fridge is a limp looking onion, some blackened tomato paste and some rather shiny-looking ham.
Never fear, the fridge pizza is here!
This pizza base recipe had its humble beginnings as a recipe for hangover-curing focaccia bread, but was quickly converted into a pizza base dough when Visa Debit accounts ran dry.
My fridge was looking pretty bare the other night, so when my brother and his girlfriend came over for dinner, they brought the contents of her fridge with them. We then compiled our stocks to create some excellent pizzas.
You can throw whatever you want on this pizza; this is just an example from my fridge using in-season ingredients. I make a simple pizza sauce using tomato paste, balsamic vinegar, garlic, a bit of oregano and a sprinkling of chilli. You can use pre-made pizza sauce but making your own, as usual, is cheaper.
This dough recipe will make quite a bit, so wrap up any leftover dough in cling wrap and keep it in the fridge for pizza the next day.
Ingredients
For the base:2 cups plain flour
1/2 sachet instant yeast
1 teaspoon sugar
1 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup cooking oil
150ish ml hot water;
More flour for bench dusting.
Tomato sauce:
1 cup tomato paste
3 cloves of garlic, minced
1 teaspoon oregano
1 teaspoon balsamic vinegar
A pinch of salt
A pinch of chilli powder
Toppings:
1 eggplant, sliced and gently browned in a frying pan with a tiny splash of oil
100g feta, crumbled
1-2 avocados, sliced into small chunks
1 red onion, sliced thinly
Edam cheese, grated (use as much or as little as you like)
Method
1. Preheat the oven to 100°C on bake, and then turn off once it has gotten to temperature.2. In a large bowl, mix together the flour, salt, sugar and yeast. In a jug, add the oil to the hot water, then gently pour into the flour mix and stir with a knife until the dough comes together.
3. Tip out onto a floured board and knead for five or so minutes until the dough is nice and soft. You may need to wet your hands if the dough is a bit too dry. Oil up a heat-proof bowl and place the dough inside. Pop it in the now-off oven to rise for half an hour.
4. In the meantime, mix together all the pasta sauce ingredients in a small bowl.
5. Once the dough has doubled in size, remove from the oven. Preheat the oven to 200 degrees on bake. Take squash ball-sized clumps of dough and roll out until about 3mm thick. Transfer onto a baking tray, lined with baking paper, and bake for around ten minutes until the base has turned a golden-brown colour.
6. Remove base from the oven and start topping with ingredients. Spread the base with a good dollop of the base sauce. Sprinkle over the onion, eggplant and feta followed by the grated cheese. Pop back in the oven for another 5 to 10 minutes until the cheese has melted and starts to brown. Slice up into pieces and repeat these steps for all the rest of the pizzas until the precious cheese runs out!
Makes 7 small to medium-sized pizzas