Last-minute pizza, with no raising time!
I have already written about pizza (and calzoni!) a while ago. It’s one of my children’s favourites and we always look forward to our traditional Saturday pizza night. Making pizza is relatively simple but requires a bit of planning and time management because we have to consider that the dough needs a few hours to raise. I have been thinking if there is a way to make a quick and tasty last-minute pizza, skipping the raising time, and, after doing some research, I had a go with the scone-based pizza recipe. The dough is made with the same ingredients used for making scones, so self-raising flour, butter and milk. I love traditional Italian pizza, so I was a bit sceptic about this variation, but I have to admit that the scone-based pizza was very tasty, super easy to make and it was ready to eat in less than 30 minutes!
This is a great recipe for the kids to get involved with too and to build some family memories. They love mixing the scone dough and choosing their toppings for the pizza.
Ingredients (for 1 pizza)
- 125 g self-rising flour
- 25 g cold cubed butter
- 4 tbsp milk
- a pinch of salt
For the topping
- tomato passata
- 1 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
- pizza cheese (mozzarella or cheddar)
- any toppings of your choice such as:
mushrooms, peppers, pepperoni, onions, ham, olives, herbs, sweetcorn…
Preheat the oven to 200°C (or gas mark 6).
Rub the cold cubed butter into the flour and add a pinch of salt, mix with your hands until it resembles breadcrumbs.
Add the milk and mix together using a knife, to form a dough. Using a rolling pin, flatten out the dough on a floured surface to form a large circle.
Transfer the dough to the baking tray. I always prefer to use a perforated pizza pan, brushed with some olive oil, because it reduces moisture and allows the heat to work directly on your pizza base, having a nice crispy crust. Don’t worry if you don’t have a tray with holes, any baking tray would perfectly work.
Mix the tomato passata with 1 tbsp of extra virgin olive oil. Spread the sauce over the dough using the back of a spoon, leaving an edge all the way around of approximately 1cm. Arrange any other toppings and, last, sprinkle or place the cheese over the top of the pizza.
Place the pizza in the oven and bake for 10 – 15 minutes, until golden brown.
Agnese recommends
You’d probably expect me to recommend a beer to enjoy your scone-pizza, but …nope! The best drink to enhance your pizza it’s wine…again! In my next post, I’ll go into more detail about why and how to combine wine and food with complex structure and ingredients.
Pizza Margherita is made just with tomato and mozzarella topping, which are two acidic and fresh ingredients very well enhanced by wines that are not too acidic.
A perfect choice is a white wine from southern Italy with a medium structure, such as Greco di Tufo, Fiano di Avellino, Etna Bianco or Falanghina.
Salute e buon appetito!