Tinned Tomatoes: pizza dough

Pizza: Homemade and Dining Out

We love pizza.

It's one dish that's never turned down in my house. I have to be strict, because left to their own devices Graham and Cooper would sit down to pizza two or three times a week. I try to restrict it to once a week or once a fortnight. You can have too much of a good thing.

I've tried and tinkered with quite a few recipes for pizza dough and pizza sauce and now I have it down to a fine art, with one favourite sauce, one wholemeal dough and one basic white dough.

Pizza dough is actually very easy to make and a great introduction to bread making. Make extra and pop some in the freezer for quick evening meals. Just pop it in the fridge in the morning before you head to work and it's there waiting for you when you get home. For the sauce I've perfected a recipe I whizz up in my blender in seconds. It's rather delicious!

I also have a great standby recipe for the days I don't have time for dough and have none standing by in the freezer. It's a pizza with a base of puff pastry instead of pizza dough. It's very good as you can imagine, although a bit more calorific.

We also like to eat out and yes, pizza still features. We don't have a great Italian or pizza chain in Dundee, but when we're in nearby Perth or St Andrews we like to visit Pizza Express. Their pizza is always good and it's a great place to take kids.

On this occasion, we visited a rather swish Pizza Express in an old church building in Morningside, Edinburgh after a fun day out at Dynamic Earth.

Once we were settled and Cooper had his hat on and some colouring and stickers to hand, we had a look at the menu. While we were deciding we ordered drinks and some of their new Noci.

Noci are a sweet and slightly spiced mix of almonds, peanuts and cashews toasted in harissa spices, They are rather addictive. Be warned!

I decided to try some new dishes on the menu.

The Dough Balls Formaggi, which are dough balls baked with Gran Moravia cheese, served with garlic butter and the steamed Broccolini which is cooked with garlic butter and chilli flakes, finished with Gran Moravia cheese. They were both excellent. In fact I could have happily sat down to a big plateful of the broccoli as a main course, although it did have a quite a kick.

I knew I would struggle to eat my pizza too, but I couldn't resist so leftovers were earmarked for lunch the next day. I went for the Melanzane Pizza, which had a spicy arrabbiata sauce and was topped with marinated aubergine, baby mozzarella and Gran Moravia cheese. It was thin and tasty and it had a bit of a kick too.

Cooper enjoyed his meal. He can often eat like a bird, but happily plows through all the courses at Pizza Express. A starter of dough balls with salad, a plain Margherita pizza, followed by ice cream and a bambinoccino.

Graham was really pleased to have vegan options for a change. It can be a bore trying to find something he can eat on a menu.

He had dough balls with olive oil and balsamic vinegar, followed by the Pianta Pizza, which was spinach, chestnut mushrooms, pine kernels and artichoke on a spicy arrabbiata base, finished with rocket and extra virgin olive oil. He finished of his meal with some refreshing raspberry sorbet.

After our meal we headed home, stopping on the way so Cooper could visit his Nana and Grandad. A great day out!

To finish this pizza extravaganza I would like to share some pizza recipes from some of my favourite bloggers:

Pear Pizza with Stilton and Walnuts - Greedy Gourmet
Paneer Pizza from Scratch - Fuss Free Flavours
Samphire and Goats Cheese Pizza - The Hedge Combers
Roasted Mushroom Flatbread Pizza with Lemony Garlic Sauce - Food to Glow
Homemade Wholemeal and Lentil Pizzas - Utterly Scrummy Food for Families
Pizza Primavera - Franglais Kitchen

Disclosure: Thanks to Pizza Express for inviting us along to try there new menu. As ever I was not expected to write a positive review and an opinions expressed are my own.