Pizza you make yourself is always significantly better than pizza you can buy from anywhere else.  I think people are inclined to over value of meat on pizza, in fact some of the most delicious pizzas I’ve mad have had no meat on them at all, and not anywhere near the metric truckload of cheese that people feel compelled to drown a pizza under.  There’s also nothing like making your own pizza dough.  My favourite pizza for home is spinach, fetta, pine nuts and pumpkin on a pesto base.  Here’s how you can have it at home too.

Pizza dough

2 cups plain flour

  • 1 x 8 g sachet of dry yeast
  • 1 teaspoon caster sugar (don’t exclude this, it’s to make it rise, not sweeten it)
  • 0.5 teaspoon salt
  • 2 tablespoons olive oil
  • 0.75 cup warm water

Combine dry ingredients in large mixing bowl and add oil and water and bring in with your hands to make a soft dough.  Knead it on a floured surface until it’s soft and a little elasticy.  Wash out the bowl you mixed in, dry it thoroughly, oil it with olive oil lightly and then put the ball back in the bowl.  Cover the bowl with cling film and leave in a warm place for about half an hour or until it’s twice as big as it was.  When it’s risen, punch (called “knocking”) the dough to get the yeast gas out, and knead it again until it’s the original size.  Roll out onto a pizza tray, the best have holes in the base.

Parboil about two cups of pumpkin pieces (butternut works well) in some water that is heavily spiked with garlic salt.

Spread the dough with pesto sauce from a jar (or make your own if you are feeling like micromanaging this :) ), spread a fair pile of raw spinach on the pesto, two tablespoons of pine nuts and crumble about 2/3rds of a cup to a cup of feta. Arrange the pumpkin around and bake in a 200 degree oven for about 20 minutes or until the base is crisp.