Meatball Pizza

In a large bowl, mix yeast, warm water and sugar. Leave somewhere warm for the yeast to activate. Once it froths, add flour, oil, garlic, herbs and salt and mix well. Form a dough. Flour your hands and knead dough until it’s elastic and smooth. This should take around 5–7 minutes. If mixture is too wet, add more flour a tablespoon at a time. If too dry, add a little water or oil.

When you are satisfied that dough is looking good, oil a clean bowl, add dough, cover with a tea towel and set aside to rise in a warm place. It should take about 30 minutes to an hour, depending on room temperature.

Make the sauce and meatball topping while you are waiting for the dough to rise. Blend mince, breadcrumbs, salt and pepper and beaten egg until well combined. Form a teaspoon of mixture into a ball, set aside and repeat until all used up.

For the sauce, simply blend tomato paste with garlic, dried herbs, black pepper and salt.

To make mini pizzas, break off small pieces of dough, roll each into a ball and then flatten gently with your fingers to the desired size and thickness. If making one large pizza dust a baking tray with flour and polenta if you have it (for a crusty bottom). Place dough in centre of tray and gently stretch and press into the desired shape and thickness. Cover your bases with the tomato sauce. Dot with meatballs and then sprinkle generously with mozzarella.

Bake in a hot oven at around 200 °C until the cheese is golden brown and the meatballs are cooked through (around 30 minutes).