:: the secret to a professional pizza ::

Pizza!

They are so easy to make, yet so often we buy them. I'm guilty. Oh, I don't buy Domino's/Pizza Hut etc (hope I don't offend anyone while I say "grossssss..."). Sticky, sauce-soaked fake-meated things. But I do love every mouthful of a piled-high "Pizza Capers" creation, or a gourmet-type pizza from a local resturant. They always seem to be so much yummier than anything I could create at home. And besides... they always look amazing. Why don't mine ever look that great? Even when I've gone to more trouble and carefully chosen 'matching' ingredients. They just don't seem to ever photograph well.

But yesterday I was speaking to Mother-Dear, and mentioned that we were making pizzas that night for Jason's family who were due to visit. She had also recently made pizza and had made an interesting observation when comparing store-bought frozen pizzas to home made. You can never see what's on a homemade pizza because it's always covered in melted cheese. Where's the cheese on shop pizzas? On the bottom.

Ah-ha!

Why does no one notice this? Or is it just me...

I think it's because the cheese rises up and oozes around the other toppings while it cooks, and we're always so ravenous when we finally get our order, that all we notice is that there is cheese on there somewhere, and that's all we care about. But whenever we (read: "I") make a pizza, I chuck that cheese all over my pretty arrangement and then wonder why they always look the same.

So last night, the cheese went on the bottom, on top of the sauce and in amongst the pre-fried onion. They were magnifique. The best I'd ever made, the boys of the family went back for piece after piece. And as you know, that always is the best sign (*heart puffs*).

Below:

I like to pre-cook a lot of my ingredients so that you don't get crunchy onion etc. My homemade dough bases only take 20mins in the oven once assembled. Here we have:

just-soft onion - diced red capsicum

just-cooked potato - variety of meats (kransky pre-fried)

pre-cooked-and-shredded chicken from the freezer, tossed in satay sauce

L: Meatlovers (a tad of extra cheese on top)     R: Satay Chicken

Have you tried potato on a pizza before? I hadn't until recently. Yes, I know it's carb-on-carb, but ahhh it's perfect.

Here we have beef pre-fried with garlic, cracked pepper and gravy powder with potato & flat-leaf parsley. And of course lots of cheddar and mozzarella underneath. This was the winner of the night.

What do you like to put on your pizzas? And where do you put your cheese?