Pan-fried Pizza Amalfitan

A pizza makes a perfect snack meal for one and this particular recipe (the basis of which I learned from Elizabeth David in her lovely book, Italian Food), is made very quickly indeed in a frying-pan. The toppings, of course, are flexible: once you have made the base a few times and got the feel of it, you can be wonderfully inventive. The topping for Pizza Amalfitan is one suggestion for your pizza base, and a particularly colourful one!

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Method

Start off by measuring the flour and baking powder, ½ level teaspoon salt, pepper and oregano in a mixing bowl and mix them together. Then, in a cup, combine 1 tablespoon of the oil with 3 tablespoons water and pour this into the dry mixture. Now using a wooden spoon, stir to form a moist but unsticky dough, then transfer this to a floured working surface and knead it a little before rolling – or patting – out to a 7 inch (18 cm) diameter round. Now heat up a solid 7 inch (18 cm) frying-pan before adding sufficient oil to give you a depth of about ¼ inch (½ cm).

When the oil is hot, slip in the round of dough and cook over a moderate heat for 5 minutes. While it's cooking liberally oil a dinner plate, and as soon as the base of the pizza is nicely browned invert it on to the oiled plate, then slip the dough straight back into the pan to cook the other side until nicely browned.

Meanwhile, preheat the grill. Now arrange the sliced tomatoes over the pizza base, then sprinkle with the diced Mozzarella and basil. Arrange the sliced anchovy fillets in a criss-cross pattern over next, then sprinkle on the capers and olives. Drizzle a little oil over the top of the pizza, season with freshly milled pepper but not too much salt (because of the saltiness of the anchovies) then transfer to cook under the grill for 5 minutes until the top is browned and bubbling. Then eat it straight away.