Recipe : Quick & Easy Pizza

Last week, inspired by a recipe I found on the BBC website, I made pizza for dinner. From scratch. Although not particularly traditional in it's toppings it was absolutely delicious and on my plate in under 30 minutes. That's quicker than ordering in and much healthier! 

It got a good reaction on twitter so I thought I'd share the recipe with you. thanks to a clever trick involving yogurt, pizzas don't really get any easier than this one and of course you can use whatever toppings you want. Using yogurt to make a pizza base isn't an unfamiliar concept to me but it's a really useful one to remember. Making a whole pizza from scratch is so satisfying and means an impromptu pizza party with friends is only moments away!

Quick & Easy Pizza

Serves 4. Prep time 10 mins. Cooking time 10 mins. Approx 570 kcals per pizza.

Ingredients 

Base

300g self raising flour

1 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

300g plain yogurt

Toppings (per pizza)

2-3 tsp green pesto

40g feta

5-6 cherry tomatoes, sliced

5-6 black olives, halved

1 tsp fresh or dried herbs (I used marjoram but oregano or mixed herbs work just as well)

Black pepper

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 220C/200C Fan/Gas 7. You'll need to preheat a tray per pizza. If you don't preheat them, the bases have a tendency to stick - you have been warned! If you've only got room for one or two, that's fine, these don't take long to cook. 
2. To make the base, combine the flour, baking powder and salt in a bowl and make a well in the middle. Pour in the yogurt and mix with a fork to combine. When the mixture forms a rough dough, tip it out onto a lightly floured work surface and knead to form a smooth ball. Divide the dough into 4 equal pieces and roll out into thin circles.
3. Remove the baking tray from the oven and place a pizza bases on each. Bake for 4-5 minutes until beginning to rise then remove from the oven.
4. Turn the pizza bases over and top with the pesto. Place the sliced tomatoes and olives on top, crumble the feta over the top, sprinkle over the herbs and season with black pepper.
5. Return to the oven for 5 minutes until the bases are crisp and the toppings hot.

If you don't want to make four pizzas in one evening the dough will keep, covered in the fridge, for a day or so, or you can freeze the bases after the first bake, ready for defrosting and topping another day.

Get creative with your toppings! I fancy trying wilted spinach, olives and a baked egg or maybe sliced boiled new potatoes, rocket and pine nuts.

Have you used yogurt to make pizza dough before? What are your favourite pizza toppings?