Margherita Pizza

There's an entire story (also a mini challenge) behind the making of this pizza. I was staying over at my moms and me and my brother were watching 'Ugly Delicious' on @netflix. David Chang was in Italy, known as the Pizza HotSpot. All them pizzas made us droooool. Brother suggested that we order in and I was like noooo Imma make it at home. He wouldn't accept and was adamant on ordering. I emotionally blackmailed him 'k behen pey thora trust karlo' and he agreed. So I made the dough, and prepped for the dinner. So he challenged, rather warned me that the pizza better be good 😂
Then came dinner time and the moment of truth!
The pizzas turned out DELICIOUS. LITERALLY. The sauce I made was a total tukka and it was a hit! So before I forgot the recipe I wrote it down and now sharing with you allllll :D
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Recipe:

FOR DOUGH
2 cups flour
1 cup warm water
2 tsp sugar
1/4 tsp salt
10g instant yeast (half packet of Rossmor Instant Yeast)

FOR SAUCE
2 cloves of garlic, roughly chopped
2 tbsp tomato ketchup
1 tsp crushed red chillies
1/4 tsp crushed black pepper
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp sugar
6 tbsp tomato paste (just grind some tomatoes)
A few leaves of fresh Italian Basil (I got them from theorganicfarmer)

Lots of Mozarella cheese and basil for topping. You can always add olives, chicken, pepperono, sausage etc. All upto you!

Method:

In one cup warm water, add sugar and yeast and let it sit for about 5 minutes. Put flour and salt in a big bowl and slowly add the water mixture. Mix and add as per need. Its important to slowly add water and keep kneading side by side. Knead till dough is soft and smooth. Now keep aside to proof. I kept my dough for about 3 hours.

While the dough is proofing, make your sauce. In a little bit of oil, saute some garlic till fragrant, then add tomato paste, tomato ketchup, salt, pepper, red chillies and a little bit of water. Cook till it gets a medium thick consistency.  Add water if its too thick. And just before turning the flame off, tear some fresh basil leaves and add it to the sauce.

Now preheat the oven. I used a gas oven this time instead of the convection one. It gives pizza a more earthy taste. I put it on full. And I also heated the pizza plate I put the pizza on to bake. The oven and the plate/dish need to be very hot! And be careful while placing the pizza on it.

Now take half of the dough and roll it out. Spread some sauce, lotsa cheese and freshly torn basil. Now bake for about 8 minutes, till the cheese has browned nicely. I initially cooked the pizza from the bottom (my gas oven only supports one side at a time so I turned on the bottom flame first, then broiled the pizza from the top by using the grill/top flame later.) Serve hoooooot and enjoy!