Pizza with a pastry crust

First of all, a big thank you to everyone who left such kind encouraging comments in response to my last post. It means a lot to me. I am soldiering on as best I can. Being home from work I get to watch Dr Phil and Masterchef Goes Large, so it's not all bad. But onto my post.

If I wanted to I could walk out my door right and enjoy an authentic meal from any number of countries around the world. This is light years away from my childhood. Growing up in a small country town there was a choice of various clubs and pubs serving steaks and sausages, the fish and chip shop and a lonely chinese restaurant that served glow in the dark sweet and sour pork. Plus my parents were homebodies and eating out was a rare treat that was reserved for birthdays.

As a result my idea of international dishes was whatever my Mother served up. A far as I was concerned curry was flavoured from a little tin and always had sultanas in it, fried rice had pineapple and pizza was made with pastry.

While my family has gladly left most of these behind, we have grimly hung onto our pastry pizza. Because we all really love it. The pastry is really light and melting and to my mind really complements traditional pizza ingredients.



The source of the pastry recipe is long forgotten, but my Mum thinks is might be a Margaret Fulton recipe. Margaret Fulton was the pioneer for cookbook writing in Australia and has had a huge influence on our food culture.

The pizza sauce recipe came stuck to the pizza tray my Mum bought back in the early 1970s. There's never been any reason to update it because it's a really good sauce.

The topping was always sliced up kabana sausage and grated cheddar cheese. There was no such thing as mozarella or pepperoni in our town. But really any topping you chose would be good.

I am not sure how to describe kabana sausage. I think it's a peculiarly Australian thing. It's very long and thin and red. It's kind of like a cabanossi. I have no idea what kind of meat it's made from. Apparently, it's beef and pork but it could be anything. It's best not to ask those kind of questions I find. You generally find it sliced up and served cold with cheese and jatz biscuits as an appetizer at parties and barbecues.



Anyway, put all that together and you get an unorthodox but delicious pizza. I promise!!!!!

Pizza Pastry Crust

1 cup self raising flour
1 cup plain flour
1/2 tspn paprika
4 oz butter
1 tbspn lemon juice
3 tbspn cold water
pinch salt

Put flour into the bowl of a food processor, add butter and process until the mixture resembles fine breadcrumbs. Sprinkle over water and lemon juice and mix to a firm dough. Knead lightly.

roll out on a lightly floured board. Fit to two 12" pizza trays. Cover with filling. Bake in a 200C oven for 18-20 minutes or until golden and cooked.


Pizza Tomato Sauce

1/4 cup onion, chopped
1 tbspn olive oil
1 can crushed tomatoes
1 tspn sugar
1 clove garlic
1 can tomato paste
1 tspn dried oregano
1 bayleaf
dash pepper

Saute onions in the olive oil. Add the remaining ingredients. Bring to a boil over medium heat. Simmer, stirring often until thick.