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Homemade Pizza Dough and Sauce - The Italiana Choice


Homemade pizza can't be beat. Of course you need the perfect pizza dough, a tasty pizza sauce, some soft, milky mozzarella and a medley of colourful vegetables.

If I make homemade pizza, it means my vegan husband doesn't miss out. All the lush flavours, just hold the mozzarella.

I usually use bog standard olive oil to make my pizza dough, but this time I used a rich extra virgin olive oil from Umbria in the heart of Italy.


So how did I get my mitts on this lush Italian oil?

I got it from Italiana Choice.

Italiana Choice is an online Italian delicatessen who provide a wide range of Italian produce, from oils, wine and cheese to pasta, gourmet sauces and olive wood products. And the best bit? They deliver worldwide.

Italiana Choice sent me a specially tailored hamper full of authentic Italian goodies suitable for a hungry vegetarian and her family. It even came wrapped in it's own tomato sleeve in honour of Tinned Tomatoes.

(carry on to the end of the post for my pizza sauce recipe)

What a joy! The quality was superior and it was such a treat to cook with authentic Italian products.


My hamper contained:
  1. Extra Virgin Olive Oil Umbria PDO - 500ml
  2. Sugo all Norma (tomato and aubergine sauce) 250g
  3. Nerone Organic Black Rice 500g
  4. Mountain Lentils from Castelluccio di Norcia 500g
  5. Love Bomb (hot chilli sauce) 180g
  6. Olives
  7. Artichokes alla Cafona 300g
  8. Passato e Passito Pantessco (a pesto made from capers, almonds, sun-dried tomatoes sweet wine and olive oil) 180g
  9. Arance (orange light marmalade) 340g
  10. Maloreddus (semolina pasta) 500g
  11. Fior di Sale (handcrafted sea salt) 80g
  12. Crema di Pistacchio (sweet pistachio cream) 190g
 

They also included a rather exciting bag of seeds. 

Here is what they said about them "ps: we put inside even a new product, very interesting for health food lover and even quite addictive. It is a mix of 5 seeds (Linum, Cucurbita, Papaverum, Psyllii and Helianthus) prepared by a pharmacist with the passion for nutrition .They should be  much good for the body. A spoonful a day keeps the doctor away and they're even quite tasty."


The olive oil is so good I've managed to finish the whole bottle! I used it in my pizza dough and in my pizza sauce (I didn't use the whole bottle in the pizza, but I used it in just about everything else I could think of).

For Graham's pizza, I topped thinly rolled (no, I don't have any pizza throwing skills) pizza dough, a good slathering of pizza sauce, topped with mushrooms, roasted red peppers, cherry tomatoes, basil and a good grinding of black pepper. 

I made my own pizza sauce, but the rather gorgeous Norma Sauce included in my hamper would make a super pizza sauce.

I had the same as Graham with mozzarella added and Cooper had a sauce, mozzarella and sweetcorn, his pizza of choice.

 

print recipe

Homemade Pizza Sauce

A quick and tasty pizza sauce made with the simplest of ingredients.
Ingredients
  • 350g passata
  • 150g tomato purée
  • 2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
  • 2 cloves garlic, crushed
  • 1 tsp dried oregano
  • 1 tsp dried basil
  • a good grinding of salt and pepper
 Instructions
1. Throw all the ingredients into a bowl.2. Stir until well combined. 3. Cover and set aside for 30 minutes, to give the flavours time to develop.4. Spread onto pizza bases before adding mozzarella and other toppings.5. Can be frozen.
Details
Total time:
Yield: 1 batch (enough for 10-12 pizzas)


Here are a few of my pizza recipes:

Disclosure: Italiana Choice sent me a hamper of their products to try. I was not required to write a positive review and any opinions expressed are my own.

17 comments

  1. Gosh, what a lovely sounding hamper.

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  2. Wow this looks delicious!!
    Have a nice day

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  3. Lucky you to receive such an amazing array of Italian products for pizza night and beyond.

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    Replies
    1. I know, I really appreciated it, especially when I realised what good quality it all was.

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  4. Sounds good, even without the cheese!
    And.

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  5. love your home made pizza and love your hamper - I love those sort of things but am running out of room in my kitchen :-)

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  6. This hamper looks amazing! Full of my Italian favourite treats! Lucky you Jacqueline. Your pizza sauce recipe is very interesting I should follow the tip of letting the flavours develop.... (I'm always in a hurry!!)

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    1. It definitely improves if you leave it for a while Rita, but then if you make it while the dough is proving, then it has plenty of time to sit.

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  7. Haha, that's funny, we've just eaten pizza made by CT - at least the topping was. Yours looks so good, just love that top photo. And as for the hamper, well, I'm trying very hard to be a good girl and not be envious.

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  8. Gorgeous hamper you lucky duck!

    Love the home made pizza sauce, there's none better hey?! It's amazing how just a few simple, lovely ingredients can be so delicious.

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  9. Pizza - homemade - is such a great family meal. Easily veganised, vegged up, spiced, whatever. And I like that you do a raw sauce. Vastly superior in taste, IMHO. I'm just glad that pineapple didn't make an appearance. I really don't understand that at all!

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  10. This looks absolutely delicious! Home made pizza is a million times better than takeaway or shop bought. Looks fantastic!

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I love reading comments, so thank you for taking the time to leave one. Unfortunately, I'm bombarded with spam, so I've turned on comment moderation. I'll publish your comments as soon as I can and respond to them. Don't panic, they will disappear when you hit publish. Jac x