Easy Italian Recipes

This is the very basic pizza - tomato, cheese and basil. Its former name was Marinara, topped with tomato, garlic and sometimes anchovies, because it was eaten by Neapolitan fishermen who couldn't take cheese on their trips. We make pizza at home at weekends; I leave the dough to rise while we go shopping or walking and once we get back everyone helps out - turning the oven up high, flattening out the pizzas and putting on their favourite toppings. We always leave enough dough to make one Camicia da Notte with Nutella and banana to finish.

FOR THE PIZZA BASE
10g fresh yeast or 5g dried yeast
325ml tepid water
500g strong bread flour or '0' flour (or half strong flour, half plain or '00')
2 teaspoons salt

FOR THE TOMATO SAUCE
(makes enough for 4-6 pizzas) 400g Italian tinned plum tomatoes
1 heaped teaspoon dried oregano
1 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons olive oil
semolina, to help the pizza glide from pala to oven tray
2 x 125g balls of mozzarella, drained and sliced

Add the yeast into the tiepid water, then mix together all the ingredients for the base. Knead for 8-10 minutes, until the dough is smooth and elastic. Shape it into a ball, put in an oiled bowl and cover with clingfilm or a tea-towel. Leave in a warm, draught-free spot to rise until doubled in size. If you have time, make the dough the night before you need it and leave it to rise very slowly in the fridge. This ensures a good acidity and flavour to the dough.

After the dough has risen, split it into four even-sized balls and leave to rise until doubled in size again. Meanwhile, make the tomato sauce: put the tomatoes in a bowl and squash them into pieces with your hands (or use a stick blender for a really smooth sauce). Add the oregano, the salt and the oil, and stir well. Use straight away or store in the fridge for a couple of days.

Put a couple of baking trays, spaced apart, upside-down in the oven. This gives a flat surface to cook the pizza on and since upside-down trays have no lip, you can slide the pizza into the oven easily. Have a thin wooden chopping board or pala (a thin piece of wood or metal used for transferring the pizza to the oven) and the semolina nearby.

Preheat the oven to its hottest setting - 250-280 °C would be perfect. Roll out the dough on a floured work surface using a rolling pin. Scatter some semolina onto the pala in readiness for the pizza. When the dough is rolled out to the required thickness, pull it onto the pala and spread over a tablespoon of tomato sauce. Top with a quarter of the mozzarella or other toppings (see below). Now slide the pizza into the oven and quickly pull the pale away so that the pizza glides onto the hot, upturned oven tray. Leave to cook for 7-10 minutes. The base should be golden underneath and the cheese bubbling. Garnish with the basil leaves and serve.

Other additions
The many variations and whims of fashion make the list of additional pizza toppings endless, so I asked two Neapolitan friends for their favourites. Maria likes her pizza topped with anchoivies and Guiseppe prefers a smoked cheese like provola or scamorza and ham. His other favourite is calzone, the folded over version, filled with ricotta, provola and little pieces of fried lardo and served with tomato sauce on top. My favourite topping is salami with marinated artichokes in oil and sun-dried tomatoes.