Happy Valentine's Day

Call it a cliché, but there is no Valentine's Day without hearts all around! Though, I'm glad that the school days, when wearing red on Valentine's Day at some point become compulsory, are over!
Today, however, I couldn't totally resist the spirit of the day and decided to make a heart-shaped pizza for lunch. As I mentioned in my earlier posts - weekday lunches must most of all be quick to prepare -and today was no exception. I've heard from many people that making pizza takes lots of time, but mine was ready in less than 30 minutes! I didn't leave the dough to rest too much- only as long as I needed to peel and slice the mushrooms and prepare tomato sauce (though here I took a shortcut :).

The dough:
All you need for is flour (probably slightly less than 0.5 kilogram, but my pizzas are made so intuitively that the proportions are nothing more than an estimate),
a bit of yeast (I used dry to save time) - probably 1/4 teaspoon
a dash of olive oil
a pinch of salt
lukewarm milk or water
The ingredients need to mixed together and solidly kneaded until it's soft and 'playable' :)

Tomato sauce:
The best tomato sauce is the same one that I use in spaghetti pomodoro é basilico (the recipe is in the post "My Take on Italian"), but if I don't have time, I use tomato puree (quite a lot of it) instead of real tomatoes, mixed with some olive oil, a dash of water, salt and pepper to taste, and oregano and basil.
Then add any toppings of your choice (I felt like mushrooms and olives today) and bake the pizza in hot oven (my fan oven was heated to 170C and I kept my pizza in for about 15 minutes, as the base was rather thin).
Pizza is a rather filling meal, but on a day like today dessert seems like a must! I opted for a cup of coffee with whipped cream on top, garnished with chocolate hearts -corny!!! :)

Comments

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