Shrimp-Garlic Pizza

Pizza is a world-popular dish made with an oven-baked, flat, generally round bread that is often covered with tomatoes or a tomato-based sauce and cheese. Other toppings are added according to region, culture, or personal preference. In restaurants, like the one in Bentota Beach Resort which I posted before, pizza can be baked in an oven with stone bricks above the heat source, an electric deck oven, a conveyor belt oven or, in the case of more expensive restaurants, a wood- or coal-fired brick oven. On deck ovens, the pizza can be slid into the oven on a long paddle called a peel and baked directly on the hot bricks or baked on a screen or a round metal grate.

Modern pizza originated in Italy as the Neapolitan pie with tomato. In 1889 cheese was added. According to the original Italian rules, the genuine Neapolitan pizza dough consists of Italian wheat flour, natural Neapolitan yeast or brewer's yeast, salt and water. For proper results, strong flour with high protein content (bread flour than cake flour) must be used. The dough must be kneaded by hand or with a low-speed mixer. After the rising process, the dough must be formed by hand without the help of a rolling pin or other mechanical device, and may be no more than 3 mm (1/8 inch) thick. The pizza must be baked for 60?90 seconds in a 485 °C (905 °F) stone oven with an oak-wood fire.

This process might be different to yours or mine in some ways, but it does not matter. The important thing is that we create a sumptuous pizza our own way.