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My niece and her husband (and their CUTEST baby girl🙂) came to visit this week.  They live in the UK but are also here in Ghana on holidays.  My niece unsurprisingly longed for Waakye - a rice and beans dish - which is craved by many returnees.  I mentioned some of the dishes most longed for in previous blogs.  Unlike my previous friends who had just arrived, my niece and her family had been in Ghana for quite a while, so I wanted to cook them a popular UK dish that they may have missed by now in addition to the Waakye. The idea was for them to enjoy true Ghanaian home food and also have a taster of a popular dish they may be missing back in the UK – Pizza! Yum! Best of both worlds, right?  It was meant to be a surprise and I hope they enjoyed it.

To prepare the Home-made Tuna & Peppers Pizza, this is what you have to do:

Difficulty and servings

Moderately easy, serves 6

Preparation and Cooking times

Preparation time:  40 minutes: Cooking time:  30 minutes

Plus1hr proving time

To make the Pizza Dough

You will need:

1kg All-purpose flour

2 tbs granulated sugar (optional)

1 sachet (11g) Instant Yeast

1 tsp salt

1tbs margarine, at room temperature

2 tbs cooking oil

500 ml warm water (not boiling, hand hot)

For the Pizza-topping

You will need:

3 tbs oil

2 large sweet or bell peppers (of different colours if possible), sliced

2 medium onions, sliced into rings

4 cloves garlic, chopped

A sprinkle of White Pepper

200g Tomato Puree

2 canned Tuna Chunks in Oil

Seasoning to taste

400g Cheese of choice, grated

A handful of fresh Basil leaves, washed (optional)

Method:

1. If you are using a bread-maker to prepare the dough, follow the instructions for bread or pizza making.  If preparing manually, sift the flour and pour into a large, deep bowl.  Add the sugar, (if using), instant yeast, salt, margarine and cooking oil and mix well together.
2.  Add the warm water, a bit at a time and keep kneading the dough with your fingers and adding the water until the dough is soft and bound together well (not soggy).
3. Cover and keep in a warm place until it rises about twice its original size.  Divide the dough into two and roll each one on a clean working surface.  Place each rolled dough on a floured tray and allow to continue proving.
4. Meanwhile, make the pizza topping by pouring the oil into a frying pan.  When hot, stir fry the peppers for about 2 minutes, remove, divide into two and set aside. Stir-fry the ring onions the same way, remove half and divide the remaining half into two and set aside.  Add the garlic and white pepper to the rest of the onions in the frying pan and continue frying for about a minute.  Add the tomato puree and (the oil from the Tuna if using) continue cooking until the tuna liquid is reduced. Adjust the seasoning.  Keep the Tuna chunks for later.  Set your oven to 180 degrees Celsius and pre- bake the prepared pizza dough for about 3 minutes each to just harden and remove from oven.  (This sets the dough for the topping to go on without getting soggy). 
5. To assemble the Pizzas, divide the topping sauce you just made into two.  Cover each pizza bases completely with the sauce.  Now arrange the stir-fry onions, then the sweet peppers, then the tuna chunks to cover the pizza tops as well.  Now divide the cheese into two portions and carefully spread all over the vegetables and the tuna.  Place the pizzas in the oven and bake for about 10 minutes or until the tops are set piping hot and pizza bases are golden brown.  Remove from oven, rest them for a few minutes and serve hot or cold, on their own or with other accompaniments. Enjoy!

Monica’s Tips:

If you don’t intend to use all the dough, bake them into pizza bases, cool and freeze for when you need them.  You can do the same for the Pizza sauce.  Saves a lot of time this way.

Please also note that you can divide the dough, sauce and cheese between as many people as you are baking for so that you make individual portions rather than slices. 

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