This weekend, the whole family was craving true Italian style pizza. It was a long weekend and it seemed a good idea to make this a family project. I knew I wanted to make it with whole wheat, so I decided to use our very own Chakki whole wheat atta flour. Also, almost always, I waste most of the crust, either because it can be too thick and/or quite doughy and tasteless!!! So I decided to make the crust an Italian masala crust. By which i mean I used a bunch of Italian spices to make the crust a stand-alone dish – much like our masala parathas.
It came out better than I expected and it was a pleasure to make – Anything done for the first time can be quite a challenge. I made personal pizzas for each of us and put personal topping/sauce choices –
This entire preparation only required 3 teaspoons of olive oil -total! My son said it tasted very much like the gourmet pizzas we had in Italy – high praise, given he is best critic

The crux of the matter is a tasty crust, besides a good sauce, of course!
Let me start with the ingredients and preparation of the crust
3 cups of  Chakki atta in which I added dry ground 1 teaspoonful each of black pepper; basil; oregano; rosemary; garlic; 3 red cayenne dry peppers; I also used a spoon full of pesto and wild garlic powders.
In a food processor, add the flour, the ground spices, 1-1/2 pouches of yeast, and three teaspoons of olive oil. Dry spin ingredients around for a minute to evenly mix the spices and yeast into the flour. Then add (about 2 cups of water) – I just poured as I kneaded (pun intended) Remove from the processor, and put it on a clean counter and knead some more! Put it in a bowl and keep closed for 10 minutes, allowing the dough to rise.

Now for the sauce:
2 cans of Hunt’s diced tomatoes ground.
Add a little salt, fresh garlic and basil to the sauce and allow it to cook. Keep ready
I also used Classico’s Alfredo sauce for a couple of them

Toppings
Fresh Mozzarella – 12 slices halved can be subbed with paneer)
1/2 cup of shredded sharp cheddar
2 green bell peppers
1 red onion

3 green chillies
1 pack of fresh white mushrooms
1 pack of green leaf spinach

 on the rise…

 felt light and good!

 folding the jagged edges to give it a pie look

 close up of masala crust

 white sauce pizza for Samyuktha!

 First one!

 Shreya’s pizza

 The ingredients

 I think she likes it ;-))

For me and Mani – everything on it pizzas