Pizzeria

Now I am not sure how much is nature and how much is nurture, but where Ollie is concerned, it's a pretty safe bet that if I like something he does, and if I don't, neither does he.

This is particularly prevalent when it comes to food. His tastes and mine are very similar, and without any prompting from me, I can pretty much predict what he will say about any meal or any new food put before him.

Since Pizza is the flavour of the week, we may as well talk about that. You see, I quite like Pizza - but it is in no way one of my favourite foods. It's nowhere near as high in my estimation as a fry up or a roast dinner, but it would come a long way ahead of a lot of other what I call "sloppy foods" that make me feel queasy just thinking about them e.g. lasagne, shepherd's pie - yuck!

I can say with 100% confidence that if I were to put something like that in front of Ollie he would not touch it with a bargepole. Still having a son that's got similar tastes to my own with a 10x level of fussiness at least makes feeding him possible to some degree.

But it's amazing how he can come out with some of the same things that I do when it comes to food. You see  one of the issues I have with certain genres of food, is the way they are dominated by certain ingredients. Take Pizzas for example - and Italian Food in general - now generally, not too big a problem for me - but I have a real issue with the way that this type of food is absolutely smothered in tomatoes/ tomato sauce in many cases. Many is the pizza I have had which I have not enjoyed because someone has decided to put a centimetre thick covering of tomato sauce on the base. It's too much.

Now I don't dislike tomato. But I don't want to be smothered in it - a hint is more than enough. Same with chips. Now my idea of tomato ketchup with chips is a nice little blob in the corner, about an inch or so across. When I see people emptying half a bottle all over the top of the chips it makes my stomach turn.

Now Ollie, being like me has quite independently come to the same conclusion and complained about pizza having too much tomato on it. Now it is not always the case - certainly the ones we get from Domino's aren't over enthusiastic with the tomato sauce and I enjoy them - but seriously, £16.99 for something I can make for about a quid at home, it's a bit over the top.

Anyway, my interest in Pizza this week was piqued by Year One's trip to Pizza Express on Monday when they got to make pizza with the staff, and even brought some home. I asked Ollie if he would like to try making his own, got a positive response, so today we gave it a try.

When I say we made our own, we did cheat by buying the base, but no need to try and run before we can walk. Perhaps we'll make some dough next time. Maybe in the breadmaker, I think it has an option for that, though someone will probably stick their nose in the air and call that cheating as well. Anyway, so we bought the base and bought some Passata (tomato spread) to go on it.

Of course the beauty of making our own was that we were able to control the amount of tomato sauce going on - so a nice thin layer, enough for the flavour without drowning in it. Lots of grated cheese on the top and then some pineapple, freshly cut, and a bit of bacon too, and it was ready to go into the oven.

Pizza Bicester Blogger style - with Cheese by Ollie

Took about 15 minutes and then it was done. Here's the finished article.

Probably a little sparing with the ingredients.
Ideally you should only be able to see  a sea of pink!

And a bit of garlic bread to go with it. The acid test - well the kids like it - here is Ollie with his chef's hat on - my only criticism is that the base was a little dry - but that might be because of the small amount of passata used - I might experiment with spreading a little olive oil on the base first next time.

The Royal Seal of approval...

So another home cooking experience over and not a bad job. Of course the beauty of making your own is that you can have whatever you want on it. Here's a few more ideas I am thinking of trying.

Cheese and Marmite Pizza
Walkers Crisps Pizza
Full English Breakfast Pizza
Hog Roast Pizza
Donor Kebab Meat Pizza (I think Iceland already do one of these, but knowing them it is probably rank)

And many more I am yet to dream up! I'm sure Dogger and Dave will think of some if they are reading.

If you have enjoyed reading this blog, please take a look at my books on Amazon (Paperback & Kindle), where you can read lots more of the same! Click here.

Jason xx