DIY Meals: Pizza at Home

In the EFTM kitchen we have been making pizza as entree, main and dessert. This is a fantastic and fun way to cook without the effort. We’ll show you how.

Pizza can be as complicated or as easy as you like. The history behind pizza takes us back way before we had gluten free, non GMO, organic, vegan, low carb, fat free, raw, soy meals. Pizza can be made using basic ingredients so keep this in mind when preparing for your pizza night.

Step 1: The Environment

Flying to Italy for the pizza experience is a tricky thing to do after work on a Friday night AND be there in time for dinner. So, we opted for Pandora streaming through the speakers at home playing tunes from Dean Martin and Andrea Bocelli. We’ve opened a bottle of red wine, white is fine and so is beer. In fact, if you don’t have those then even a cocktail could work. Actually, pick you’re favourite end of week beverage.

Step 2: The Setup

Making pizza is a simple one, a quick trip to the grocery store and you can grab your pizza sauce, some onions, bacon, salami, capsicum, mushrooms etc. There are no real rules with pizza but we suggest keeping it simple to allow each ingredient to stand out. We also opted for wraps as the pizza base because we prefer thin crust and zero preparation for bases.

In terms of equipment we’re using the Kambrook Rotating Stone Pizza Oven. It’s a very inexpensive pizza oven which is what makes this whole process easy. Plug it in, set the temperature and the top and bottom element will warm up. The stone will rotate too so your pizza will cook in a consistent manner. We love the window at the top too, it allows you to watch your piece of work cook and you’ll lift the lid when you can see that it is ready, no guessing game. Besides this, buy a pizza cutter. Using a knife to cut your pizza will only rip up the topping, making a mess.

Step 3: The Pizza

The mood is right, the ingredients are on hand and you have the oven waiting for your first. Here are a few samples we put together and thoroughly recommend.

The Entree – Garlic Pizza. This one is easy and helps feed the crew while you prepare your main. Base, garlic (preferrably fresh rather than from a Masterfoods shaker bottle) and some cheese. For added looks and flavour we also threw a few herbs on top too.

The Main – The EFTM Special. This is a few of the flavours we loved together on a pizza. Base, pizza sauce (spread it with the back of a spoon), some slices of salami, a sprinkle of bacon, some mushrooms, red capsicum, cheese and a sprinkle of chilli flakes for a bit of bite in your bite.

The Dessert – Nutella Pizza. Such a great way to finish. Base, lathered with Nutella scooped from the jar. We like to add some sliced strawberries AFTER the pizza has been cooked with a sprinkle of icing sugar for looks. If you don’t like strawberries then sprinkle the Nutella pizza with Milo, it’s a great combo.

That’s Amore!

Dinner at home is great after a long day. Making pizza is such a simple thing to do and is great with friends over. It was quicker to do all of this than it takes to usually have a pizza delivered. Everyone can put together their own creation and the pizza oven we used just made it all too easy. Keep it simple and experiment with flavours. If you have a favourite pizza combination please share it in the comments below!