This pizza recipe is a classic high-carb meal that you can tailor to practically any diet (except, perhaps, keto). One quarter of this pizza will boast a hearty 56g of carbohydrates and roughly 431 calories, so it’s a fairly light meal unless you start doubling up your portions!
The especially health-conscious of you ought to be aware that each serving contains 7g of saturated fat. However, recent research indicated that not all saturated fats are unhealthy for us, and it’s not as cut and dry as we previously thought!
Stats:
- Serves 4
- Calories: 431
- Carbs: 56g
- Fat: 15g
- Protein: 19g
- Sat Fat: 7g
Ingredients
For the base
- 1 tbsp olive oil, plus extra for drizzling
- 1 tsp instant yeast (from a sachet or a tub)
- 1 tsp salt
- 300g strong bread flour
For the tomato sauce
- 1 garlic clove, crushed
- 100ml passata
- 125g ball mozzarella, sliced
- For the topping
- handful cherry tomatoes, halved
- handful fresh basil or 1 tsp dried
- handful grated or shaved parmesan (or vegetarian alternative)
To finish
- handful basil leaves (optional)
Method (4 easy steps)
Make the base:
- Put the flour into a large bowl, then stir in the yeast and salt.
- Make a well, pour in 200ml warm water and the olive oil and bring together with a wooden spoon until you have a soft, fairly wet dough.
- Turn onto a lightly floured surface and knead for 5 mins until smooth.
- Cover with a tea towel and set aside. You can leave the dough to rise if you like, but it’s not essential for a thin crust.
Make the sauce:
- Mix the passata, basil and crushed garlic together, then season to taste.
- Leave to stand at room temperature while you get on with shaping the base.
Roll out the dough:
- If you’ve let the dough rise, give it a quick knead, then split into two balls.
- On a floured surface, roll out the dough into large rounds, about 25cm across, using a rolling pin.
- The dough needs to be very thin as it will rise in the oven. Lift the rounds onto two floured baking sheets.
Top and bake:
- Heat oven to 240C/fan 220C /gas 8. Put another baking sheet or an upturned baking tray in the oven on the top shelf.
- Smooth sauce over bases with the back of a spoon. Scatter with cheese and tomatoes, drizzle with olive oil and season.
- Put one pizza, still on its baking sheet, on top of the preheated sheet or tray.
- Bake for 8-10 mins until crisp. Serve with a little more olive oil, and basil leaves if using. Repeat step for remaining pizza.
Carb it up
A few traditional toppings you could add to make this recipe into a fully-fledged carbohydrate feast;
- Peppers
- Onions
- Mushrooms
- Switch to a sweeter marinara sauce
- Extra tomato sauce as a final topping
The more adventurous of you could even try a few of these wacky toppings;
- Mashed potato
- Falafel
- Nachos
- Green Peas
- Banana
- Macaroni
- Sweetcorn
- Apricot
- Honey
Tips and Tricks
- If the dough is too moist, add a little more flour and work it in.
- If the dough is too stretchy to roll out, let it rest for 10 mins or so, then try again. You’ll need much more pressure when rolling this dough than you would with pastry.
- If the base isn’t cooked, try baking the pizza on top of a preheated sheet or tray should prevent this. But it might be too thick or have too much topping.
- If the topping is cooked before the base, cover it with foil and give it another 5 mins.
- Feel free to experiment with your own toppings. You could transform this pizza into a super carb treat or add various meat toppings and create your own meat-feast.
It’s a pizza-off today, and we have some delicious options for you that you can get delivered to your door from Iceland and Waitrose. It’s so simple, and a great way to increase your carbs, plus if you get a low-calorie option with vegetables, it can be two of your five a day… just!
Our first pizza is from everyone’s favourite Italian chef, Gino d’Acampo, who has teamed up with Iceland to offer real Italian food that you can put in the freezer. This delicious Amalfi Pizza is one of their top-rated and is inspired by the ingredients from Amalfi coast: buffalo mozzarella, semi-dried cherry tomatoes and our Neapolitan star vegetable Friarielli.
Next, we jump to Waitrose for two of their amazing pizza’s. Firstly, their Roasted Vegetable & Pesto Sourdough pizza from the ‘No 1’ range is not to be missed. A hand-stretched, wood-fired pizza with a 48-hour fermented sourdough topped with roasted peppers, semi-dried tomatoes, roasted courgette, olives, mascarpone and mozzarella cheese finished with basil pesto. Yum!
Also, at Waitrose, they have a huge range of delicious vegan pizza’s. Before you think this isn’t for you, try it! The dairy-free cheese from The White Rabbit Pizza Co is delicious on The Vegan Gardener. Succulent sundried tomatoes on a bed of vegan MozzaRisella, peppered with crunchy kale and garnished with Italian basil pesto. Wow.
Still-feeling peckish? For just £1* you can add on Iceland Own’s Slice ‘N’ Share Garlic & Cheese Pizza Bread. Get it out of the freezer, chop up some veg and throw it in the over, you’ve got a pizza with the toppings you want. Simple, cheap and effective.
*At the time of original publication, January 2020
