Pizza is the perfect convenience food – they have a dough base with a selection of vegetable  and/or meat layers, topped with cheese. They can be a balanced diet all in one.

So often people buy ready made pizzas but they are infact easy and fun to make in your kitchen at home.

We decided to make pizza to show the children how easy they are to make and to show that they can be personalised so that many of your favourite ingredients can be included as toppings.

At a different level Tracy, our school cook, demonstrated how a wide range of ‘not so popular but very healthy’  ingredients can be incorporated into the base or tomato paste without the consumer being none the wiser. Slightly sneaky but very effective – especially when the children admitted the taste was great!

 A dough base made from a mix of white and wholemeal flour is spread with a thin layer of tomato paste. The tomatoes can be pureed with other vegetables including onions, courgettes, peppers to name but a few.      

Then selected sliced vegetables and meats, if desired, are placed ontop of the base. 

Finally grated cheese is liberally sprinkled on top. Once again you can use a mix of you favourite cheeses. 

Place in a hot oven and cook until the cheese is melted and the base is cooked (about 15 – 20 mins).

Eat and enjoy!!

What are your favourite toppings for a pizza?

During a healthy eating lesson I was amazed to discover that none of the children knew what pasta was made from nor how it was made. They all said that pasta was dried and came in packets from the supermarket. Most knew vaguely how it was cooked and most of the children enjoyed eating it.

It was then the childrens turn to be amazed when I told them they could make it themselves from flour and eggs!

Tracy and her team in the kitchen offered to help the children to make fresh pasta; they even offered to cook it at the end of the activity so the children could try their homemade pasta.

Before we turned the class into mini chefs each child had to complete a short course on hygiene and safety in the kitchen. This was essential because the children would be working with raw ingredients, especially egg. They all passed with flying colours.

Now for the fun part!! Having prepared themselves fully for working in the kitchen the children started the steps to making pasta. Pasta is made from finely milled flour (0 grade) and eggs. On this occassion we used dried, pasturized egg rather than raw eggs.

In pairs the children mixed the flour and egg mixture to form a dough ball.

They then used a rolling pin to roll the dough repeatedly, making an ever thinner, pliable layer of dough. This process certainly took longer than the children thought and needed lots of muscle power! The more effort they put into this part of the process the more delicious the pasta would be!  (After the lesson we showed the class pictures of pasta making machines which did the hard work or rolling the dough – they all wanted to use that machine!).

Finally, with help the thin layer was rolled up and cut into thin strips to make tagliatelli.

The tasting session was a big success!! Naturally the conversation turned to our favourite pasta recipes – the list  was extensive!

What is your favourite pasta recipe?