Fire Mini Pizza Recipes
Have you ever found yourself in the position to cook for 20 hungry Argentinian teenagers in your full navy school uniform? Well, something tells me that even if you haven’t, which will most probably be the case, you will still be intrigued by today’s recipe.
It has happened to me many times, to be abroad and hungry. I have many times then come to the decision of ordering pizza for delivery, despite already being aware of not being hungry enough to actually finish it.
As an Italian citizen, I would also always be ready to start complaining about it being a revisitation of what I actually know as “pizza”, which… for the record, should be devoid of any low quality products (and some weird type of colourful cheese on top as well).
The ones I’ve just listed are the main reasons why, when I had to come up with a recipe to prepare as a cultural exchange, for a group of Argentinian students visiting my school, I HAD to choose this particular one.
How much time does it take?
20-30 minutes of preparation - 15 minutes of cooking time
Pantry list
(Quantities for about 25 pieces)
Pizza dough:
- Water - 250 g
- Flour 00 - 500 g
- Baking powder - 10 g
- Sugar - 12 g
- Extra-virgin olive oil - 60 g (remember that quality is found in the ingredients)
- Salt - 15 g
Topping:
- Tomato sauce - 350 g
- Mozzarella - 250 g (again, choose wisely for superior final results!)
- Salt - 1 spoon
- Pepper - q.b.
- Extra-virgin olive oil - q.b.
- Oregano - q.b.
Instructions
The procedure doesn’t have to be complicated for the final result to be delicious: passion and commitment should always be your key ingredients (other than, again in our case, a good quality mozzarella).
Preparing the pizza dough
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1. Pour flour, baking powder, sugar and salt into a bowl, then add water and olive oil and mix everything together.
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2. Take out the dough from the bowl and roll it backwards and forwards using your hands, then when it's compact enough, put it back into a bowl and cover it with a tissue/towel or cling film.
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3. Let the dough rest from 45 minutes to 3 hours, depending on what result you're looking for (or on how much patience you have).
Preparing the topping
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1. Pour tomato sauce, salt, pepper, oregano and olive oil together and mix them helping yourself with a spoon.
Making the pizza, finally
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1. Help yourself with a small cup or glass to shape the dough in small circles, then add tomato topping and mozzarella on them.
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2. Put baking paper on the trays and let your mini pizzas bake at 200 C for about 15 minutes, till they reach a “golden” appearance.
Don’t be too hard on yourself if the first pieces don’t turn out as perfect and good looking as you had imagined, not only because they will still taste amazing, but also because improvement comes with experience and experience from mistakes!
The first time I tried to make my mini pizzas I almost got my kitchen on fire. Twice.
At least since then, I know that you should never place too much baking paper, too close to the top of the oven!
Giada Iacobellis (2022-24)