Homemade Seafood Pizza


I turned 42 this week, and instead of going out for a meal since I'm on my own, I decided to treat myself to a homemade pizza. It wasn't just any pizza; I made my very first pizza from scratch. I even took it a step further by making my first seafood pizza. 

As a pescatarian, it's the best pizza I could make. It's a shame I didn't have salmon, but I improvised with smoked cod instead, and it was delicious. To be honest, there is still room for improvement, and I'll get better with more practice, but still, I did well on my first pizza and can't wait to make another one.

Why did I choose a homemade pizza instead of ordering one, especially on my birthday, and why was I so confident I could make one? I mentioned in a previous post that I took up baking as a hobby after moving to London. At first, I focused mostly on baking cakes, and then in December, I bought myself a Dutch oven as a Christmas present. 

Although I didn't start using it until the end of March, that's when I baked my first bread, and since then, I no longer buy bread from the store. And once you know how to make bread, it's a lot easier to make your pizza base from scratch.

It was my first time making a pizza, but I've been using pizza dough to make garlic bread pizza at home for the last few weeks. I wanted to experience shaping my dough by making garlic bread before the pizza, and I'm glad I did; my garlic bread pizza didn't have this beautiful shape. 

I was confident because I've been baking bread, buns, and garlic bread from scratch lately. The pizza actually turned out better than expected, which is why I'm making this post. I wanted to share this moment and show you my very first homemade pizza!

I laughed at the cod on the pizza


Making The Dough from Scratch

To make the dough for my pizza base, I used:

Water: 1 and 1/2 cups

Yeast: 1 and 1/2 packets

Bread Flour:  2 cups

Fine Semolina: 1 cup

Salt: 1/2 Tbsp

Sugar: 1/2 Tsp

Olive oil: 2 Tbsp

Cornmeal: for dusting

I mixed water, yeast, salt and sugar in a bowl, then let it rest for 10 minutes to activate the yeast. After 10 minutes, I added bread flour and semolina, and kneaded them together for 5 minutes. I covered the bowl with a kitchen towel and let it rest for 30 minutes. After the rest time, I added olive oil to the dough, kneaded for another 10 minutes and let it rest again for 1 hour. An hour later, I dusted the kitchen worktop with cornmeal, transferred the dough onto it, kneaded and stretched the dough for 10 minutes, then cut it into 3 pieces. I put 2 pieces in the freezer, kneaded and covered the remaining one to let it rest for 10 minutes. I turned the oven on and started shaping the dough, and once I had a round base, I added the sauce and toppings.


This step made me lose some confidence


Pizza Sauce and Pescatarian Toppings

Although I didn't have a recipe, I also made the pizza sauce from scratch with fresh ingredients. I made it with the ingredients I had available at home, and I won't share my pizza sauce yet as it still needs improvement. It turned out to be a good thing to blend carrots with the tomatoes, as it gave the sauce a unique taste, and I loved it. I didn't have Italian herbs at the time, and I've been wondering whether to add them to the dough or the sauce next time. 

I used 2 types of mozzarella for the toppings. The first layer after the sauce was grated mozzarella and smoked cod, as I ran out of salmon. I know it's "criminal" to add any other fish than salmon on a pizza, but it was delicious. 

It was my first other fish pizza, and I can't recommend it enough to my fellow pescatarians. I also added green onions, parsley, another layer of grated mozzarella and finally some mozzarella pieces on top.  I was also planning to add a few spinach leaves, but forgot, and that's why my pizza is missing some greens.

I lost some of my confidence after adding the toppings, as it seemed like it was still missing something, but it was my birthday. I wasn't planning to spend the day trying to make the perfect pizza, so I put it in the oven anyway, hoping that it would be good enough for a celebration. And if it wasn't, it would make the day unforgettable. I mean, who gets to eat a bad pizza on their birthday?! 


Look at all that melting cheese


Making Healthier Pizzas

I'm currently on a weight loss journey, and even though I wanted to indulge myself for my birthday, I couldn't stop thinking about the calories. So I held back on the sauce and cheese as I wanted it to be healthier, and this is something I've been struggling with on my baking journey. 

I want to eat fresh and delicious bread and pizzas often, but I'm worried about gaining weight, and it's making me cut down on some ingredients. I use less butter and sugar in my cakes, which is fine as I mostly bake for myself, but it might become a problem if I share them with other people.

I used just enough sauce for the pizza, held back on the cheese, and there are no tomatoes because I don't like them. Would I still feel so restrained if I weren't just cooking for myself, and would anyone else find this pizza as delicious as I did?! 

I absolutely loved the pizza, but I've been thinking of a way to make a healthier base, just like I add a lot of seeds to my bread to make it healthier. What if I make a spinach or courgette pizza base next time? Would it be a lot healthier even if I add a lot of cheese?

For my next pizza, I'll add Italian herbs to the dough and then experiment with different vegetables and spices. I recently made spinach waffles and loved them, so the idea of making a spinach garlic bread came naturally after that. 

One of the best things about making your meal from scratch is how creative you can get with your recipes. I've been mixing some foods I would've never tried a few years ago. I wanted to share with you the joy of making my very first pizza, and I hope it won't be the last!

I share my thoughts on my podcast The Hushed Journal, available on Spotify and Apple Podcasts. New episodes on Wednesdays and Sundays; feel free to join me for a chat. See the links below.

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Thank you for reading!

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