Learning to Cook Italian at Tozi

Tozi Restaurant

8 Gillingham Street

London

SW1V 1HJ

Tel: 020 7769 9771

The Victoria based Italian restaurant Tozi has come up with a great idea to keep your kids busy during the school holidays.  Maurilio Molteni the talented head chef will be holding cooking lessons teaching your children how to cook popular Italian dishes in groups of six.  It is great fun and everyone gets a bit messy and cooks their own dish.  I took my eight-year-old son to try it out and he loved it.  He made pizza dough and then loaded it up with tomato, Mozzarella and salami and it was cooked before his eyes in a matter of minutes (and it tasted superb)!

Her are a list of the dates and foods that you can make.  Each session only cost £10 and runs from 3:30 – 5pm.  For more information or to book the TOZINI classes please call 020 7769 9771 or email reservations@tozirestaurant.co.uk.

Tuesday 8 April             Thursday 10 April

Filled pasta                    Pizza

Tuesday 15 April          Thursday 17 April

Biscotti                           Gelato

Tuesday 27 May           Thursday 29 May

Filled pasta                   Pizza

Tuesday 5 August        Thursday 7 August

Filled pasta                   Pizza

Tuesday 12 August      Thursday 14 August

Biscotti                          Gelato

To get you in the mood here is a pizza recipe from Maurilio, happy cooking.

For the dough:

500ml of cold water

1kg of flour

5g of fresh yeast

100ml of extra virgin olive oil

30g of salt

For the tomato sauce:

A tin of chopped tomatoes

A handful of fresh basil

A pinch of salt

Extra virgin olive oil

For the toppings:

Mozzarella, ham, artichoke etc – any ingredients you like!

Method:

First, dissolve the yeast in the water.  Then, tip the flour into a metal bowl and slowly add in the yeast-dissolved water, stirring continuously.  Add the oil and the salt to the mixture and keep kneading until the dough is nice and smooth.  Put the dough in a clean bowl and let it rest for one hour covered with cling film.

Divide the dough into balls of 200g each, arrange them on a tray and cover them with cling film.  Let them rest again for three hours, until you notice that they have doubled in size.  The dough is now ready to make a wonderful pizza!

For the tomato sauce, pour a generous glug of extra virgin olive oil into a large frying pan and add the basil and tomatoes.  Using the back of a wooden spoon, mush and squash the tomatoes as much as you can and season the sauce with salt and pepper.  Once it comes to the boil, turn the heat down and simmer for five minutes to concentrate the flavours.  It will be ready when it’s the perfect consistency for spreading on your pizza.

Stretch out the dough on the work surface gently using your thumbs and spread the tomato sauce on top.  Add your toppings and put the pizza in the oven for three minutes at 220 degrees.

www.tozirestaurant.co.uk