The pizza that put Naples on the map,  is the Pizza Margherita that was first baked in 1889 by a local baker named Raffeale Esposito. He was asked to and, therefore, created the pizza in honour of Queen Margherita of Italy who was visiting Naples at the time. It was designed to match the colours of the Italian flag – tomatoes for the red, basil for the green and mozzarella for the white – and he created the famous pizza we eat to this day. In 1830, a pizzeria was established in Naples, making it possible for the rest of Italy to taste Esposito’s creation. It was the first time somebody had named it a pizza and it got the royal blessing.

Something similar had often been made before and quite probably early on when when humans first began to eat bread because, if you think about it, the first bread was a flatbread and made on a hot stone.  The Greeks have a reasonable claim as they had been making round flatbread for centuries and yes, they did put things on it, but so did the Turks and the Persians. However, the Italians made and christened the first Pizza. The best place to eat a pizza is a restaurant in Naples called Da Michele – they make the best of the best!

Since we don’t all have wood-fired ovens and we can’t all take the afternoon off from work to fire them up, here is something that can be made in time.

PIZETTE

These are quick, easy and great for snacks after work with drinks. Very few of us have proper wooden ovens or the time to fire them up after work and since I believe that a pizza HAS to be made properly and since I absolutely refuse to eat frozen retail type abominations, one can do these.

Ingredients

• 375 g bread flour
• 150 – 200 ml tap water (tepid)
• 60 ml olive oil
• 10 g fresh yeast (7g instant yeast)
• 10 g sea salt

Sauce

• 2 fresh garlic cloves
• 1 tin of anchovies
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 3 tablespoons milk
• 1 knob of butter

Topping

• 30 little Rosa tomatoes
• Olives, pips removed
• Fresh basil
• Salt
• Freshly ground pepper
• Mozarella
• Optional:  add olives, pepperoni, onion slices and whatever you have available.

Method

Crust

• Make the dough from the flour, tepid water, olive oil, yeast and salt.
• Put everything into the food processor and use the dough hook for 3 minutes on speed one and 6 minutes on speed two.
• If you are doing it by hand, it’s pretty much the same procedure but you need to use your hands instead of the dough hook.
• The important thing being that everything is incorporated and the resulting dough is silken and smooth.
• Rest the dough for at least 30 minutes in the fridge.

Sauce

• On medium heat, boil the garlic in the milk until the garlic is soft, add the butter and melt it.
• Put all the ingredients in the blender as well as the whole tin of anchovies and process for about 5 minutes.
• Pour in a jar, whatever you don’t use will keep for a day or so.

To assemble.

• Pre-heat oven to 220 C
• Roll out the dough thinly and with a biscuit cutter (about 6cm) cut everything into rounds – you should get about 20 – 24.
• Paint with the sauce, add the topping you choose, top with broken pieces of mozarella and bake on a preheated baking tray for 5 – 6 minutes.
• Remove and serve immediately.