Pizza for a child

Today you won’t be hearing about allies or MI2014. Today I want to tell you how incredibly proud I am of my little girl, aged 6. As I’ve mentioned before, Ninka isn’t much of an eater. Sweets excepted, of course. Questions like “Daddy, is there anything healthy that you don’t like eating and I do?” are standard. The standard answer being that there isn’t. The only question in this series that I can answer with a yes, as I’ve said before (and there’s only one such thing), is “Is there anything — nothing sweet, mind — that you don’t like and I don’t like either?” Yes: broad beans. Somehow I never grew out of that one. I was a picky eater myself when I was young, though you’d never believe it to look at me.

Right, but I was going to tell you why I’m proud of Ninka. Today, I mean. Because in general I’m unbelievably proud of my daughter. It’s not simply a matter of loving my child: I’ll always love her, whatever happens. I’m proud because she’s such a well-behaved, considerate and clever little girl. Clever because she asks a hell of a lot of good questions, and she really, really loves being read to. Not just little storybooks a few pages long. These days we’re getting through books of over 100 pages in a day. That’s really something.

Today, though, I’m especially proud of her eating (as you’ll have gathered, that doesn’t often give me cause for pride). And not just her eating, either: her cooking too. All right, before I ramble on too long: today Ninka made a pizza on her own, as in by herself, with really very little help from me. Yes. She’s 6 and she made a pizza.

Lest you think that’s impossible (like me losing weight in 2014 while giving up cigarettes and running this site), all I did was give the dough its initial knead. Before that Ninka had been adding the ingredients, pouring them in or tipping them in, and mixing everything with a big spoon. I just did that first bit of kneading, then divided the dough into a large piece for me and a smaller one for Ninka. She watched me knead mine on the worktop and did the same to hers.

When we left the dough to rise, her piece next to mine, she got the sauce ingredients ready and mixed them, with nothing but instructions from me. I just brought it to the boil. And once the dough had risen, she shaped hers into a perfect circle, poured on the sauce and put on the mozzarella (mine, of course, turned into goodness knows what shape, certainly not a circle). Wow. I’m so chuffed. We’ve made gingerbread biscuits, muffins and pancakes before. But this was the first time she’d made pizza pretty much by herself.

And I have even more reason to be proud. Once we’d made our pizzas (one small one for her and two medium ones, including a grown-up version with extra toppings), Ninka ate the whole of hers and then half the cheese-only one as well. I still can’t quite get over it 😉

So, to draw some sort of conclusion and get to the recipe: if you have a picky eater (I know most kids like pizza, especially the kind from a pizzeria, but say yours will only eat it “just with cheese”), you can get them properly involved in making pizza together. It doesn’t take long, and then you can enjoy eating it together too. Ours turned out delicious. Of course I know a plain base with cheese and sauce (with sugar in it, at that) isn’t the pinnacle of a “healthy meal” for a child, but I thoroughly recommend it all the same!

BTW, if you already know my recipe for pizza hot as hell, I’ve simplified the dough for this one. It’s quicker, just as tasty and makes a slightly smaller quantity.

At a glance:

Prep time: 20 minutes

Rising time: 45 minutes

Baking time: 11 minutes

Oven temperature: 215 degrees Celsius

Serves: there was enough for Ninka (who ate her whole pizza and half another), for Dad, and we even took a slice to Mum

Calories: this is no ally of MI2014, but I took it easy today.

Ingredients for a simple mozzarella pizza (Margherita-style):

For the dough:

• 250 grams of wheat flour
• half a packet of dried yeast (about 3.5–4 grams)
• half a cup of warm water
• 3/4 tablespoon of olive oil
• a scant teaspoon of sugar
• a scant teaspoon of salt

      For the “on-the-dough” bit:

• 6 teaspoons of tomato paste
• 3 teaspoons of sugar
• two pinches of salt
• a scant cup of water
• half a tablespoon of olive oil
• mozzarella (an ordinary ball in brine, none of that fancy stuff labelled “for bakes” or “for pizza”)

Method (making pizza with a child):

We started with the dough. Ninka tipped all the dry ingredients into a deep bowl and mixed them together. She poured in some of the water (not all of it yet) and stirred with a big spoon. I thought it still needed water, so she added the rest (half a cup in total, water that had been boiled and was now warm, not hot). She stirred with the spoon and I did the initial kneading. Once I’d worked it enough for the dry ingredients to absorb the water, Ninka poured 3/4 tablespoon of olive oil into the bowl. I kneaded it again and when it proved too wet Ninka added a little more flour. I worked it until it was no longer sticky and took it out of the bowl (I start kneading in the bowl so I don’t get the worktop too messy).

I divided the dough into my piece and Ninka’s, and we kneaded them against the worktop for about 7–9 minutes until smooth. When they were ready, my daughter and I each shaped our dough into a ball and left them to rise for 40 minutes (my oven has a proving setting, about 40 degrees Celsius, and we covered the dough with a cloth too, because the genius who designed the setting doesn’t seem to know much about cooking. Apparently they don’t know yeast dough likes to rise in the dark, so the oven light stays on while it’s rising).

While the dough was rising, Ninka gathered the sauce ingredients: tomato paste, sugar, salt, water (we used mineral water) and olive oil. She mixed everything (quantities above) in a small saucepan and I brought it to the boil. I cooked it over a low heat for about 15 minutes, stirring from time to time, then set it aside to cool. It’s not a thick sauce.

I also cut the mozzarella into thin slices, and we had about 20 minutes to read Judy Moody. When the dough had risen, Ninka shaped her ball (now about 3 times its original size) into a circle, and I divided mine into two. I coaxed one half into a shape that rather defies description and did the same with the other. We transferred the pizzas to baking trays lined with baking paper. We spooned on the sauce and topped Ninka’s little pizza and one of mine with just mozzarella. On the other “larger” one, Ninka put some cured ham for me, and I added sliced spring onion and pickled jalapeños.

We baked them in two batches in the oven, which we’d preheated (yes, pizza goes into a hot oven) to 215 degrees Celsius, for about 11–13 minutes. And there you have it. Enjoy!

I’m adding more photos than usual because I have to show you Ninka’s pizza (the little round one) and the “grown-up” version 🙂