Maltese Ftira / Pizza

I’m glad to share with you today the best pizza base ever and the most exquisite topping.  Of course you can always change the topping to your liking however the following are the typical ingredients:

For the pizza dough

2 tsp (7g) instant yeast

½ tsp salt

2 ½ cups (375g) plain flour

250ml warm water

1 tbsp olive oil                          

Basic tomato pizza sauce

1 tbsp olive oil

1 small onion finely chopped

2 cloves garlic crushed

425g canned tomatoes

1 tbsp tomato paste

1 tsp sugar

1 tbsp oregano

Topping

5 medium potatoes thinly sliced

1 large onion thinly sliced

2 large fresh tomatoes thinly sliced

150g mozzarella cheese

Shredded rucola

Black olives sliced

Anchovy

Olive oil

For the pizza dough: Combine yeast, salt and sifted flour in large bowl, mix well.  Gradually stir in the water and oil.  Knead on well floured surface about 10 minutes or until smooth and elastic.  Place dough in large oiled bowl; stand in warm place about 30 minutes or until dough doubles in size.  

For the pizza sauce:  Heat oil in medium frying pan; cook onion, stirring occasionally over low heat until soft and transparent.  Stir in garlic, undrained crushed tomatoes, paste, sugar and oregano.  Simmer, uncovered about 15 minutes or until texture thickens.

Method

Halve the pizza dough, roll out each half on lightly floured surface to form 30cm round.  Place on two oiled pizza trays.  Spread each with half of the basic pizza sauce.  Now add the tomato slices to cover pizza, onion slices, and tomato, add the anchovy pieces, olives and slices of mozzarella.  Add some shredded rucola and bake in 200C oven for 30 minutes or until pizza base is browned.  Before serving I like to add some more shredded rucola.