Homemade Cheese Pizza with Blue Cheese, Mozzarella and Parmesan
A simple cheese pizza is about as easy as cooking gets: all you need is dough, sauce and cheese. In the most basic version, you can pop out to the shop while the dough rises and pick up 2–3 kinds of whatever cheese they have. If you can't make a tomato sauce, even plain ketchup will do, or you can quickly cook a sauce from tomato juice.
Buy a few kinds of cheese – real cheese, of course. Any shop has a blue cheese such as Dorblu, Danablu, Roquefort or something similar. Mozzarella is always available too, either fresh in brine or the firmer low-moisture kind. Add some sliced Italian cheese that melts easily. And for the final sprinkle, get Parmesan or Grana Padano.
Most good cheeses melt beautifully and quickly when heated, releasing almost no liquid or fat. You can scatter them over the dough quite randomly – that's perfectly fine for pizza. Ideally, make the sauce from the pulp of fresh or canned tomatoes. Do add oregano to the topping – the flavor will be unbeatable.
Pizza dough and sauce
Cold-Fermented Pizza DoughPizzeria-style cold-fermented pizza dough: mix it the day before, let it rest in the fridge 12–24 hours and stretch it into a thin base with a crispy crust.
The best Pizza Dough recipeWith this recipe you always get soft and chewy crust, that stretches nicely. Easy method of preparing ideal crust for a delicious pizza.
Quick Kefir Pizza DoughNo-yeast pizza dough made with kefir, flour and baking powder in 10 minutes. Soft and fluffy, it bakes into a homemade pizza in about half an hour.
Pizza Dough Without YeastQuick pizza dough without yeast: flour, water, olive oil and baking powder make a soft, fluffy base in 15 minutes. Tips on flour, kneading and baking time.
Homemade Tomato SauceHomemade tomato sauce from ripe fresh tomatoes, onion, garlic and herbs, slowly simmered until thick. Better than ketchup for pizza, pasta, meat and fish.Ingredients
32 cm pizza
- Yeast pizza dough 400 g
- Tomato sauce 50 g
- Blue cheese 100 g
- Mozzarella 100 g
- Sliced semi-hard cheese 100 g
- Parmesan 50 g
- Oregano, olive oil to taste
Step-by-step recipe
- Cheese pizza is a dish that always turns out well. The key is that the cheese is real. For my pizza I bought a little Danablu, some low-moisture mozzarella and sliced Italian provolone, since there's always Parmesan at home.
- Simple yeast dough really is simple. My pizza dough recipe has been tested for years and never fails, and the dough comes out as fluffy and soft as you like on the day. Good dough takes at least an hour, but don't rush it – it's best if you can knock it back and let it rise again a couple of times. Spread the dough in the pan and let it rest for a while, and it will be fluffier and softer.
- A good tomato sauce is made from the pulp of fresh or canned tomatoes, depending on the season. 100 g of tomato pulp in any form is enough. Chop it, add salt, black pepper, a little ground chili and 0.5 tsp sugar. Heat 1 tbsp olive oil in a saucepan, fry a garlic clove in it, then discard the garlic. Simmer the tomato mixture in the oil until thick. Alternatively, use a cup of homemade tomato juice.
- Spread the cooled tomato sauce over the dough, stopping 2.5–3 cm short of the edge to leave a rim. To keep the cheese pizza from getting soggy, don't use too much sauce. Lay thinly sliced cheese over the tomato, spreading it as evenly as you can. It can be provolone, Maasdam, Emmental, Gouda and so on. Add mozzarella as a second layer: if it's fresh mozzarella in brine, slice it; if it's the firm kind, cut it into sticks or thin slices.
- Blue cheese can simply be crumbled with your fingers and scattered unevenly over the surface. If it's firm enough, just grate it. Sprinkle the cheese pizza with 1–2 pinches of dried oregano and drizzle with a little olive oil. The finishing touch is finely grated Parmesan. Everything is ready for baking.
- Preheat the oven to 190–200°C. While it heats up, let the assembled pizza rest a little longer – that way the base won't turn out like a cracker. Then again, plenty of people like it exactly that way, so it's up to you. Put the pan in the oven. The cheese melts very quickly, but the dough needs about 20 mins. Judge doneness by the underside of the dough, lifting it with the tip of a knife. As soon as it's golden, the cheese pizza is done.
- Transfer the pizza to a wooden board and cut it into 6–8 slices with a pizza wheel. I've always believed pizza should be eaten with your hands, and I don't understand why pizzerias serve it with cutlery. Serve it while it's hot – it's especially good with tomato juice. Fresh green basil leaves are often added on top. To my taste, cheese pizza doesn't need it, but decide for yourself.
- As extra toppings you can use thinly sliced pickled onion, olives, a few capers and some green onion. Thinly sliced garlic and chili give the topping an extra kick – if you like it hot.
Yield: 32 cm pizza Calories: 170 kcal per 100 g Prep: 10 mins Cooking: 20 mins Ready in: 30 mins (not counting the dough) Category: Pizza › Cheese Pizza Cuisine: Italian cuisine Rating: