In an era when we tend to want everything immediately, it is surprising that people still cook at all, especially with supermarkets at all corners of our homes and so close to each other, offering as many choices of ready-made foods than the restaurants and take aways nearby that also propose, well, home delivery within 30 minutes. Of all those easy-to-acquire ready-made foods, pizza is no doubt at the top of the pile, with almost every single self-respecting home-delivery fast food shop around residency areas, especially student-resident areas, presenting this option for people too cozy or lazy to pop down at the corner shop for a frozen base or even a frozen pizza for baking in the oven in less than 30 minutes.

I, for one, have tried them all. The frozen bases with wheat, the gluten free ones, the cupboard-version bases (I had so many doubts on this one), the complete pizza option, frozen, delivered or bought at various fast foods from Domino’s to Pizza Hut, I have tasted them all. I admit this is surprising for a lactose intolerant, but I had to determine my threshold, of course 😉  I even tried at home, especially now with a gluten intolerance to top. Strong of being taught by an Italian nonna in my friend’s home in France, having spent a month tasting varieties in Roma itself and with mind and palate flexibility, I tried with more or less water, more or less of various ingredients, blanca (without tomato) and with thick and thin base, with and without crust…

It was therefore just a tiny step to a pizza without yeast. When you think about it, it is the yeast that causes the most wait, well that and the tomato sauce. Of course there are quite many ways of replacing the yeast if you can’t have it, but it is not about replacing ingredients by ingredients to recreate a familiar taste, it is about trying things out to discover new tastes to savour. So, while for some it is about finding other ways of getting the pizza dough to rise as the yeast would allow it, for me, it became much more about whether we need the bread to rise thereby the yeast or equivalent in the first place.

Yes, what exactly is wrong with a flat-bread style pizza? It is a bread, just unleavened. I mean, I have done garlic bread pizza, putting some baked bean’s tomato sauce over a garlic toastie and some cheese on top, to grill long enough. Although leavened, it is still a slightly different base to that of a pizza. I love it all the same. Sincerely, with an open mind, the possibilities are endless. So, no yeast but want a quick pizza? No problem. This pizza was made with a flat bread mix (flour, water and salt work as well with a self-raising wheat as it does with self-raising gluten-free  flour) which takes literally a couple of minutes to put together and 10 to rest before frying it in a couple of spoons of olive oil as a thicker pancake (according to your preferred pizza thickness) on one side, with a cover to ensure the inside gets cooked. Then layer cooked tomato sauce, your favourite toppings and cheese (nothing quite does a yummy pizza like Buffalo Mozzarella) and stick at 200 degree in a pre-heated oven for 10 or so minutes. You can even grill it at the last minute for colour on your cheese.

I never understood the need for the yeast at times, when it was probably only prompted when flour and water were left together as one for longer than was at first intended. Also, since what it does is swell up the dough and many people like the thinner pizza, I still don’t get the necessity for getting it to rise. But for those still after that effect, then yeast can be substituted: the standard combination of baking soda and lemon juice creates the rising effect that the yeast would have given. Simply add a mixture of 1 tablespoon of lemon juice for every 1/4 teaspoon of baking soda to your usual pizza dough just before you put it in the oven as it does not need any leavening time. As you can see, this method is also time-saving, yet, I struggle to see the reason for adding ingredients to create an effect that I am still frankly questioning for a pizza that is going to end up, no matter how fluffy, nowhere near the rise justified by leavening; anyway, that is probably the reason why the original mix does not need to rise for long, everything, of course, being relative :).

No matter, I am too enamoured with my flat bread pizza to bother with the complications of the original. That is what Rome and quality restaurants are for as well as the very occasional fast food. On top of it, it works as well for gluten-free flour (it MUST be self-raising gluten-free flour though) as it does for wheat flour, without adding anything to make it wheat-able! If I am going to do something yummy and quick, it will be this gorgeous version (or rather the many versions that it allows beyond toppings variety) that you can either do with a dough-like mix (less water) for a thin Italian pizza or like me make a batter-like mix (somewhere thicker than a pancake mix) that allows you to slowly bite into what feels like an eternity of buccal comfort…