PIZZA

Favorite dish of many ,not just kids has interesting history and stories behind it.Like many of us think it did not have its origin in Italy ..it was the Greeks who baked flat bread with toppings like herbs ,onion etc.

Eventually in 18th century this idea spread to Italy and flat bread called "pizza" were sold in streets and market for poor people.

There is this interesting story that around 1889 Queen Margarita,while touring her kingdom(Italy)found many peasants eating large flat bread and out of curiosity she ordered one for her and she loved the taste.So she ordered her chef Rafaelle Esposito to bake Pizza for her , who in honor of the Queen baked special Pizza with tomato ,mozzarella cheese and Fresh basil to represent the colour of Italian flag.From there Pizza spread through out the world and now...Its said American and Canadians alone eat about 23 pounds of Pizza per person Per Year !!Ahh...one more interesting info that i read...How many of us know Feb 9 th is International Pizza day !!
Coming to the recipe ..I learnt it from chellam aunty.And Here i am doing it again after many years.But I did couple of changes like i used dry yeast instead of fresh yeast ,wheat flour instead of maida and also my own tomato sauce spread.

INGREDIENTS: (Approximate measurement)
Wheat flour- 1 1/2cup
Dry yeast(Fleischmann's rapid rise )-1 tsp
Sugar-1/4 tsp
Milk-1/4 cup(warm)
Salt-To taste
Olive oil-about 1tbs
Chopped vegetables
Grated Cheese
Herbs(optional)

METHOD:
1)Pour warm milk in a cup add sugar and yeast and leave it to ferment for some time.(i left it for about 1/2 hr)
2)Mix Oil and salt and Yeast sugar mix to Maida and make a soft dough.
3)Keep the dough covered for couple of hours.
4)Now knead the raised dough by punching(to make it soft)
5)Now spread it on a greased baking tray and leave it for raising.
6) Now spread the prepared tomato spread or tomato sauce.
7)Now for the topping mix chopped vegetables with salt and chilli powder(very little.I love it this way)
8) spread the vegetables and grated cheese.
9)Bake at 350 degree approximately 15 minutes and turns golden brown color.


TOMATO SPREAD:
INGREDIENTS:
Tomato-2
Garlic-1
Chilli powder-1/4 tsp
Salt - to taste
METHOD:
1)Grind  all ingredients.
2) Heat oil and cook till thick sauce consistency.

NOTE:Since i dont like bland   vegetables  i added salt and chilli.