Mayonnaise

My mum’s recipe for mayonnaise: Much better than the stuff you get in a bottle.

5 min

Ingredients:

• 1 egg (for 2 people)
• 4 drops of lemon juice
• Olive oil and salt

Instructions:

Add the egg, lemon juice, a pinch of salt and a drizzle of olive oil into a tall container.

Blend it and keep adding olive oil until it has got a creamy consistency. The more oil you add, the thicker it will get. Add salt as desired.

TIP: Try serving it over asparragus, baked potatoes or artichokes.

Homemade Pizza

Yes! Homemade pizzas are far better than frozen ones… No doubt about it!!

base+10min prep+15min cooking

Ingredients:

Pizza base – 3 options:

• Quick + Easy: Buy a ready-made pizza base
• Still quite easy: Buy a pizza base mix (+water only).
• Hardest-but-tastiest:Make base with live yeast.
  • 2½ tsp active dry yeast
  • 280ml warm water
  • 1 tsp sugar
  • 30ml olive oil
  • 390g bread flour (+extra for rolling)
  • ½ tsp salt

Pizza toppings:

• ½ jar of passata or tinned tomatoes (~400 g)
• salt & pepper to season
• 100 g mushrooms, sliced
• 1 red pepper, sliced
• black olives, halved
• capers
• 125 g mozzarella, cubed/grated
• 50 g cheddar cheese
• mixed herbs (oregano, basil etc.)
• olive oil

Instructions:

Prepare Pizza Base

• Easy Option: Base ready
• Medium Option: Make as per instructions on packet – Mix pizza base mixture with warm water and knead* for 8-10 min. Roll out dough into a round base and leave to rise in a warm place for 10min (airing cupboard or warm oven on lowest setting and turn off).
• Hardest-but-tastiest Option: Dissolve yeast in the warm water and let stand for 5min. Add the sugar, oil, flour and salt, mix together with wooden spoon, then knead*, adding more flour if required until dough is no longer sticky, for 8-10min. Form dough into a ball and transfer to a lightly-oiled bowl and cover with cling film. Let the dough rise in a warm place (airing cupboard or warm oven on lowest setting and turn off) for 1½-2hrs. Punch air out of dough and roll out into a round base on a floured surface.

* Either knead by hand on a floured surface by folding dough in half and pressing layers together strongly with the heel of the hand, turning 90º and repeating, OR, use dough hook attachments on an electric mixer. Knead until dough is smooth and elastic… It can be quite therapeutic!!

Prepare Pizza Toppings

Transfer pizza base to baking tray (or pizza stone if you have one) and spread evenly with passata or tinned tomatoes, leaving only 1cm free around edge of base. Season with salt and pepper.

Layer the mushrooms, peppers, olives and capers evenly across the base, then top with the mozzarella and cheddar cheese.

Sprinkle with the herb mix and drizzle generously with olive oil before baking at 200°C for 15-20 minutes (or as stated on the ready-made base instructions) until golden brown. Mmmmm……

OTHER TOPPINGS (v): Roasted vegetables, artichokes, blue cheese, pesto, spinach, red onion, goat’s cheese, rocket, sundried tomatoes, pineapple, jalapenos.