Pizza and Prosecco Night

Pizza and Prosecco Night. Invite your loved ones round for an impressive evening they will never forget. Have your guests create their own pizza whilst the Prosecco is flowing.

Pizza and Prosecco Night

Yesterday we had a Pizza and Prosecco night with my brother, his fiancée and their youngest son, along with my brother-in-law (my sisters fiancé when she passed away, they were due to get married but unfortunately they didn’t get the chance and I class him as a brother), his girlfriend and their brood of 5. My husband and I have done this a few times now and it’s a fantastic way to surround yourself with loved ones for a great evening.

This style of entertaining can be as relaxed or lively as you want it to be. We’ve done this before with just adults and it was a very chilled out evening with excellent food, Prosecco, company, and music. Last night was action packed, the garden was buzzing with excitable children waiting to create their favourite pizzas. Being organised makes the evening run smoothly and guarantees you an evening with your guests rather than being stuck in the kitchen all night.

Wood fired pizzas are delicious and once you see how easy they are you’ll never want to have a frozen pizza again. You don’t even need to have a fancy wood fired oven that costs an arm and a leg. All you need is a BBQ with a lid that is big enough for a pizza stone.

Pizza and Prosecco nights are the essence of The Delectable Garden, entertaining cherished family and friends, alfresco dining, and growing your own vegetables to create sensational meals. So what are you waiting for? Get yourself in the garden, pick your veggies and stoke up the BBQ!!!

You can prepare the different elements of this before your guests arrive.
Dough: I make this an hour before my guests arrive so it’s fully proved ready to be rolled out.
Sauce: This only takes 30 minutes to make and can be kept in the fridge until you’re ready.
Topping: Arrange your favourite vegetables, meats, and cheese on a tray and chill with the sauce until required.
BBQ: Light half an hour before you’re ready to fire the pizzas, allowing the flames to die down before cooking. I use a mix of coal and seasoned wood. If you are using a BBQ make sure there isn’t any coal or wood directly under the pizza stone. The ideal temperature is between 250-300C.

Creating a pizza station (preferably outside with the guests) makes it easy for guests make their own pizzas.

Pizza dough Ingredients:

1kg Strong white bread flour sifted, plus extra for dusting
2x 7g Dry yeast sachets
1tbs Caster sugar
1tsp Fine salt
50ml Extra virgin olive oil
550mls Tepid water

Pizza Dough Method:

Step one:

Electric mixer: Through all the ingredients in the bowl and let the dough hook attachment work it’s magic for 5-10 minutes or until the dough is smooth and stretchy.

By hand: mix the water, oil, sugar, and yeast in a jug. Mix the salt and flour on a clean work surface and create a well. Pour the contents of the jug into the well and gradually work the flour in from the sides using a fork. Once the mixture starts coming together dust your hands in flour and knead the dough for 10 minutes until smooth and stretchy. Add a little extra water if the dough is dry.

Step two: Place the dough in a large bowl, lightly dust the top with flour, loosely cover with cling film and leave to prove in a warm place for and hour, or until it doubles in size.

Step three: Tip the dough onto a dusted work surface and knead the dough for a couple of minutes. Knocking the dough back releases the air. I make the dough before my guests arrive so I am ready to complete this step once they arrive and use the dough straight away, alternatively you could wrap in cling film and keep on the fridge until required.

Step four: When you’re ready to make the pizzas divide the dough into 8 pieces, roll out on a dusted work surface, turning and dusting as required to stop it sticking.

Step five: Add the toppings. The more you add the longer the pizza will take to cook and it may turn out soggy. Cook for 5-10 minutes with the BBQ lid closed.

Topping tip to avoid a soggy pizza: Don’t over do it with the sauce, pepperoni or cheddar cheese. The best cheese to use is mozzarella.

Sauce Ingredients:

2 Tins of good quality chopped tomatoes
3 cloves of garlic thinly sliced
1 tbsp olive oil
Bunch of basil, leaves removed and torn
Salt and pepper

Sauce Method:

Step one: Heat the oil in a large frying pan and add the garlic. Once the garlic has started to colour add the basil and tomatoes then simmer for 5 minutes.

Step two: Pass through a colander pressing the mixture with the back of the spoon to extract all the juice from the tomatoes.

Step three: Pour the sauce back into the pan, season and bring to the boil, turn the heat down and simmer for 10 minutes. You can make this a few days in advance and store in a sterile jar in the fridge.

This will be enough to make 8 medium pizzas.

I hope you give Pizza and Prosecco night a go. Please comment to let me know how it went. Share you photos with me on social media.

Enjoy,

Lee