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favourite pizza toppings

PostPosted: 02 Mar 2013, 12:49
by Lozzles
I'm making pizzas this evening and one of our faves is little balls of sausagemeat, red onion, mushrooms and a few chopped up peppadew peppers.
What are your suggestions? :D

Re: favourite pizza toppings

PostPosted: 02 Mar 2013, 13:40
by Ally
Mercadona do a fantastic bolognese pizza which is my favourite. :D

And the four cheese one with red onion comes a very close second. :lol: :lol:

Nom nom :lol: :lol:

Like the sound of your pizza Loz. :D

Re: favourite pizza toppings

PostPosted: 02 Mar 2013, 14:18
by Diflower
We make them often so have done them with loads of different combinations but these days do tend to have our favourites :)
Ours are always as thin as possible, and then have a thin layer of homemade tomato sauce.
And there's always mozzarella, the balls, not the solid sort you grate. Not having been to Italy I rely on Tv and books but we do try to make them as authentic as we can, ie not too loaded and not too much cheese.

Torn slices of prosciutto or Serrano ham, scrunched a bit, thin-sliced red onion, a sliced mushroom or 2, halved black olives.

Red onion, chorizo, black olives, sliced red chilli, red pepper.

Prawns, big ones halved through the middle, red pepper, anchovy, capers.

Prawns, red onion, red pepper, red chilli, black olives. Plus a few spinach leaves if I have them.

Leftover roast meat (any kind, but pork, lamb and chicken work well also turkey), either cut small or processed and mixed with garlic, chilli, cumin, coriander, a touch of oil, lemon juice. Or mixed with Cajun seasoning (nice with chicken). Plus red onion, black olives.

Sliced artichoke heart, prosciutto/serrano, red onion, black olives.

Red onion, red and green peppers, sliced cherry tomatoes, black olives.

Red onion, thinly-sliced salami, red pepper, red chilli (and black olives!)

Red or white onion, pre-griddled sliced peppers and courgette, basil leaves.

White or red onion, sliced mushrooms marinated with olive oil, garlic & oregano, black olives.

There are probably more, but these are fairy regular ones. Things like the artichoke hearts will appear 2 or 3 weeks in a row because that's how long the jar lasts ;) They're lovely with prawns too.
Also, sometimes I put the veg on raw but often will cook them a bit in the oven while it's heating up, they do tend to be a bit wet otherwise if you have many of them.

Re: favourite pizza toppings

PostPosted: 02 Mar 2013, 14:52
by Lozzles
Oh my goodness Di, lots of lovely ideas there :D
I have found that I need to cook my mushrooms first as they are just too watery.
Do you use cooked or raw prawns?

Re: favourite pizza toppings

PostPosted: 02 Mar 2013, 15:07
by Diflower
I've been making them a long time Loz :D
It depends on the mushrooms. The chestnut ones from Lidl are usually lovely and firm and not very wet even when you cook them. But any others I cook first - a few seconds in the microwave is often the most convenient way. I have a little flat bowl and put in first the onion, then pepper, then mushrooms in turn, then you can drain them off onto kitchen roll :)
Or just put them all on a tray in the oven while it's heating.

Well, prawns are a huge favourite of mine and when we go to Prezzo I often have their pizza with prawns on so I try to copy it. Actually that's how we come up with a lot of the ideas ;)
At Christmas I got some bargain big cooked prawns reduced, so I split them up and put them in the freezer, they did me about 4 or 5 pizzas :D It's only me that eats them (and eldest, if he's here and I'm feeling generous I share) but I have now bought a bag of them, they're cooked too, nice big ones. Raw would be lovely I'm sure but have never used them for pizza.

We usually make two between the 2 of us, but sometimes will do separate halves of different toppings, one half ham & mushroom, the other veg for instance. When we make them for us plus youngest, he likes plainer ones, so will make one half just with what he wants, it might be just some sliced tomato and the mozzarella, or a few mushroom or pepper slices.
We've got some sliced pepperoni in the freezer too. We keep the serrano in there, I just take the pack out, wait 10 minutes or so and you can peel off a couple of slices then put it back. When Lidl have big packs of wafer-thin salami I get one and split it and freeze it too; that's how we have a nice selection of bits and pieces :)

Re: favourite pizza toppings

PostPosted: 02 Mar 2013, 16:08
by Kaz
I've made my own 'French Bread' pizzas sometimes :D My sister and I used to love the Findus ones when we were children, and I've made them myself with split baguettes :D , tomato puree or passata, cheese and whatever else is about (ham, salami, mushrooms etc) on the top 8-) :D

Re: favourite pizza toppings

PostPosted: 02 Mar 2013, 16:44
by Workingman
Home made base and sauce - it is just sautéed onion, garlic, oregano and basil in a 2:1 mix, and a tin of tomato purée and water brought to a simmer then all blitzed together.

The cheese HAS to be Mozzarella... after that just about anything goes.

I usually have onions, tomatoes, peppers and mushrooms in, as well as ham, chicken, chorizo, mackerel and frozen prawns, so it's a bit of pick-and-mix.

Re: favourite pizza toppings

PostPosted: 02 Mar 2013, 17:12
by Lozzles
Yum yum yum :D I make my own base, but I'm too lazy to make the sauce, but I think I just might make a large amount and freeze it in portions.
The tip about cooking the topping in the microwave is good, so I'll use that :D

Re: favourite pizza toppings

PostPosted: 02 Mar 2013, 17:41
by Workingman
The sauce is a doddle Loz, I make it while the dough is rising. One of those 150g tins of purée gives enough for about six 10" pizzas, so I freeze portions.

I also make the bases in batches of 4 to 6 and freeze them individually uncooked.

I don't pre-cook any toppings as I put them on as the last layer so that they sink into the cheese.

Re: favourite pizza toppings

PostPosted: 02 Mar 2013, 17:58
by Diflower
I don't put onions in my sauce, we prefer to add what onions we want to the topping.
But also because I make it with a tin of tomatoes, which makes too much. I do sometimes freeze it for next time, but often keep it in the fridge, it always gets used and it's handy to have it ready-made for all sorts of meals :)